the quesiton maker

anyone have a client that never stops asking questions.

everything you do is followed up by 5 questions

and the person is a nice client

but too much

Are they nice enough to pay you for all of the time they take up?

Yes.

Context is important.

If there's no open engagement I absolutely bill for every minute of my time for these types of clients.

If it's during the course of a compliance engagement and related to the engagement, I politely push all questions to the closing call, handle them at that time, and I discuss efficiency, particularly how we can modify our interactions to keep next year's compliance fees from spiking. I will memorialize the closing call in a follow up email in this situation and save to file, so that next year if the process repeats itself I have no qualms about billing more, sometimes a lot more, to recoup lost realization.

If it's during the course of a compliance engagement and unrelated, I politely let the client know that I'm happy to discuss planning and consulting services after the engagement is wrapped up.

You have to make sure you're compensated at the end of the day. That's what it comes down to.

i don't keep such great track of hours.

at first her income was modest and i liked talking to her, so i didn't bill her much

last year i dobuled her price and she seemed surprised, but i told her i was comping her

now with ppp she is around 1800 dollar client...but everything has 2 or 3 questions...or a conversation about 1116 she wants to have.

i dont' have time nor desire for these unlimited questions

and the returns drags on forever.

ugh

I have to become more observant to my quote....don't be friends with your clients, just friendly...otherwise how can you bill for all this time -

quite frankly i'd rather have less questions and bill less.

good advice ManVstax...thank you!

anyone have a client that never stops asking questions.

everything you do is followed up by 5 questions

and the person is a nice client

but too much

I am sure we all have PIA clients. I allocate a certain amount of time to deal with small nuisances. If it get beyond that they are put on the clock.

This tax season a client of mine for 5 years called me to "research" some tax issues involving his sister (not my client). Right upfront told him that I would need an engagement letter with his sister. He then wanted me to give him some "very generic" answers and as a favor i cut and paste couple of paragraphs with the necessary legal disclamers to shut off any followups without an engagement letter.

I will NOT give any specific answers without examining source materials and a signed engagement letter. No winging in our line of business.

I like ATSMAN response but I tend to add after specific - generic or what ifs.

Wait a day to answer each email. They typically will answer their own question by the time you respond.

I only do this for PITA clients.

The best ones are the ones that do 2-3 stream of consciousness question emails, within minutes of each other.

Our firm does not generally charge by the hour. The pros and cons have been well discussed and I won't derail.

But to solve this problem, when we quote clients, we have a simple price list and then a clause that says that we charge by the hour for clients that require extra time and attention.

In our engagement letter, we also explain that we allow 2 hours of support/presentation/consultation included with each income tax return and we bill after that.

Then, when we actually face such a client, we write them a short letter, telling them in advance that the time their situation requires (make it not so personal) enough time to where our firm loses money by producing their work at the current fee - and of course that's not a business model that works for anyone.

We notify them of the price increase for the future., and we explain that if the situation ends up requiring less time after all then we will reduce said price.

Sometimes it works (they take the hint because they don't want to pay more), and sometimes we get stuck billing for their ineffectiveness - which I hate just like you.

I hate that - but at least it protects our time and work.

We also do the one email a day trick.

We also will not write long emails - we make them call - which they seldom will.

We also do not answer questions via email in March and April, and we tell all new clients of this in advance. "I'm going to be honest with you and tell you right off the bat that during tax time, we become so over-saturated with work that our customer service is terrible during these months. Though I am sure to make myself very accessible for a reasonable amount of consultation during the remainder of the year".

The best ones are the ones that do 2-3 stream of consciousness question emails, within minutes of each other.

And they will call you ten minutes after sending the email to see if you received it.

Since covid-19, I've been receiving calls about filing for unemployment or they've filed and haven't gotten it yet.