What would you charge?

Hollysan

I am going to see a client today, ltd company, a consultant working in an accountancy-related field. Although the client has only worked in industry, she is very competent in relation to her book-keeping and general financial management of her business, as you would expect. She uses Sage, does her own payroll and VAT - she is on the Flat Rate Scheme. She has sought my advice on tax issues, pension contributions, correct use of Sage especially journals and asked me to check her P35 etc. I am going to help her run her year-end today, but she has already produced a draft P&L, Balance sheet and several spreadsheets and sent them to me.

I am really not sure what to charge her. She has done most of the work already! I have travelled to see her three times in the last 18 months - this will be trip number four - and she is twenty minutes drive away. She has emailed quite a lot at times - if anything she is over-concerned and puts a lot of time into it. There will probably be accruals and adjustments but compared to most of my clients this will be a quick job - and that's the dilemma! Should I ask her what she is expecting to pay or is that not a good idea in this situation?

thanks for any thoughts....

Hollysan

ademoore

How do you normally bill clients? Hourly/Fixed?
My immediate thoughts to this would be that regardless how much she is willing and can do, she is still coming to you as an accountant with expertise and experience in these things, therefore you should be billing her a similar hourly fee that you would someone else - the more they do (well!) the less time it takes you to finish up and calc/prepare her CT600, however you will still need to be billing for the time you take to go through the entries she has done to ensure they give a true and fair picture of the business.

Monsoon

If you're being contracted to do the year end accounts and tax return, then price for that, with a discount for her having done much of the work, but build in travel/ advice too.

Somewhere in the £500 ballpark might be about right, but you know more than me about what will be involved. All I will say is don't underestimate the work involved or your value to her, especially on the tax side of things.

stevo5678

Sounds about right to me. It is a company after all. I'd start at your normal price then take off what you feel, but you should have a base price no matter what.

Hollysan

Thanks everyone for your replies. I normally quote a fixed fee for a job like this, where I am comfortable that it won't be a can of worms! For a ltd I normally wouldn't want to charge less than £500, not where I am expected to provide tax advice as well (which I am in this case). I checked the file and I have provided quite a lot of advice so that needs to be taken into consideration as well.

In the end I asked her what she was expecting to pay and she said in the region £500-600, so that was good - I was slightly concerned that she would be expecting less because of what she has done, but after meeting up with her Wednesday I could see there is still some work for me to do!

So Monsoon you were on the nail as usual. Thank you all for your comments, you echoed my own thought process but it's good to hear it from others....

Have a good weekend. I will be back to my ATT books on Sunday. I am now realising that it's not that long till November!

Hollysan

Monsoon

Hollysan wrote: »

So Monsoon you were on the nail as usual.

Look at me go!! :thumbup1:

Glad it worked out, have a good weekend