Bundling services together in set packages is a good way to implement fixed-fee pricing. A common way to do this is by building a tiered system for different levels of service. You can take into account the client, the job type, your experience, along with many other factors to give a fair quote. By definition, fixed-fee pricing is inflexible, and in a complex industry, inflexibility can cost you money.
We have years of real world experience providing accounting services for all kinds of small businesses including bookkeeping, tax planning and new business advisory. We’ve helped many businesses reduce their tax liability and ultimately become more profitable as a result of working together with us to manage their finances more efficiently. We’ve also helped individuals with income tax preparation to make sure they take advantage of all the deductions they’re entitled to and never pay more than they actually owe. Many business owners think that they will hire an accountant but not a bookkeeper. However, for the sake of your firm’s finances and the accuracy of those finances, it is probably better to use someone with experience working in bookkeeping and accounting. Something critical to every law firm’s success is practical legal accounting.
Part-Time Bookkeeping
There are many aspects of being a business owner that drive success. We can fully wipe your data, too—at the end of the day, it’s your info and your call. Every report accessible in the Bench platform can be exported to an Excel file for easy sharing with anyone from business partners to accountants.
It’s also ideal for brand-new businesses because FinancePal can help with entity formation. As great as it is to talk about potential bookkeeping costs and get estimates, we know that seeing an actual average for your state can yield excellent value for you as a business owner. Please see the chart below with data pulled directly from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022 data to learn more about the average salary and hourly rate for bookkeeping. Bookkeeper salaries vary state by state (see our chart below), and depending on where you live, you could be paying a large difference in one place versus another. Accountants maintain a wide range of skill sets, including managing spending and budgets, taxes, and analysis of financial statements.
Why Bookkeeping and Accounting Matters
Business owners or accountants can then use these statements to gain insight into the business’s financial health. Outsourcing also offers many benefits that you can’t get with an in-house bookkeeper. If you’re growing, the outsourced bookkeeping service should be able to help you scale by adding full service accounting when you are ready for it. If you’re having trouble determining how much to charge a client, it’s perfectly fine to start out working with them at an hourly rate and moving to a fixed rate later on. At the beginning of your working relationship, there could be quite a bit of cleanup you have to do for the client’s books, and that can be time consuming. You’re also learning their business and don’t know exactly what tasks you will be doing.
But with 12 months of accurate books, your finances are accurate and ready to file taxes at year end. In-house accounting, on the other hand, gives you peace of mind knowing that someone you know and trust is handling your books and financials. The only drawback of paying a full-time accountant is that you may need to offer them employee benefits. Bringing someone on as an in-house full-time employee requires extra costs on bookkeeping pricing packages your end, such as benefits and health care, whereas contractors are not entitled to these perks. You may not know how long you’ll need someone, but comparing the monthly bookkeeping cost of a contractor versus an in-house employee is the best way to see this angle side by side. Whether you opt for basic bookkeeping or full-service bookkeeping and accounting, either option can help you be better prepared come tax season.