Help Please! on pricing...

System
System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
edited 12:08PM in AAT member discussion
I have posted before on this subject but did not have many replies......PLEASE would someone either give me an idea on what they charge OR some advice on how to find out what others charge...I have phoned a few local competitors but they were not willing to give me information as I am not a potential customer - understandably!
I live in the South East if that helps!
ANY info would be most greatly appreciated. :?

Comments

  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Help Please! on pricing...

    What are you trying to price? If it is for accounts, then the easiest thing to do is to look at their previous year's accounts and see what they paid and then go slightly up or down from that.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Help Please! on pricing...

    I think it's so hard to get this right - I've been doing a lot of what claudia said & usually I can lower the price of teh previous accountant, but I always say to clients that that price is based on everything being as they say it is, and that I'll contact them if I find extra work's required to negotiate a price.
    If it's ongoing work I try to get them to pay monthly or quarterly, set a price for the first 3 months and then review it after that when i have an idea of the work involved.
    I usually charge £100 for a basic tax return (ie a subbie with a van, a bank acccount, a little book of scribbles and a folder of receipts), and about £15 an hour for bookkeeping, but i would imagine it's cheaper up north! I've got one client who lives down south and his previous accountant was charging him £300, I did his return for £200 (which he was delighted with) and it only took about 4 hours, so you win some, you loose some.
    I don't think i've got it quite right though, hopefully someone else can give some advice cos i could probably use it too!
    You could be sneaky (as I did last year :oops: ) and get a friend to phone some competitors pretending to be a potential customer

    jodie
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Help Please! on pricing...

    Thanks Jodie! Are you based up North then? I think prices tend to be more for us southerners!! god knows why though!

    I think £15 per hour for book keeping is average here anyway. Just had someone wanting VAT registration set up and VAT returns done quarterly from their accounts...any ideas on pricing for this?

  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Help Please! on pricing...

    Why not go in at about £15.00 per hour for VAT then -if they freak then you are quoting too high, and conversely if they bite your hand off then you have probably gone in a bit too low. I dont have any set prices - it depends on whether I like the client, how much they can afford, whether I want more business or not - there are no hard and fast rules - for example in Feb/May/Aug and Nov I have 9 VAT returns to do, so if someone wanted their VAT done I would quote sky high to compensate for lack of sleep, but if it was in my quiet VAT stagger then I would probably quote lower because I wanted the work!

    Bottom line is that there are no hard and fast rules - follow your instinct!

    Claudia
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Help Please! on pricing...

    Thanks claudia.....I like the bit

    "it depends on whether I like the client"

    I think I like all of them at the moment as I am just starting up!!! HA HA! :D
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Help Please! on pricing...

    When you first start up they are all wonderful - and then reality sets in together with conflicts - one of my nicest clients is a builder but - he brings all of his VAT in a carrier bag, and once I have finished I could rival Jewsons and B&Q together in the sand business :roll: and i really hate it, but like him - hmmmm - dilemma you see. I wont help you at all but for doing books my cheapest client only pays £12.50 per hour and the most expensive £25.00, so i guess that it is win some lose some - and you can always put up your rates after say a year if you are feeling hard done by. Now I tend to do most of my VAT on a fixed fee basis because I hate having to look at the clock the whole time!
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Help Please! on pricing...

    I'd personally charge a fixed rate for doing regular VAT returns, as claudia says, so that you don't have to be 'clock-watching' the whole time (ie you can get everything into a nice order while watching telly!). The first return will probably take longer as it's all new, and you'll have to see if there's any previous invoices to claim, and for your time to register them, so I'd probably suggest maybe £50 - £100 depending on the size of it, then guage the reaction, if they look like they think it's too high follow it up with 'but future returns will probably be less because I'll have all your details set up' and if they seem happy then you could well charge them that every time.
    :D
  • System
    System Posts: 100,534 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Help Please! on pricing...

    I charge £25 per hour and £40 for a tax return, I believe this is quite competitive in the North East of England. The biggest mistake I made when going self employed was estimating the time to complete jobs estimating 5 hours hours and the job taking several hours longer due to the state of the clients records and having to obtain additional information from them.

Categories

Privacy Policy