Clients fees

Emma1708

Hi,

I am in the process of starting to offer bookkeeping to small local businesses.

I am wanting some advise on how/when to charge for the services. Do you ask for a deposit up front, send interim invoices or just charge it all at the end? If you do charge at the end do you hand over the accounts first?

I sound awful for not trusting people dont I!


Thank you

burg

Really you should charge on a basis that suits both you and your clients. When I am unsure of a client and there ability to pay I ask them to pay upfront or by standing order. I don't however do bookkeeping.

For bookkeeping it should be appropriate to charge at the end of the week/month/quarter for the hours worked.

Doing bookkeeping you should get a good idea of the clients likelihood to pay by looking at the creditors list? How long have they been creditors? Are any accounts on hold? Main thing though is going to be using you instinct to assess any potential problems and take steps to reduce the risk of bad debts.

Emma1708

Thank you for your reply

clearaccounting100

hi Emma i do bookkeeping and i invoice on a monthly basis. I try and get them to do a standing order, so that i know the money is going into my account and i don't have to keep chasing them up because they have forgotten etc.

Good luck with it

Linda

deanshepherd

I am in the process of switching from standing orders to direct debits. This gives me much more flexibility to collect variable amounts each month and also to make a further collection request if the first is refused for some reason (e.g. insufficient funds).

burg

Out of interest are you bank supporting you dean or are you using an agent?

I have looked at fastpay

deanshepherd

I'm using an agent - iDirectDebit. I had a chat with most of the providers, including FastPay, and found iDD to be one of the most cost-effective for me (fairly low volumes).