AccountingWEB.co.uk - Accounting Fee survey

AccountingWEB.co.uk fee survey

Possibly the two most enduring debates in the accounting world: how do you bill, and how much do you charge. AccountingWEB has played host to and participated in these discussions so often it has occurred to us that together we could help progress the argument and establish some basic facts. Would you like to know how much your fellow practitioners are charging, and for what? Do value billers always get their fees haggled down? How many accountants don't even know which clients are profitable? How are practices calculating their fees?

That's what this survey is designed to find out. If you can spend two minutes to take this completely confidential survey, we'll be able to tell you some very interesting information in a few weeks' time, we promise.

Thanks a lot for your time.

1. How many partners are there at your firm?

2. Where is your firm?

3. Please enter the least and then the most you have charged for each of the following services in the last twelve months. Loss-leaders don't count.

Audit
Least: Most:

Annual accounts
Least: Most:

Corporate or partnership tax
Least: Most:

Personal tax (annual return)
Least: Most:

Payroll
Least: Most:

Management accounts (monthly)
Least: Most:

Management accounts (quarterly)
Least: Most:

VAT
Least: Most:

4. Roughly - and we appreciate this will be a ballpark figure - what would you charge for each of the following? Assume the client has decent records in each instance.

A simple tax return for an employed individual who has some interest income and dividends?
£

Annual accounts for a sole trader working with income of between £40,000 and £50,000?
£

Partnership tax for a partnership of two individuals, each earning between £35,000 and £40,000?
£

Quarterly management accounts for a limited company with twelve staff and a turnover of £750,000?
£

Audit for a limited company with twenty five staff and a turnover of £1.5 million?
£

5. Do you always provide your client with a quote for your work up front?

How does your final fee match up to your initial quote?

How does your final fee generally differ from your initial quote?

6. How you tend to arrive at your final fee?

What you think the client will pay (ie, value billing)
What the client paid last time
Going market rate (ie, what everyone else seems to be charging)
Chargeable hours worked (ie, time spent, poor client records)
Whatever the client accepts (ie, haggled down by client)