Last updated November 6, 2026
To price fixed fee accounting work, estimate the hours each client's work takes, multiply by your target hourly rate, add an allowance for overruns and set limits on the scope. To check it pays, divide the fee by the hours actually spent, client by client, at least once a year.
How do you price a fixed fee for accounting work?
You price a fixed fee for accounting work by building it up from the tasks, then adding an allowance for what your estimate missed.
- List every recurring job for this client. Include the ones you forget to count, such as answering their emails.
- Estimate the hours per job. Use past clients of the same size if you have them. A guess is fine for now, as long as you test it later.
- Multiply by your target rate. That's the blended hourly figure you need to cover salaries, overheads and profit. The guide to calculating a charge-out rate shows how to get there, and a blended rate helps if juniors and seniors share the work.
- Add an allowance for overruns. Records arrive late, and the client rings on a Friday.
- Round it, and divide by twelve if the client pays monthly.
- Write down the limits. The fee only holds if the fees section of your engagement letter states what it assumes.
A worked example: pricing one client
Here's an invented example. A small practice with a €70 target rate prices a company with about 80 transactions a month, VAT-registered, with a year-end to prepare. All figures exclude VAT.
| Work | Hours each | Times a year | Hours a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly bookkeeping | 3.5 | 12 | 42 |
| VAT returns | 1.5 | 4 | 6 |
| Year-end accounts | 14 | 1 | 14 |
| Corporate tax return | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Queries and emails | 1 | 12 | 12 |
| Total | 78 |
78 hours at €70 is €5,460. A 10% allowance adds €546, which makes €6,006. The practice rounds that to €6,000 a year, or €500 a month. The 10% is only an illustration, since your own history is the better guide.
The queries row is the one people leave out. It's 15% of the hours here, and with no row for it you are giving that time away from the first month.
What should a fixed fee cover and leave out?
A fixed fee should cover the work you can count, up to stated limits, and leave out anything that depends on the client's behaviour. The limits should be things a client can check.
| Set a limit on | For example | Charge separately for |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | Up to 80 transactions a month | Volume above the limit |
| Timing | Records by the 10th of the following month | Rush work after late records |
| Entities | One company | Each extra company |
| Staff | Up to 6 on payroll | Each extra employee |
| Condition of records | Records kept as agreed | Clean-up of a backlog |
How do you check that a fixed fee pays?
You check that a fixed fee pays by dividing the fee by the hours actually spent, which gives the realised rate, and comparing that with your target. Do it per client, because the average tells you very little.
Here's the same invented practice a year later, with three clients on the same €6,000 fee and a €70 target.
| Client | Annual fee | Hours spent | Realised rate | Against target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | €6,000 | 62 | €96.77 | +38% |
| B | €6,000 | 78 | €76.92 | +10% |
| C | €6,000 | 104 | €57.69 | −18% |
| All three | €18,000 | 244 | €73.77 | +5% |
The practice looks fine at 5% over target. Client C is 18% under it, and A's easy year is paying for that without anyone having decided it should. C needs attention, and a practice-wide figure would never tell you.
None of this works unless the hours are recorded, and the common mistake is to stop recording them because fixed-fee time isn't billed. ICAEW's fee information helpsheet describes time records in exactly this role: a management tool for deciding fees and comparing quotes against what the work took. The guide to billable time for accountants sets out a workflow, and budget hours vs actual hours covers the comparison on a single job.
What should you do when a fixed fee doesn't pay?
When a fixed fee doesn't pay, find the cause before you touch the price, because some causes are cheaper to fix than a difficult conversation.
| Cause | What to do |
|---|---|
| Records arrive late or incomplete | Enforce the deadline in the letter, or charge for the rush |
| The client has grown past the limits | Reprice, using the limits the letter already sets |
| A partner does work a junior could do | Change who does it, which changes the real cost |
| Queries run far above the allowance | Agree a monthly call, or price the extra contact |
| You simply underestimated | Raise the fee at the review |
For client C, the arithmetic is simple. 104 hours at €70 is €7,280, which is about €607 a month instead of €500, a rise of 21%. That's a big jump to ask for in one go, so you might raise it in two steps while fixing the late records, which would cut the hours as well. A rate increase letter handles the wording.
Running fixed fees in ERPFlow
ERPFlow bills the fixed fee and holds the time you type in. You do the division yourself. The accounting and bookkeeping page describes how the practice side fits together.
- The fee: add it as a service with its price, then bill it through a monthly recurring invoice, emailed or left as a draft. It bills and never collects, so payments go in by hand. Each invoice counts toward your plan's monthly invoice limit, which is on the pricing page.
- The hours: keep one project board per client, linked to the customer, with a card per job and the time spent typed in as hours and minutes. The customer's page shows the board's total. The Free plan caps cards at 10 in total.
- The check: the customer's Analytics tab shows net revenue and outstanding. Divide the fee by the hours on a spreadsheet.
ERPFlow doesn't have a timer or timesheets today. Time tracking, including converting tracked time into invoices, is coming soon. ERPFlow doesn't calculate realised rates, per-client profitability or budgets against actual hours, and expenses aren't linked to customers, so there's no per-client cost figure either.