A business owner gets two quotes for the same work. One is considerably cheaper. He takes it, sends a year of bank statements and a shoebox in January, and receives an additional invoice for the work of turning that into records.
Both firms were honest. One assumed clean books and the other did not, and nobody said so out loud.
A worked example
One small business, quoted properly.
Line 1: the bookkeeping
Monthly or quarterly, priced by transaction volume or by time. State plainly whether it is included, and if not, what standard of records the fee assumes.
Line 2: the assumption behind the accounts fee
Records reconciled and complete, a bank feed in use, or a bag of paper. These are different jobs and the quote should say which one it is pricing.
Line 3: the accounts preparation
Statutory accounts and the tax return, with what is included in the review and how many queries are covered.
Line 4: the returns through the year
Any periodic filings, how often and what each costs. Clients frequently forget these exist when comparing an annual figure.
Line 5: payroll
Per employee per period, plus year end. Almost always separate and frequently assumed included.
Line 6: the software
Whether a subscription is included, provided at a rate or the client's own cost. It is a real monthly figure and it belongs in the comparison.
Line 7: the director or owner return
Whether personal filings are included or charged separately. This is one of the most common surprises.
Line 8: what a query costs
Whether questions through the year are included or billed. Clients avoid ringing an accountant who charges for it, which is bad for everybody.
Line 9: the catch up work
Where records are behind, how it is priced and whether it is a one off. Say it before the engagement rather than in February.
Line 10: the honest annual total
Everything, monthly and annually, for a business of that size. It is the number the client is trying to work out and almost nobody presents it.
Explain what the client can do to reduce it
Cleaner records, a bank feed, receipts submitted regularly and not using the business account for personal spending. Clients appreciate being told how to pay you less.
Explain why the cheap quote was cheap
Not as criticism, but as arithmetic. A fee that assumes work somebody else has to do is not a lower price, and explaining that wins the comparison honestly.
Publish it by business size
Sole trader, small limited company, VAT registered and with employees. Clients need to find themselves on the page, which is the ground in fixed fee questions every accountancy practice hears.
Publish a monthly package option
Bookkeeping, accounts, returns and support for one monthly figure. It is what most small businesses want and it removes the whole comparison problem, as in monthly bookkeeping package questions.
Say it on the website, not in a meeting
Vagueness on a fees page is the most common reason a small business chooses somebody else, which is the point of accountancy website mistakes that lose small business clients.
Answer the fee question in busy season
January enquiries arrive at midnight from people who have realised they are late, as in how accountants survive busy season with a chatbot.
Getting started
Publish what each fee assumes about records, with a monthly package and an honest annual total, then answer at any hour. SpideyChat for accountants answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.