Giving Some Love to the Concierge Accounting Practice
Imagine a scenario in which you could devote more time to actually partnering with your clients to solve their issues and provide them solutions, rather than simply handling their books or processing their tax returns.
It’s called “concierge accounting,” and while there are firms that offer this (a simple internet search will show you several firms), it’s neither mainstream nor something we’ve run across in our work with accounting firms. Even with article after article on value pricing and offering package pricing, it’s common sense that these articles wouldn’t exist if more firms moved away from hourly pricing
It's time for the concierge accounting practice to go mainstream.
Comparing it to Concierge Medical Practices
You may be a patient in a concierge medical practice; the same kind of business model isn’t very different for accounting.
We are patients in a concierge practice, and while it costs us $2,000 annually, we feel the cost is justified:
- Our annual physical and semi-annual follow-ups are scheduled for one hour each. In a normal practice, we found that most patients are scheduled in shorter, 15-minute increments—hardly enough time to say hello.
- We have our doctor’s personal email and cell phone to contact him anytime we want. Of course, we do not contact him through these means unless it is absolutely necessary.
- Prescriptions are refilled immediately.
- When we have a cold or need some kind of medication, we do not have to see the doctor in person if he sees us at least once a year.
- Customer service is a transformation from anything we’ve experienced in any other practice. The staff is friendly and gets us the solutions we need very quickly. They even call back to check on our progress.
While you may balk at the $2,000 just for the membership, it’s worth it to us to able to address our medical needs in a very timely manner.
How it Works in Your Firm
Based on what we know with current concierge accounting practices, the way it works in your firm isn’t very different than the way it works in a medical practice:
- You’ll book clients for an hour more than once a year; quarterly is most likely the way to go.
- You can meet in person or set up remote online meetings.
- You will want to offer much more than just a periodic review of their books; after all, you could set up custom reports in any accounting software program or dashboard in a third-party app to give them useful information they need.
- You’re available to your clients if they have an unusual circumstance or emergency.
What you can’t give them with an hourly rate structure is the advisory part of your practice: drilling down to advise them on much more than their books or tax. While we won’t go into the various advisory services in this article, a simple internet search will render quite a bit of content.
What to Charge
This is up to you, but a good way to gauge what to charge is to test the waters by asking your key clients—the ones you know will stick with you no matter what—what they are willing to pay for concierge accounting. If the trust you and you are a true partner with them, they will tell you honestly what they are willing to pay.
We know it can be scary to raise your rates, let alone move to a value-pricing model or concierge practice, but it’s no different from the way we charge for services through retainers, set at an average number of hours multiplied by our blended hourly rate.
With a retainer, our clients get our time carte blanche, but again, that time is not abused. We have a relationship of mutual understanding if it appears we are spending too much time in any given month, we’ll raise our hands and let the client know. No month is the same in a retainer agreement; in some months, the time will be greater and others, less so.
Finding Your Level of Comfort
By all means, make this all about you! If you are not comfortable with a concierge model, don’t do it, but think about the kind of practice you want for the long term, not just this year or next year. Where does that put you?
Bryan Cytron is vice president of Cytron and Company. He helps businesses and firms tell their story, build their brand, and grow through top-notch PR, marketing, media relations and communications. This includes websites, blogs, newsletters, social media and more, with a niche in accounting and financial services.
Scott Cytron
Scott Cytron is president of Cytron and Company, known for helping companies and organizations improve their bottom line through strategic public relations, communications, marketing programs and top-notch client service. An accredited consultant, Scott works with companies, organizations and individuals in professional services (medical, legal, accounting, engineering), high-tech and B2B/B2C product/service sales.