Pricing Your Practice: Why You're Probably Charging 20% Too Little
How small Australian accounting practices can move from hourly billing to value pricing without scaring off clients — and what to say when you raise fees.
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If you've been running your practice for more than two years and haven't raised your prices, you've effectively given every client a discount — just not on purpose. Inflation, software costs and your own experience have all gone up. Your fees probably haven't.
Most solo accountants we work with are charging 15–25% under market for the same work. Here's how to fix it without losing clients you actually want to keep.
Step 1: stop quoting in hours
Hourly billing punishes you for getting faster and rewards inefficiency. Worse, it caps your income at the number of hours you're willing to sit at a desk. Move to fixed-fee packages for everything you do more than three times a year — individual returns, BAS, year-end accounts, payroll setup, advisory blocks.
Step 2: price the outcome, not the inputs
A BAS isn't 'three hours of work'. It's 'a lodgement on time, no ATO contact, and confidence that your numbers are right.' The first version is worth $250. The second is worth $450 — and the client knows it, even if they negotiate on the first.
A simple three-tier structure
- Essentials — compliance done well, on time, no surprises.
- Plus — Essentials, plus a quarterly check-in and one strategy call.
- Partner — Plus, plus unlimited email/phone access and proactive planning.
Around 60% of clients pick the middle tier when given three. That's not a coincidence — it's the structure doing the selling for you.
Step 3: the price-rise email
Send it 90 days before the new fees apply. Be direct, brief, and human. Don't apologise — this is a business decision, not a confession.
"Hi [Name], a quick note: from [Date] my fees for [service] will move to [new fee]. It's the first change in [X years] and reflects the additional work and software that now goes into each return. Nothing else changes — same people, same response time, same care. If you'd like to chat through it, just reply."
What actually happens
- Around 80% of clients say nothing and pay the new fee.
- Around 15% reply with a question, accept the answer, and stay.
- Around 5% leave. Almost always, those are the clients who already cost you the most time per dollar.
The compounding effect
A 20% fee rise on a $400k practice with stable client numbers is $80k a year — almost all of which falls to profit, because your costs barely move. That's a holiday, a part-time hire, or 12 months of breathing room. The reason most practices don't do it isn't strategy; it's the email they haven't sent yet.
Write the email this week. Send it next week. The clients who value you will stay. The ones who don't were never going to fund the kind of practice you actually want to run.
Stop chasing. Start lodging.
DocChase sends the reminders, follows up on the right schedule, and lands every document in one place — so you can spend EOFY doing the work, not asking for it.
Start your 14-day free trialThe DocChase team writes practical playbooks for Australian bookkeepers and BAS agents who want their evenings back. We work alongside solo practices every quarter — every tip here has earned its spot in a real client workflow.
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