We know price is an important factor when choosing an Accountant so we’ve written this article to explain how we calculate our fees and ensure they are clear and transparent.
We don’t bill by the hour!
Hourly billing doesn’t make sense for our clients or for us. When an Accountant charges by the hour it is the client who bears the cost of inefficient processes. By working out a fixed fee based on the services you need and the size and complexity of your business the problem of creating efficient processes becomes ours to solve.
Instead of hourly billing we work out our fees using logical factors such as annual revenue, number of staff, transaction volumes, quality of record keeping and level of service. This removes all the guesswork and means our pricing is logical, transparent and consistent across all of our clients.
We love speaking with our clients which is another reason we don’t bill by the hour. We want our clients to get in touch whenever they need our help. We don’t charge anything extra just for talking to you.
What support do you need from us?
Running a business is a juggling act. You will often be balancing demands on your time with demands on your cash. It may be that you want us to run your entire finance function or that you have everything else in hand and just need us to pull together your accounts.
We’ll meet with you to work out what level of support you need from us and we’ll give you a quote that exactly matches your needs.
Nature and Complexity
The nature and complexity of your agency will determine the level of resource that we need to dedicate to your business to deliver a level of service you are very happy with. We use turnover, adjusted for the number of sales invoices, to give an indication of this.
Frequency of Service
We offer some services, such as Management Accounts and Performance review meetings, as either a monthly or quarterly service and the frequency you choose will affect the price.
Transaction Volumes
We charge per transaction for bookkeeping work. To do this we separate bookkeeping into processing purchase invoices and reconciling the bank.
We use the average number of transactions in the last three months to estimate your transaction volumes.
In reality bookkeeping includes a lot more than just processing invoices and reconciling the bank but we find this measure is a good indication of the level of work involved.
Staff numbers
Our payroll fees are based on the number of employees you have. The incremental cost of each additional employee reduces as the number of employees grows.
Quality of Records
To gauge how much work we need to do to get the data to a place where we can start to think about delivering the services we are engaged to deliver, we assess the quality of a clients records on a range from ‘Excellent’ to ‘Needs a lot of work’. Our fees for preparing a set of accounts where the records are Excellent will be lower than those that need a lot of work.
Software Subscriptions
All our clients are on Xero and we include the subscription in your fees. If we are doing your bookkeeping then your Receipt Bank subscription will also be included in your fees. If you do your own bookkeeping then it can be added on as an extra to help you streamline your bookkeeping processes.
Some examples of our fees
To given an indication of our fees we have grouped our core services into three common service packages designed around a typical agency journey.
Start up from £450+VAT per month
For businesses with a few employees and a couple of years trading under the belt who want to get the essentials done while freeing up the directors time from working on the numbers to running the business.
Scale up from £750+VAT
Agencies who are planning for the future and are focused on embedding processes, systems and people to build a business that can grow.
Established business from £1650+VAT per month
For agencies further along their journey who still have big plans. This is where Your Finance Team is really invaluable. We will help clarify your objectives, build budgets and track performance. Our monthly meetings with you will ensure your business continues to thrive and build.
Fee Review
We review our fees for Accounts and tax work annually in line with your year-end and we monitor transaction and employee numbers quarterly and adjust our fees as necessary.
Scale up or down as your needs change
Things change so you can scale up or down as your needs do change. All we ask is that you give us 30 days notice of any changes to level of service you want to make to your plan.
If you decide to move on or close your business we’ll transfer your Xero subscription over to you or cancel it if you prefer and cancel our fees from the following month.
Ready to chat about your business?
If you would like a quote or simply to find out more, get in touch and we will be very happy to talk to you about your business. Alternatively view more about our fixed fee accountants.