Just want to see if we are too expensive, don’t think so but likewise I don’t think we are cheap.
To do everything that’s required for an “average” vat registered sole trader, no employees. We also include general help and advice in the fee
We quote £2400 plus xero fees if needed
So what do you charge your “standard” sole trader when providing an all inclusive service ? Thanks!
We are in Greater London
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Sorry should have added, I think we are good value all considered. Not sure how clients would react to the fee going to nearer the £3,000 area.
Might be reasonable, might not be.
A starting point would be to assess how much bookkeeping there is to do, but you don't say.
In that case it seems very expensive. If you said a generous 3 minutes per transaction including reconciliations, it about an hour per month / 12 hours per year for the bookkeeping.
12 hours at £50ph = £600
VAT Returns = £300
Accounts and SA = £350
£1250 total.
Would have to disagree that it’s very expensively. Out clients contact us regularly and we answer they questions without any additional charge.
Also where are you based? While I don’t disagree with the bookkeeping the vat returns seem somewhat cheap and the accounts and self assessment very.
If you are doing the bookkeeping, the VAT returns, accounts and SA should be a piece of [***] and not take much time to complete.
But perhaps there are other factors that will influence the price that you have not told us about.
Do those rates really provide for recovery of practice overheads? This strikes me as more of a marginal pricing approach. Just interested. Thanks.
I believe so.
The bookkeeping should come to nowhere near 12 hours if using Xero efficiently.
VAT returns shouldn't be much more than half hours work for each return.
Accounts and SA work shouldn't take more than a couple of hours if the bookkeeping is done to a good standard.
It really depends on the nature of the transactions as well as the volume. We have one that have foreign currency transactions that have to be translated at specific rates to agree to their internal spreadsheets. If you start hitting CIS, that takes extra time too. I think I have one client on fixed fees for bookkeeping, all the others are hourly. It also encourages the client to participate in the bookkeeping process as they have an incentive to prepare clear paperwork.
Your figures feel a bit high
Okay. Thanks for the feedback. The clients are happy at the moment, so we will keep the fees roughly where they are.
Our local competitors are very similar in price. Often clients save a little when they come to us.
Maybe you lot are too cheap :p
Sounds as if you're dealing with London-based clients. Most of ours wouldn't bat an eyelid at £200 month, whereas those in the home counties and the shires seem far more price-sensitive. Tier marketing is the order of the day.
Very expensive full stop but then you are in London. I would put the ''mythical average'' fee at nearer to 1/2 of what you have quoted. Based in the far South West and 30 years experience tells me we are not at the cheap end of the spectrum (for this region)!
I would charge around £125.00 per month. I feel £200.00 is very expensive. However, i would charge more if a factoring company was involved.
I would charge around £125.00 per month. I feel £200.00 is very expensive. However, i would charge more if a factoring company was involved.
Thats seems very expensive to me. Autoentry would sort that job out in a flash.
I wouldn't be able to get the price over £1500, I am North East based which is why we get increased requests for work from down South.
Run it through our pricing software and works out at £157+VAT per month split as
Accounts £nil (we do unincorporated accounts free when we do the bookkeeping)
Bookkeeping £111 per month
VAT returns £32 per month
tax return £14 per month
£2,400 plus Xero sub sounds about par for London.
High if you're a small practioner.
About right if you're a mid sized firm.
Down here in the Garden of England I'd be looking at around £1,800 (which includes the Xero sub).
The very low level of bookkeeping means this really is a very easy job. Client would probably be happy with quarterly bookkeeping.
We tend to get a lot of London based clients as we can be up to 50% cheaper (our fees are probably mid range for Kent). Yes we've taken clients from the Big 4.
