While the focus of my practice is mostly on taxes and financial planning, I have found that the income is rather seasonal and I'd like to even out the cash flow throughout the year. Accordingly, I have been considering the addition of accounting/bookkeeping to the list of services that my firm provides. The issue is coming up with a pricing scheme that makes sense for clients and is sufficiently profitable.
There seems to be an extremely wide range of pricing from online bookkeeping services like Bench (starts at $169.00 per month if billed monthly) to CPA firms charging $950 per month for accounting and bookkeeping (https://www.vmwasek.com/how-we-work/). I certainly would like to shoot for the higher end in terms of fees (I currently charge $325.00 per hour for income tax consultation and financial planning) and would rather have a few high-paying clients than a large number of low billing clients. With that said, your feedback regarding the following would be greatly appreciated:
1. What do you charge per month for accounting/bookkeeping?
2. What determines the amount charged per month (hours, the number of transactions, fixed fee, etc.)?
3. How do you quote new clients? Do you evaluate their books first and then provide a quote or do you simply have a set pricing structure and stick with it?
4. What specific services do you provide for the above-mentioned fees (bank reconciliations, downloading and sorting of transactions through the bank feed, generation of financial statements, etc.)?
Thanks in advance!