Are you charging clients for the extra work you're currently doing

v638sg7k1a92bx

Curious as to what the approach of other firms is around this, we have clients who prepare their own payroll but have been asking us for support on the Covid-19 wages subsidy. Issue is that most of these clients are expecting this services for free even though we don't prepare their payroll.

How are others dealing with this?

duffysfarm

Its a tough one. Dont know what to do. Dont know how many days i have lost reading the new guidelines and dealing with clients. Like everything else some clients wont mind paying and some will.

I would suggest joining the profit pro group on facebook as they have a good discussion on the whole impact of the corona virus on the accounting profession but would also be good ro hear from posters here also

Darren Faithful Outfield wrote: »

Curious as to what the approach of other firms is around this, we have clients who prepare their own payroll but have been asking us for support on the Covid-19 wages subsidy. Issue is that most of these clients are expecting this services for free even though we don't prepare their payroll.

How are others dealing with this?

PaybackPayroll

For us, it is a huge amount of work. Working into the night as the schemes change.

No extra money though!

Stratvs

After several long phone sessions with the payroll operator of one client I got a brief email from the MD which roughly went - please keep track of your time, this is outside normal work.

At this point I’m most concerned about keeping clients in business which in turn will help keep me in business. The wheel will come around and the time will ultimately be recovered one way or another. Some by way of fees some by way of goodwill.

OP if they expect it for free then perhaps redirect them to their payroll software provider. Ours has totally free support at this time for any user. In all the years using it I’ve probably rang them 2-3 times but I’ve had to ring twice this week already. I think they’re doing great work given what’s been landed on them so soon after PMOD.

The unfortunate reality is that many accountants have been working for free for their clients for the past two weeks as a result of this emergency. Accountants already do alot of free work for their clients because they don't want to lose the client. I just don't see this happening with other professional service providers. For example, solicitors, architects, Quantity Surveyors etc all charge for the work they are asked to do and if there are extras they bill separately. Even a tradesman who comes to your house to do a job, if you ask them to do A and then you ask them to do A + B, it's reasonable to assume that they will charge you extra but accountants are reluctant to charge for extras for some reason. Consequently, many accountancy practices have too many clients and their fees are too low.

This emergency is an opportunity for many accountants to re-examine their delivery methods and the type of practice they want to be.

somewhere45

As an client who ask maybe 1 question a year, I would not expect to be billed extra for this.
If they did, I would be switching instantly. My thinking is. This is what I pay for already.

Now if there was a lot of work involved that is a different story. A man who work for nothing is never idle.

v638sg7k1a92bx

somewhere45 wrote: »

As an client who ask maybe 1 question a year, I would not expect to be billed extra for this.
If they did, I would be switching instantly. My thinking is. This is what I pay for already.

Now if there was a lot of work involved that is a different story. A man who work for nothing is never idle.

With all due respect, why do you think your accountant should work for you for free. As you even say yourself "A man who works for nothing is never idle" aka A busy fool.

Jim2007

somewhere45 wrote: »

As an client who ask maybe 1 question a year, I would not expect to be billed extra for this.
If they did, I would be switching instantly. My thinking is. This is what I pay for already.

Now if there was a lot of work involved that is a different story. A man who work for nothing is never idle.

Well I guess your customers/clients must be very happy then, since they have already paid for everything you will supply to them in the coming months or even years then... right?

v638sg7k1a92bx

Jim2007 wrote: »

Well I guess your customers/clients must be very happy then, since they have already paid for everything you will supply to them in the coming months or even years then... right?

In fairness to @somewhere45, their logic is completely rational. "We" as accountants have created the expectation that everything is covered in the annual compliance fee. Every time a client sends an email, we answer it. A VAT or CGT query, we answer it. They need a tax clearance cert, we get it for them. Confirmation that the taxes are up to date, no problem here you go. None of which is chargeable because the client pays €500 per year to file an income tax return???

This makes no sense. Why is it we are wedded to this idea of “I’ll make it up in next years fee” when we all know that by the time next year comes it will be forgotten about, the client is never charged for the extras and life goes on and the accountant is still chasing their tail stumbling from one crisis to the next because by the time next year comes the same client will have more questions and queries than they did last year and as you’ve already created the expectation that the extra work is for free, why would you start charging them for this new set of extra work?

boring accountant

Darren Faithful Outfield wrote: »

In fairness to @somewhere45, their logic is completely rational. "We" as accountants have created the expectation that everything is covered in the annual compliance fee. Every time a client sends an email, we answer it. A VAT or CGT query, we answer it. They need a tax clearance cert, we get it for them. Confirmation that the taxes are up to date, no problem here you go. None of which is chargeable because the client pays €500 per year to file an income tax return???

This makes no sense. Why is it we are wedded to this idea of “I’ll make it up in next years fee” when we all know that by the time next year comes it will be forgotten about, the client is never charged for the extras and life goes on and the accountant is still chasing their tail stumbling from one crisis to the next because by the time next year comes the same client will have more questions and queries than they did last year and as you’ve already created the expectation that the extra work is for free, why would you start charging them for this new set of extra work?

In larger firms these clients are automatically offloaded to the trainees so the additional cost is negligible. Maybe if more independent/small firms merged they could be more disciplined about billing for work done and there would be more money to go around. As Peter Thiel said, competition is for losers!

boring accountant

boring accountant wrote: »

In larger firms these clients are automatically offloaded to the trainees so the additional cost is negligible. Maybe if more independent/small firms merged they could be more disciplined about billing for work done and there would be more money to go around. As Peter Thiel said, competition is for losers!

KMPG tried this in the UK starting at £150 per month and and threw 200 staff into the project. They shuttered the small business unit last year after less than 5 years in operation.

Accountants fees have been stagnant since 2008. Low cost providers have entered the market which seems to be driving the fees down because everyone thinks they need to compete in that space but rumour has it that they are having difficulty managing the workload.
It’s very hard to maintain that business model as you have to service a huge amount of clients to generate sufficient revenue. With so many clients the support emails come pouring in resulting in the sales cycle of doom.