Editor’s note: This is a Web-exclusive sidebar for “Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm.” Client: Date: Project description and scope of services [and estimated completion date, if appropriate]: ________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Price:$_____________ We believe it is our responsibility to exceed your expectations. This Change Order
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Firm practice management
Pricing Council and CVO Purpose and Criteria
Editor’s note: This is a Web-exclusive exhibit for “Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm.” Examples of purpose and strategy statements for the role of the pricing council and chief value officer (CVO) are: To ensure the firm prices on purpose, according to the value received
Disadvantages of Hourly Billing
Editor’s note: This is a Web-exclusive exhibit for “Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm.” Hourly billing misaligns the interests of the CPA and the client—the client wants work done effectively, whereas the CPA firm wants to log more hours. It does not focus on what
Sample Fixed-Price Agreement
Editor’s note: This is a Web-exclusive exhibit for “Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm.” November 19, 2009 Dear Client: In order to document the understanding between us as to the scope of the work that ABC, CPAs will perform, we are entering into this Fixed
The Five Cs of Value
Editor’s note: This is a Web-exclusive exhibit for “Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm.” For a firm to price on purpose, it must understand the Five Cs of Value: 1. Comprehend value to clients. 2. Create value for clients. 3. Communicate the value you create.
Price Psychology
Editor’s note: This is a sidebar to “Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm.” People tend to buy emotionally and justify intellectually, which makes the study of price psychology a worthwhile endeavor. Essentially, price psychology has two characteristics: 1. Price leverage 2. Pricing emotions
An Efficient Profit Motive
The sagging economy and the pressure to go “green” are prompting firms to become more efficient. Whenever you make staffing changes, set new goals or tighten your budget, you have an opportunity to reassess workflow, enhance technology or improve productivity. Consider the following ways to lower expenses and increase profitability:
Put Your Business on the Map With Google Maps
Every firm’s dream should be to have a free listing on a major search engine at the top of its first results page, allowing prospective clients to find the firm when they’re searching for accounting, tax or financial planning services. Imagine if this free listing also included the firm’s phone
The Tech-Savvy CPA
When it comes to technology, are you a leader or a laggard? Do you embrace technology or shun it? This article contains questions and explanations to help you determine how technology-savvy you really are, and identify where you could improve your technology performance. 1. Does your computer have more than
Protect Your Portable Data—Always and Everywhere
Their widespread use sometimes makes relatively new technologies seem safer than they are. In fact, even popular and advantageous innovative devices may have significant risks. Prominent examples include data-filled laptops and flash drives. Recurrent headlines make it clear: Your laptop could become one of the thousands lost or stolen every
Pricing on Purpose: How to Implement Value Pricing in Your Firm
A business is defined by the value it creates for its customers. Your price speaks volumes about your value proposition, more so than any other component of your firm’s marketing. The business world pricing revolution began in the 1980s, when many of the Fortune 500 companies began to employ professional
Economic Outlook Improves
Optimism about the U.S. economy’s prospects improved sharply in the second quarter, but compensation freezes, layoffs and capital spending cuts are still on the horizon for about half of companies, according to a new survey of CPA financial executives. Nearly one-fifth of respondents were optimistic or very optimistic about the
Introducing the New Principles-Based Peer Review Standards
Editor’s note: G. William Graham is the AICPA Peer Review Board chair. The effects of the newly revised AICPA Standards on Performing and Reporting on Peer Reviews (Standards) will be far-reaching. They directly impact more than 30,000 firms enrolled in the AICPA’s practice-monitoring program. In addition, the revised standards
Client Communication After an M&A Deal – Sample Client Letters
The letters you send to clients announcing a merger or acquisition should reassure in order to retain. These samples suggest what to say to clients of the predecessor and successor firms: Letter to Clients of the Predecessor Firm Dear [client]: We are pleased to announce our forthcoming merger with ABC
Simplify and Improve Your Office System
Talk about pressure—and not just in tax season. Keeping office computer systems up and running in small and medium CPA firms is an enormous and unending responsibility. Without reliable computing and communication capabilities, your staff, your clients and your business are dead in the water. To mitigate the risk of
A Path to Financial Stability
A sound business strategy is important no matter what the state of the economy. As you work with clients to determine the best methods of surviving the recession, be sure to discuss the following critical points for seizing opportunities to refocus, contain expenses and reassure customers. Take a fresh look
Keeping It Together
Retirement, health issues for an owner, the desire to grow—all of these are reasons firms engage in mergers or acquisitions. Most firms decide to merge or acquire only after considerable analysis of financial and professional outcomes. Last month we gave general advice for ensuring a merger or acquisition goes smoothly.
A 2009 Tuneup for Your Firm’s Succession Planning
The pending retirement of the baby boomer generation and the unrelenting challenge of finding and keeping talented staff can have grave consequences for firms that fail to develop a succession strategy. With the AICPA’s 2008 PCPS Succession Survey showing that only 35% of multiowner firms had a written succession plan,
Be an “Energy Star”
For many business owners 2008 was a record year for energy costs. The Obama administration, while pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050, has said that ‘energy efficiency’ is the cheapest, cleanest and fastest energy ‘source.’ Consider the following tips to make your business more energy efficient.
A Measure of Success
While we wish our colleagues at Bailey & Co., Snyder & Co., Harrex Group and Kennedy and Coe LLC every success, the article “The Firm of the Future” (Nov. 08, page 68) made it difficult to determine the firms’ outcomes which, ultimately, will determine their success or failure—profitability. The only
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