A client has a question. It would take four minutes to answer. He does not ask it, because the last time he rang he received an invoice six weeks later for a unit of time he had not realised was running.
Eight months later the thing he did not ask about has become an expensive problem.
What hourly billing actually does
It prices the relationship by the minute and teaches the client that contact costs money. The predictable result is a client who avoids their adviser and brings problems late.
What fixed fees do
They make the cost knowable, remove the barrier to contact and let the firm price the value rather than the hours. They also require the firm to define scope properly, which is uncomfortable and healthy.
When fixed fees work well
Compliance work, ongoing services, defined projects and anything the firm has done many times. Which is most of what most practices do.
When hourly is defensible
Genuinely unpredictable work, disputes, investigations and complex one offs where nobody can reasonably estimate the effort.
The hybrid most firms actually need
A fixed monthly fee for everything predictable, with an hourly or project rate for defined additional work. Clients understand this and it is honest about both.
Explain what the fixed fee includes
The specific work, the number of returns, the meetings and whether questions through the year are covered. A fixed fee without a defined scope becomes a dispute.
Say plainly that questions are included
If they are. It is the single most valuable sentence on an accountancy fees page, because it addresses the fear that stops clients ringing.
Explain what falls outside
Investigations, additional entities, catch up work and anything beyond the agreed scope, with the rate. Clients accept exclusions they can see.
Explain how the fee is reviewed
Annually, on what basis and with what notice. Clients fear a fixed fee that drifts upward without explanation.
Publish the fee by client type
Sole trader, small company, with employees, registered for other taxes. Clients need to locate themselves, which is the ground in fixed fee questions every accountancy practice hears.
Explain what the fee assumes about records
Because that is where identical fees become different jobs, as in bookkeeping included or extra and why it matters.
Offer monthly payment
Spreading the fee rather than a single annual invoice. It suits cash flow and it turns a lump into a manageable cost, which is the comparison in monthly fee questions from businesses comparing bookkeepers.
Explain what happens when the work grows
A client whose business doubles is buying a different service from the one that was priced, and both sides know it before either raises it. Saying at the outset what triggers a review, how much notice is given and that it will be discussed rather than applied quietly is what keeps a fixed fee feeling fair in year three.
Be honest about which model you use
Clients comparing firms cannot tell, and stating it plainly on the fees page is what earns the enquiry from somebody who has been surprised before.
Answer fee questions at any hour
Especially in the busy period, when clients are comparing and deciding, as in how accountants survive busy season with a chatbot.
Getting started
Publish your model, what a fixed fee includes and excludes, and the fee by client type, 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.