Discussion:Why can't Accountants charge like Lawyers do?

OK. may be this is not normal but my point is that we do know that the general public is more willing to pay lawyers. And they think lawyers charge for "everything". So, why can't accountants be treated the same? Doesn't "everything" refer to the professional's time? Where did we go wrong?

I do charge my clients for consultation by the hour and accounting/payroll work as a flat fee which covers my cost of emails etc. But, I can't imagine putting the word "emails" or "phone calls" in an invoice.

I think on the accounting/audit side, CPA's are really going to be able to raise their fees over the next 5 years or so.

As far as tax return preparation goes: at present, no license is required in my state. Of course, CA requires a license. I have been charging flat fees per schedule, and I am going to change that. Those that require extra research are going to pay for that by the hour.

Part of it is that new people enter the profession, and actually lose money for a while to get clients. They undercut the rest of us, and keep fees low. And, as Kevin points out through his posts, you have to think of yourself as a professional to be treated as one. Including the education component. However, I am taking both Continuing Legal Ed. and CPE, and it can get rather expensive. I am not required to take CPE, but I do since I belong to NSA.

P.S. The rate that lawyers ask may be high, but anyone should feel free to negotiate the rate with a lawyer in advance (don't be shy), and should also feel free to question excessive billing.

I frequently hear complaints about attorneys' bills, so I'm not sure I would actually want to be in that same category. I do think, however, many times we (that's for all of us in general) aren't charging enough for the value provided.

Roy, that's just too much.

As you folks already know, try to avoid the downtown, big city, firms and lawyers. Go to the next city out or two. One city out from Atlanta going East is Decatur, GA, in Dekalb County. So, I'd do a search for Dekalb County, or Decatur Bar Association. Check some of those lawyers out, they will have the same education, same skills. Many sole practitioners are excellent, they just don't want the pressures and early slavery required in the big firms.

The bigger picture is that lawyers are shooting themselves in the foot when they pull these stunts. Many middle class clients will just decide to DIY, go to some internet site, or buy a Nolo book. Everyone loses when that happens. Already I've had new clients tell me, "Well, I'm sorry I let XYZ problem get so big, but I figured I could never afford a lawyer, so I didn't even try until it got this bad." Shame on the legal profession for creating this kind of perception. The truth is the client could have afforded to come see me, but his perception is that he can't afford it.

CrowJD, I agree that if one thinks of oneself as a professional giving value to the client the fee will reflect that.

You are right Natalie that we don't look at the value we provide. I have switched over from a pure cost-based pricing to a combination of cost-value pricing.

Now the problem occurs when I try to purchase tax practices. Apparently, the prices that the CPAs have been charging in my area are much lower than mine. And I doubt a seller - unless desparate - would go for a doubling of prices eventhough he/she would most likely end up with the same revenue if not more.

By the way, I fired the lawyer (I did pay her the $50).

IBT - I see you've joined the club. I hope I don't need to get a special dictionary for you, too!

However, the one area of speciality that has shrunk in the Yellow Pages is corporate law. Why? Well the big firms are still doing corporate, business formation etc. BUT the small firms have largely gotten out of it because so many people are using the net, or DIY. This becomes a vicious circle, with fewer real world lawyers gaining experience as the perception is that there is no money in it.

This is very bad because more lawyers work in small firms than big ones, and there is a whole generation of young lawyers that just don't know anything about business entitities other than what they can copy from the simplest form books. There are some solo and small firms lawyers that really do know their stuff with business entities, but they are not as easy to find as in the old days.

An owner can always do his own legal work, medical work, and accounting work. lol. And I just love to charge them dearly to straigten the legal work out.

I had a hard lesson to learn myself recently on the drawbacks of DIY. Cinnamon is good for diabetes and people with risk factors for getting diabetes. Your tax dollars discovered this through the USDA.

So Crow decides he will start taking about two grams of cinnamon spice a day, just the spice. BUT, guess what? I find out two years after starting this that siliva deactivates a lot of the beneift, hence, the cinnamon ideally needs to be extracted/encapsulated. A pharmacist would know of this possibility thru training, a doctor might know it, but I knew nothing of this type of complexity. There are tricks to every trade, and people go to school and/or get years of experience for a reason.

Again, I am not a bit shy about charging DIY people a fortune for clean up activity.

I hadn't heard about that one. I'm not even sure what you mean.

In my words, we're going to have to spend even more time than before in training IRS auditors. The fights will be tougher because the new staff doesn't know the people aspects of the job.