For as long as most of us can remember, accountants and bookkeepers have tended to price their work by the hour. It feels familiar, measurable, and predictable (for the firm, at least). But here’s the problem: time based billing doesn’t always work for the client, and it doesn’t always reflect the value your practice is providing.
The truth is, nobody wants to buy time. They want to buy outcomes. They want their tax sorted, their books in order, their business transformed. Your clients aren’t buying hours, and they don’t care whether it takes you one hour or ten. They buy transformation, meaning they care about the results first, and the price second.
In this article we break down alternative pricing models for your services, so you can stop reducing your hard earned expertise to the hours it takes to deliver, instead of the value you’re creating.
Why Time Based Billing Is a Flawed Pricing Model
Psychologically, time based billing is demotivating for both sides. Clients feel like they’re paying for minutes rather than outcomes, while you’re incentivised to take longer rather than work smarter.
And then you’ve got to think, what happens when you create a new process that makes you faster? Do you reduce your fee? It’s a double whammy…you do all the hard work, and the more efficient and experienced you become, the less you earn. It’s counterintuitive and doesn’t highlight the value you’re bringing to your clients.
Fundamentally, time based billing dehumanises expertise by reducing intelligence, experience, judgement, education, and wisdom to a simple hourly rate, and I’m sure that’s not why you became an accountant or bookkeeper.
Why Accountants Still Use Hourly Billing
So, if hourly billing is flawed, why are so many practices still using it?
Because it’s a very easy and measurable way to price, and perhaps more importantly, it’s the model the profession has leaned on for decades. It’s just how everyone else has always done it.
Traditionally, accounting and bookkeeping practices have been set up around transactional, once-a-year compliance work, so billing by the hour seemed like a natural fit. But the industry is changing fast, and with technology speeding up the routine compliance tasks and clients expecting much more than a once-a-year check-in, we are steadily shifting toward year-round, advisory-led services that rely on expertise not a stopwatch.
If we zoom out for a second, when was the last time you paid someone based on how long they took rather than what they delivered? Outside of professional services, it’s almost unheard of, and even other professional service industries are moving toward value-based models too. It’s time for accountants and bookkeepers to make that leap as well.
How to Move From Time to Value
Modern pricing models support the shift by building pricing on outcomes, expertise, and value, not on time sheets (although, time sheets can be useful in helping you work out how much to price to support business growth).
Here are three pricing models that make more sense for accountants and bookkeepers in today’s advisory-driven world:
- Value based pricing: pricing based on the perceived value of the results delivered.
- Flat fee pricing: a fixed price for a defined project or service.
- Retainer pricing: a recurring fee for ongoing access to your expertise.
What Is Value Based Pricing and How Does It Work?
Value-based pricing is simply setting your fees based on the value you deliver to clients, rather than the time it takes to complete a task. For your practice, it rewards expertise and creates stable revenue. For clients, it provides clarity, transparency, and a fee that reflects what truly matters to them.
The process typically involves:
- Value discovery: understanding what the client truly values.
- Outcome definition: defining the results they want.
- Value quantification: helping them understand the economic or emotional impact.
- Pricing based on value: setting your price relative to the perceived or actual value delivered.
Sometimes value is easy to measure (like a tax saving) but most of the time it’s more subjective. Value is perceived rather than purely financial. As Ron Baker, the master of value pricing, says “the fact of the matter is, value is subjective. It’s a feeling, not a number.”
That’s why communication is so important, you’ll not only need to understand your client’s priorities, but you’ll also need to be explicitly clear on the scope and outcome you’re providing.
ADVANTAGES:
- Enhances client understanding: Encourages meaningful conversations so clients clearly see the value you deliver.
- Delivers predictable pricing: Clients know exactly what to expect, reducing uncertainty and stress.
- Establishes a clear service guarantee: Sets expectations upfront, building trust and accountability.
- Secures client commitment: Clients become invested in the outcomes and the process.
- Signals expertise and authority: Shows confidence in your skills and the value you provide.
- Minimises negative emotions around pricing: Helps overcome price resistance so you can deliver the full value of your work.
Pricing this way is certainly not as easy as hourly pricing. It takes thought, requires deep listening, curiosity, and a consultative selling approach. So yes, it’s harder work, but that’s exactly why it’s so powerful.
BEST SUITED FOR:
- Advisory and consulting services.
- Complex projects.
- Strategic planning and business transformation.
- Services with measurable business impact.
How Flat Fee Pricing Creates Certainty for Clients
Flat fee pricing is where you charge a set price for a defined project or service, no matter how long it takes. The client gets certainty upfront, and you get rewarded for efficiency. The better and faster you are, the higher your profit margin.
ADVANTAGES:
- Clear, upfront pricing for clients.
- No billing disputes.
- Encourages productivity and innovation.
However, charging a flat fee may not work for all services, there is a risk that you could underprice complex projects, or not account for varying client complexities or scope changes. You need to accurately scope the project to make sure you’re not eroding profitability.
Too often, firms overrun on projects without stopping to ask why. This is crucial with any pricing methodology, but all the more with flat fee pricing.
The best way to protect your margins is to review your pricing after each engagement, so you can continuously refine your offers and spot hidden complexities.
Particularly when your projects change, or you deliver more than you bargained for, you should treat always treat this as a trigger to review and adjust your pricing. A helpful approach is to make the drivers of your flat fee pricing visible to your full team, so you can consider what made particular jobs more complex, whether any critical drivers were missed, and whether your pricing reflects that.
BEST SUITED FOR:
- Well-defined and repeatable services such as tax returns, bookkeeping, or compliance projects.
- Projects with clear deliverables and scope. (And, if you’re unsure of the exact scope you could always provide an estimate instead).
- Services where time requirements are predictable.
Why Retainer Pricing Builds Better Client Relationships
Retainers are common in creative industries, but are used less in accounting and bookkeeping, even though this model is effective for our clients. The retainer pricing model means clients pay a fixed amount monthly or quarterly for ongoing access to your services, whether they use them heavily or lightly. It’s like a Netflix subscription for professional advice.
This model shifts you from a service provider that sells tasks and activities, to a partner delivering a specific outcome you've mastered.
You’re no longer saying, “I do bookkeeping.”
You’re saying, “I help business owners feel financially confident and make data-driven decisions.”
ADVANTAGES:
- Predictable revenue for your firm.
- Budget certainty for clients.
- Stronger long-term relationships.
- Moves the conversation from selling to delivering outcomes.
The key is to set a clear scope and boundaries, so both sides understand what’s included in their fees.
BEST SUITED FOR:
- Ongoing bookkeeping and accounting services.
- Monthly financial reporting.
- Ongoing tax planning and compliance.
- Regular business advisory services.
Pricing as Positioning for Accountants
All these models share a common theme: they’re built around value and outcomes, not time.
But adopting them isn’t just about changing your pricing menu. It’s about developing softer skills:
- Asking better questions.
- Understanding client psychology.
- Articulating impact, not activity.
Pricing well requires empathy, confidence and communication. You’re not just setting a price, you’re positioning your expertise.
You’re saying, “I don’t sell time. I sell transformation.”
And that’s exactly what your clients want.
