Hourly Billing Rates

[Jiggers]

While I bill most of my tax work on "fees for schedules & forms", I have hourly billing rates just to see if I am billing enough. I also use hourly billing rates for bookkeeping, payroll, and other work. The following are my hourly rates. What do you charge? Give your state.
1040A - $70
1040 - $80
1120,1120S, 1065 - $90
Bookkeeping, payroll, sales tax, write-up - $60

I am located in the center of Texas.

[sea-tax]

While I bill most of my tax work on "fees for schedules & forms", I have hourly billing rates just to see if I am billing enough. I also use hourly billing rates for bookkeeping, payroll, and other work. The following are my hourly rates. What do you charge? Give your state.
1040A - $70
1040 - $80
1120,1120S, 1065 - $90
Bookkeeping, payroll, sales tax, write-up - $60

I am located in the center of Texas.

Jiggers I don't bill by the hour so it is a little hard to figure but My average 1040, Sch A comes in at around 200-250. It takes me roughly 1 hour start to finish , including meeting with the client, assembly and everything else. So I guess I charge $200 per hour. Seems awful high, thats why I don't charge by the hour. I feel clients are paying for more than just my time. They are also paying for my education , staff , expertise and all that other stuff.

As for Bookkeeping we try to charge $75-100 per hour, however we don't charge by the hour. We set a monthly retainer and usually adjust once or twice a year. Our average client with 10 employees which we do payroll check writing for , writeup, and all payroll reports and state reports we charge around 300-350per month. On average it takes my staff 3-4 hours for each client start to finish.
I like this method of billing for bookkeeping because I can count on how much money I ill see every month and clients love it because they can be at easy to know exactly what it is going to cost per month.
I am in the state of washington east of Seattle near Redmond / Kirkland

[JoshinNC]

it just depends

Average:

$75 per hour for bookkeeping ($40 if part of tax return prep)
$105 per hour for IRS and DOR representation (5 hour retainer up front)

$125 per month base for payroll/bookkeeping with per employee charges for checkwriting. Each batch of 100 transactions after first 50 incurs additional $50 monthly fee. Each client is good for between $200 and $400 per month.

I agree with Sea-Tax, I like to know how much I'm going to get at the end of the month based on my client volume.

Wake County, NC (Yankee relocation land!)

[veritas]

Jiggers I don't bill by the hour so it is a little hard to figure but My average 1040, Sch A comes in at around 200-250. It takes me roughly 1 hour start to finish , including meeting with the client, assembly and everything else. So I guess I charge $200 per hour. Seems awful high, thats why I don't charge by the hour. I feel clients are paying for more than just my time. They are also paying for my education , staff , expertise and all that other stuff.

As for Bookkeeping we try to charge $75-100 per hour, however we don't charge by the hour. We set a monthly retainer and usually adjust once or twice a year. Our average client with 10 employees which we do payroll check writing for , writeup, and all payroll reports and state reports we charge around 300-350per month. On average it takes my staff 3-4 hours for each client start to finish.
I like this method of billing for bookkeeping because I can count on how much money I ill see every month and clients love it because they can be at easy to know exactly what it is going to cost per month.
I am in the state of washington east of Seattle near Redmond / Kirkland

We bill for bookkeeping the same on a flat monthly rate which we try to adjust up each year. However we took the payroll out of the equation and bill seperately. The standard for payroll is a flat fee plus a per transaction charge just like the big boys. It is very easy to raise payroll each year by charging more per transaction and or increasing the flat fee. Nobody questions it. We also ach for payroll at the begining of the month and ach the bookkeeping at the end of the month. No more "I forgot my checkbook" or other nonsense.

On another note if we do sales tax reports, personal property tax reports and sales tax reports.

[sea-tax]

Hey Veritas do you cut clients deals on Taxes or bookkeeping work if you manage their investments. We don't but was just curious.

[veritas]

No, I don't think we can do that can we?

[S T]

Licensing

What standards do you have to follow to meet your Securities License, your Insurance License, your CPA or EA license or other licensing requirements?
Sandy

[taxfun]

taxfun

As you know, hourly rates and so forth vary substantially by area of the country, etc. We live in a relatively high cost of living tourist town in Colorado. Our tax and business consulting rates are $158/hr, moderate accounting $84, complex accounting $121, QB's consulting $89. We do no fixed price work except for by the form tax work. Partnerships & corporations $700/$900 minimum (plus accounting), individuals $250/$350 (add $150 to $250 if schedule C businessw/depreciation and OIH). We raise prices every year by a cost of living percentage (staff costs exceed CPI per year - difficult to hire). For 2007 we will do 3-4%.

No financial planning.

[sea-tax]

What standards do you have to follow to meet your Securities License, your Insurance License, your CPA or EA license or other licensing requirements?
Sandy

I have many requirements to keep up my various Licenses. For securities I have to take CPE and a test once every two years. Some requirements are from the NASD and some from my Broker dealer. Same for Insurance but in this case it is your state which puts the requirements on you , In the state of Washington it is like 32 CPE hours every two years.

In general for Securities and Insurance I also attend sponsored education seminars from various mutual fund and insurance companies in order to learn the different products. In general I would say I spend at least 1 to 1.5 months a year in some kind of seminar or CPE class.

[dsi]

CA
1040 w/ basic Sch A....$200
All Business returns start at $700 (that's just the tax prep fee).
Business clients must bring me an accurate and complete financial statement before I will prepare the tax returns. Also, they must provide me with minutes, articles, etc.

[OtisMozzetti]

aligning hourly rates with cost & value of service provided

Average:
...
$75 per hour for bookkeeping ($40 if part of tax return prep)
$105 per hour for IRS and DOR representation (5 hour retainer up front)
...

If a tax return requires a lot of book "keeping" to get the information organized during the tax season, then that should definitely not be a discounted rate! Discounts should apply to getting the information organized before the tax season and during slack periods.

The higher rates for representation are definitely appropriate given the higher expertise needed, and given the extent to which those in need of representation are, or should be, somewhat desperate to have good quality service.

[Davc]

Agree.........

[AuditorTurnedGood]

In MN

I charge:

Compilation and Year End True Ups: $40.00/hour
Bookkeeping (entering transactions, etc, on a regular basis): $35.00/hour.
Tax Planning and Consulting: $40.00/hour

My taxes are fee based:
Single start at $125-175
MFJ: $175-300
HOH: $175-250
Corps/P-ships/LLC's less than 250K in Revenue and Assets: $250-$500
Corps/P-ships/LLC's more than 250K in Revenue and Assets: $500-$1,000 (I have one of these)

The return falls in the range depending on the length of time and number of issues presented.

ATG