I am a sole practitioner who has suddenly realised that my charge out rates are a bit out of date.
I currently charge out for this year at £40 per hour for work in my local area (more if it is London)
Is this much too low for a charterd accountant? I have been increasing by inflation each year for since 1998 but I was told that the big six are now charging £165 per hour for a newly qualified! That makes me think a should be charging at least £80 per hour.
Any feedback?
Toni Mendelow
Replies (5)
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Fixed fees are the answer
Although I guess you still need to have a vague idea of hourly rate in the first place! I think my hourly rates (to base fixed fees on) are probably too low but it depends on what you're doing, how long you've been in business, overheads....... I guess put them up a bit more, see how it goes down (sounds a bit bungee-ish) & play with them accordingly....
Sole practioner with 4 accounts staff
Hi we are in Greater London and our rates are:
£30 accounts to TB
£50 PTB
£70 Tax compliance
£120 Business advise (ACA rate)
£140 Tax advise (ACA rate)
Hope these give you a ball park idea, although we are moving towards fixed fees for compliance work.
Are you sole without staff?
If you have no staff then you should have a different COR for each different type of work. You cannot charge £80 per hour for simple accounts preparation. You will be faster at this than a less experienced person but not sufficiently so to justify this level of differential.
The client will only tolerate a fee of a certain amount. We have moved to annual fixed fee quotes for all routine work. We only use CORs for specials and for (the mercifully rare) enquiries. This way we all know where we stand and we never quarrel about fees, (except with the one miserable [let's be polite and call him a "love child"] that still hasn't paid his January bill, but that is another matter).
The big advantage is that we don't do time sheets.
Variable but alot is fixed
I work mainly on fixed rates but if I do quote hourly its based on £25 for bookkeeping, £40 for accounts prep and £75 for tax work.
Fixed rates are much more popular than than old hourly rates to my clients.