Discussion:Help me figure out what to charge
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| Second, if you DO have a real partner they can really come in handy, especially if you don't have a secretary. Sit the prospect down in your office, or at your cubicle. And have your partner call pretending to be your secretary with a call from one of your clients in jail (you have to prearrange this, see?). | Second, if you DO have a real partner they can really come in handy, especially if you don't have a secretary. Sit the prospect down in your office, or at your cubicle. And have your partner call pretending to be your secretary with a call from one of your clients in jail (you have to prearrange this, see?). | ||
| - | When the "client" comes on the line, carry on a conversation in front of your prospect about how tough it was that they ended up in the Big House because they didn't keep good records and got behind on their bookkeeping and didn't listen to you; and all that kind of thing, and promise to bring them a new toothbrush the next time you come up that way. | + | When the "client" comes on the line, carry on a conversation in front of your prospect about how tough it was that they ended up in the Big House because they didn't keep good records and got behind on their bookkeeping and didn't listen to you; and all that kind of thing, and promise to bring them a new toothbrush the next time you come up that way. (You are keeping confidentiality, because it's all fictional). |
| This will scare your prospective client into opening up his checkbook and paying you whatever you want. | This will scare your prospective client into opening up his checkbook and paying you whatever you want. | ||
| - | (Also, try to keep some RELIGIOUS BOOKS on your desk too. Buy them used so they look like they've been read. Clients will pay more if they think you have a direct line to God. By all means, keep them dusted off. I learned this from the first senior pastor I worked under (he moonlighted in the used car business, big contributor to the Elephant Party)). | + | (Also, try to keep some RELIGIOUS BOOKS on your desk. Buy them used so they look like they've been read. Clients will pay more if they think you have a direct line to God. By all means, keep them dusted off. I learned this from the first senior pastor I worked under (he moonlighted in the used car business, big contributor to the Elephant Party)). |
| Sorry to be so blunt with some of this advice, but it's tough out there right now, and you won't find this stuff in the Scout manuals (even though I understand that the Girl Scouts can be brutal if you move in on their cookie territory (hits, contracts, threats, "accidents"). Of course, I don't know if that's true or not. | Sorry to be so blunt with some of this advice, but it's tough out there right now, and you won't find this stuff in the Scout manuals (even though I understand that the Girl Scouts can be brutal if you move in on their cookie territory (hits, contracts, threats, "accidents"). Of course, I don't know if that's true or not. | ||
| Good luck.}} | Good luck.}} | ||
Revision as of 13:56, 7 November 2009
Discussion Forum Index --> Business Growth Community --> Help me figure out what to charge
| 4 November 2009 | |
| Hey guys thanks for taking a look at this thread. I found a guy who runs a little skylight installation shop. It consists of him, a part time secretary, and some 1099 guys who do some of the install work. He needs some help cleaning up his quickbooks, they are a month or two behind. He also needs help with his quarterly and end of year tax filings. He is an llc.
Can you give me a rough estimate for what you would think I should charge to do this? Me and my partner have a combined 7 years of accounting and tax experience and we are both licensed CPA's. Thanks for any responses. | |
| 5 November 2009 | |
| $1,500 if I am doing it.
First, I have found--in my limited time in the business--that a month or two behind means they haven't touched anything in three months and what they touched before that is all wrong.
| |
PVCC-CCIFP (talk|edits) said: | 2009-11-05 |
| Here are some questions the answers of which will help in determining the quantity of transactions which might be involved. You say he is a skylight installation shop.
1)Does that mean he makes skylights and installs them? Or that he orders skylights and installs them? Or that he merely installs, as a sub, skylights provided to him by a GC? Each would have very different level of transactions, and level of complexity. While the former might mean fewer overall jobs, it might have confusion in tracing COGS issues. The middle situation probably means at least one (the windows) and potentially more (any auxillary materials, roofing, sheet rock, lumber needed to retrofit skylights to existing construction) purchases per job from anywhere from 1 to 4 vendors, and depending on his target customer, a new customer for each job. The final situation would reduce issues related to tracing materials, and limit customers to a relatively small number of repeat customers. 2)How long does each job last? days? a day? hours? a week? 1 crew might easily be completing between 5 and 10 or even as many as 15 seperate jobs per week. Multiple crews would increase the numbers of transactions significantly, and introduce issues of different record keeping habits which complicate the process of sorting and capturing the unrecorded transactions.
| |
Southparkcpa (talk|edits) said: | 5 November 2009 |
| What are the "quarterlies"???? 941's? 1040 ES ?
Is he filing a schedule C, 1120S etc.... | |
FloridaTaxes (talk|edits) said: | 5 November 2009 |
| I would urge you to find out just how bad their QuickBooks file looks. I had a client this year tell me they were a little behind. Turns out half of their transactions for the last 6 months were missing and most of the deposits were recorded more than once. I also had one that was in such bad shape I just had to start a new QuickBooks file from scratch. If they truly are just 2 months behind and their QuickBooks file is not a huge mess, I would charge $400-600 to catch up the QuickBooks.
The quarterly and annual taxes depends on what you mean by that and how many quarterlies does he need done. If he needs 1-2 quarters of 941s, w2s, 1099s, and an 1120S, I would charge another $800-$1200 for that. It just depends on how much time everything is going to take. Whatever you decide to quote them, make sure you tell them it's only an estimate and the final invoice can be higher if the work ends up being more time consuming than anticipated. Or you might just want to quote them an hourly rate for everything with an estimate of hours required. Also, find out if you will incur any expenses. For example, QuickBooks only prints 1099s on pre-printed paper. So if he has a lot of 1099s and you need to buy the paper/envelopes, charge him more. I just ordered my 1099s and W2s for this year, and the price was higher than expected because I have a client that will need over 100 1099s. | |
| 5 November 2009 | |
| Thanks for the responses. You guys have alot of good points to consider. I was talking with my partner and we decided that we need to meet with the client and get a better understanding of exactly what he needs. We did want to have a very general and rough estimate of what we would charge and your posts help alot.
Thanks, | |
Fort Wayne CPA (talk|edits) said: | 5 November 2009 |
| Chardi,
Clients like that I just tell them my hourly rate and I tell them I will charge them based on how long it takes me to clean everything up. This tends to work for us because we actually charge a much lower rate for bookkeeping and payroll taxes... Mike | |
Ken@seamann.com (talk|edits) said: | 6 November 2009 |
| Get a retainer (HUGE) upfront | |
| 6 November 2009 | |
| You're lucky you have a real partner. I have stock photograph I bought of my "partner" on the wall in my office (what my clients don't know, won't hurt them). Get the meanest picture you can find if you don't have a real partner (think "Scrooge"). You can buy them already framed on the internet.
So, first, learn to blame your high fees on your partner (real or imaginary). Tell them you want to work with them, but the partner is a hard *ss and insists on cash on the barrelhead. Second, if you DO have a real partner they can really come in handy, especially if you don't have a secretary. Sit the prospect down in your office, or at your cubicle. And have your partner call pretending to be your secretary with a call from one of your clients in jail (you have to prearrange this, see?). When the "client" comes on the line, carry on a conversation in front of your prospect about how tough it was that they ended up in the Big House because they didn't keep good records and got behind on their bookkeeping and didn't listen to you; and all that kind of thing, and promise to bring them a new toothbrush the next time you come up that way. (You are keeping confidentiality, because it's all fictional). This will scare your prospective client into opening up his checkbook and paying you whatever you want. (Also, try to keep some RELIGIOUS BOOKS on your desk. Buy them used so they look like they've been read. Clients will pay more if they think you have a direct line to God. By all means, keep them dusted off. I learned this from the first senior pastor I worked under (he moonlighted in the used car business, big contributor to the Elephant Party)). Sorry to be so blunt with some of this advice, but it's tough out there right now, and you won't find this stuff in the Scout manuals (even though I understand that the Girl Scouts can be brutal if you move in on their cookie territory (hits, contracts, threats, "accidents"). Of course, I don't know if that's true or not. Good luck. | |
