OUTSOURCED ACCOUNTING AND BOOKKEEPING FIRMS
Outsourced Bookkeeping Firm: Pricing, Clients and Staff Load
It is the 18th. Three clients still have not sent bank statements, one has sent a phone photo of a purchase bill, and your accountant has the GST return of another client waiting. The month-end rush has begun and the fixed fee covers none of it.
We advise on the business of the firm. That covers how a monthly fee is built from volumes, how client documents are chased, how work is split between staff, and how you decide which clients to keep. We do not advise on accounting treatment, tax or compliance. A qualified professional signs those.
Discuss your priorities ↗COMMON CHALLENGES
The pressures
we often see.
- 01Monthly fees are set when the client is small and never revisited, even as invoices, branches and bank accounts multiply.
- 02Clients send documents late and in any format, so staff spend the first week of each month chasing instead of posting.
- 03Return due dates cluster around the same days, and one absent accountant can leave several clients unattended at once.
- 04The owner reviews everything personally, so he becomes the bottleneck and the staff never learn to catch their own errors.
- 05Some clients take far more effort than their fee covers, but nobody has counted hours per client.
OUR FOCUS AREAS
Where the work
usually starts.
- 01A client scorecard with monthly voucher count, bank accounts, GST registration and the effort each needs
- 02A fee schedule linked to volume bands, with a rule for when the fee is reviewed
- 03A document-receipt tracker by client showing what arrived, what is missing and who is chasing
- 04A due-date calendar spread across the month so returns do not pile onto the same days
- 05A reviewer checklist so a senior accountant reviews against a list rather than rechecking everything
- 06Hours per client logged for four weeks to find which accounts lose money
- 07Staff allocation by client, with a named backup for each
- 08Terms about late documents, scope creep and extra branches written into the engagement letter
START THIS WEEK
Things you can do
before you call anyone.
- Ask each staff member to note hours spent per client for one month on a plain sheet. Add the fee. The clients at the bottom of that list are your repricing or exit conversations.
- Hypothetical example: a client paying ₹5,000 a month takes eighteen hours. At a staff cost of ₹300 an hour that is ₹5,400, a loss before your own time.
- Send every client a one-line message stating the date by which each month's documents must arrive, and what happens to the schedule if they are late.
A PRACTICAL ENGAGEMENT
Start with the priorities
that matter most.
We begin by understanding how your business runs today, find the gaps, and agree the scope in writing. Recommendations are shaped around your team, your resources and your goals.
- A client onboarding checklist: opening balances, access, document cut-off dates and scope boundaries
- A one-page monthly work calendar with owner, due date and review step for each client
- A client profitability sheet showing fee against hours spent
- A role chart for juniors, seniors and reviewer with escalation rules
Not the right fit when: If a client's records have a tax notice, penalty or audit problem, that needs a chartered accountant or tax professional, not management advice. We can help with the firm, not the filing.
Explore a business audit ↗LET’S MOVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD
