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Fee Pressure

In our CPA firm we are experiencing more fee pressure! Many more clients want - fixed fees - discussion on the fee of who is working on the engagement - what is it we can do to limit the fee.

We have been proactive in working with the clients who have been receptive to helping us help them.

At times some clients seem very ruthless - want to get even - upset. We do our best to work with them, talk about the issues and if appropriate adjust our fee. We take adjusting our fees very seriously

What are other CPA's doing in this regard.

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Permalink Reply by Marci Grossman on July 8, 2009 at 4:37am: Wouldn't it be nice if we could work and get paid and not have to deal with the fee issue at all?
Some clients shop accounting services based on fees and then get surprised when they get what they pay for. If we generate a fixed fee, they want all kinds of add-on services to not add on to the bill or else we come up with surprises when diving into the work.
For new clients, I try to give them a range and be very open about what it will be based on and keep in contact when I come across things that will increase that fee. I do a lot of communication about fees via email. Even if we discuss it over a phone call I reiterate it in an email to them to have documentation of the conversation.
I let them know which things they can do better to reduce their fee.
Sometimes I have the "serious discussion", where I remind them about my costs of doing their return - they wouldn't want a CPA who was uninformed on their issues.
I would rather drop a client who continually argued about the bill than keep one that appeared to be continually trying to "get something out of me".; ▶ Reply to This