bookkeeping

[geekgirldany]

True Bob. The way I look at it.. in my position is that I have low overhead. I charge $50 an hour. So minimum charge is $100. To me that feels right. Many of my customers followed me from my preivous employer. He charged very low so I had to keep it that way. Well its been 6 years and I have not went up on them. It just might be time for a little increase on them.

But I understand what you mean... increasing just to increase. Have to look at all the factors.

[BOB W]

Overhead...

.... I too have low overhead, but that is my benefit not my clients. I look to FMV for my fee structure.

Another thing> Goodwill> If you have been in business for at least 5 years, you have Goodwill. That goodwill has to be converted into your annual fee structure.

[sea-tax]

I do not raise fees just for the sake of raising fees. However Medical Inurance goes up every year, the bookkeepers which I employee expect annual raises, paper , telephone. power. gas,gas, gas. Look everything goes up every year, inflation is if you are being modest 3-3.5% per year you should be ok to up your fees at least that much. As for justification to the client , easy. I provide top notch service. Justification enough.

Also that is why if you don't charge by the hour but more like a retainer you will find that clients complain less about a fee increase. Also I do the increases in april and may this makes clients think twice , they often don't enjoy leaving in the middle of a year, but if they do complain I am willing to hear them out. Often times we can come to a middle ground.

One example was a client who still used the shoebox method of dropping his book work off. So I increased his fee 30% he complained and I told him look I am willing to only go up 5% if and only if you are willing to be more organized . he tried it for a couple of months but finally admitted he would rather pay higher fee than follow procedures. He is still a happy client and more importantly i am happy too. win-win

[BOB W]

Yes

as long as you have an understandable basis for increasing fees I see no problem doing it. My increases usually amount to $10- $25 a month. One this year went from $300 to $400 because his info became very poor causing the bank rec to become very time consuming, not to mention data entry. Another went from $225 - $300 because he expanded his business by becoming enrolled in a frachise that almost doubled his business.

The moral is, each client needs to be evaluated on an "on going basis" in order to keep fees current and in relation to the work provided. I'm not talking about monthly variation but general trends of the client. I am never afraid to lower a clients fee if called for. It gives me creditibility in my billing.