Great post, Craig. I’ve noticed that the “firm first, client second” attitude is also what is preventing firms from moving to more efficient cloud accounting technology. Partners are more concerned with losing billable hours than helping their clients get better visibility into their numbers. But in the long run, clients will figure it out and look elsewhere.
One way to value price is to determine the cost to the prospect if they were to perform the function in-house. In the case of bill pay, the total cost to pay a bill by paper check using traditional workflows in an office environment can come to $22 or more. So $22 per bill would be a reasonable upper boundary for pricing out this service based on value.
One way to improve expense reporting dramatically for clients is to dump the report part of the process through the latest accounting technology. For example, Xero's Expense Claims allow you to approve or decline individual items. This means you can reimburse employees or contractors quickly for approved items while you inquire about other items. One or two items will no longer hold up the whole process. Abacus is a Xero add-on that follows this philosophy while also automating the ACH reimbursement to employees. My clients who use Abacus or Xero for expense reimbursements love it compared to the old methods.
My answers
Great post, Craig. I’ve noticed that the “firm first, client second” attitude is also what is preventing firms from moving to more efficient cloud accounting technology. Partners are more concerned with losing billable hours than helping their clients get better visibility into their numbers. But in the long run, clients will figure it out and look elsewhere.
One way to value price is to determine the cost to the prospect if they were to perform the function in-house. In the case of bill pay, the total cost to pay a bill by paper check using traditional workflows in an office environment can come to $22 or more. So $22 per bill would be a reasonable upper boundary for pricing out this service based on value.
One way to improve expense reporting dramatically for clients is to dump the report part of the process through the latest accounting technology. For example, Xero's Expense Claims allow you to approve or decline individual items. This means you can reimburse employees or contractors quickly for approved items while you inquire about other items. One or two items will no longer hold up the whole process. Abacus is a Xero add-on that follows this philosophy while also automating the ACH reimbursement to employees. My clients who use Abacus or Xero for expense reimbursements love it compared to the old methods.