Find out how accountants have ended long working hours and staff burnout during tax season.
Join industry titans Dawn Brolin and Marcus Dillon as they reveal what tax season is like after they optimized their business for a 6-hour workday with Ignition. Find out exactly what they changed to achieve work-life balance.
Insights about how to reduce your admin time and get your life back this tax season
Master pricing strategies with this actionable guide for accountants and bookkeepers. Transform awkward conversations into profitable decisions.
Financial have partnered to bring you this step-by step guide to ensure you are pricing and engaging clients seamlessly this tax season.
Enhance your client relationships with Ignition: Get key strategies for engagement, workload management, and effective communication.
Get your tax proposals out the door fast using our readymade proposal templates, created by accountants for accountants
Experts share valuable insights about how to transform your tax season
The accounting landscape is evolving and client expectations are shifting. Watch Sean Duncan, Dan Gertrudes, and Carla Caldwell as they debate tax-focused vs full-service accounting.
This is the ultimate battle of the dollars! Watch Anne Napolitano, Michelle Vilms, Clayton Achen, and Jeremy Wells as they unpack pricing strategies that can revolutionize profitability.
Watch Clint Bowers, Kristen Keats, Chris Williams, and Logan Graf to master the art of where to draw the line with clients and how to protect yourself with better engagement letters.
Experts share valuable insights about how to transform your tax season
The accounting landscape is evolving and client expectations are shifting. Watch Sean Duncan, Dan Gertrudes, and Carla Caldwell as they debate tax-focused vs full-service accounting.
This is the ultimate battle of the dollars! Watch Anne Napolitano, Michelle Vilms, Clayton Achen, and Jeremy Wells as they unpack pricing strategies that can revolutionize profitability.
Watch Clint Bowers, Kristen Keats, Chris Williams, and Logan Graf to master the art of where to draw the line with clients and how to protect yourself with better engagement letters.
Find out how to increase revenue without burn out
As an accountant or bookkeeper, you understand more than anyone just how pivotal cash flow management is to a business’s success. And the best strategy to maintain consistent revenue is to ensure clients can settle their bills efficiently and effortlessly.
This is where introducing automation into your accounts receivable (AR) process becomes invaluable. By streamlining how client invoices are issued, processed, and settled, you not only enhance productivity, but also elevate client satisfaction, and, in turn, amplify your profit margin.
In this guide, we’ll delve deep into the nuances of AR automation, exploring its multifaceted benefits and providing a roadmap on how to seamlessly integrate it within your accounting or bookkeeping firm.
Before exploring the intricacies of automated accounts receivable solutions, it's essential to examine the conventional (and predominantly manual) invoicing methods familiar to many accounting firms and bookkeepers.
Without a streamlined AR automation system, client invoices are manually created and sent by the business. This means the company owner (or whoever handles accounts receivable) would generate an invoice at the time of billing, and then meticulously fill in the necessary information themselves.
This may include:
From there, the business sends the invoice to the client. This is typically done via email, though some companies still dispatch paper invoices through the postal service.
As you can imagine, this manual process can take time and effort, especially if you’re invoicing multiple clients. While it’s not particularly difficult to generate an invoice, the task can be tedious, and your efforts are better spent on more strategic and high-impact tasks.
As such, automating your invoicing processes is something worth considering, especially for accounting firms.
Accounts receivable automation (sometimes called ‘AR automation’) refers to a system or a workflow tailored to bookkeepers and accountants that automatically generates and sends invoices at the right time. It can reduce or eliminate human involvement in the invoicing trajectory.
Depending on how your AR process is set up in your accounting firm, you can streamline tasks such as:
Service-based invoice generation. Instead of manually entering each line item and amount, you can configure your software to automatically populate the invoice based on the services included in the business proposal or service agreement.
Sending invoices. Rather than tracking various dates for when to send the invoice, your system can automatically do it for you based on the parameters you’ve set. For example, if you typically bill clients on the first day of the month, your AR automation software can seamlessly do that for you.
Sending reminders. An AR automation platform can also send reminders to your clients if invoices aren’t paid on time. This takes the manual admin out of following-up on past-due invoices and significantly reduces the need for awkward billing-related conversations.
Payment processing. Most invoicing tools have built-in payment processing features or integrations. This means you don’t have to manually take down payment information or wait for checks to come in. When you’re using invoice processing software, clients can pay via a digital portal and the funds are deposited into your account automatically.
Ready to implement an automated accounts receivable process into your enterprise? Although the specific steps you need to take may vary based on your accounting firm’s unique needs, processes, and existing systems, here are some universal best practices for bookkeepers and accountants to keep in mind.
The first step is to iron out what your AR procedure is – or what you want it to be. Think about each step of your billing trajectory. This will help you determine the best software to use and how to configure it.
Here are some questions to consider at this stage:
When do you send invoices? Define the point at which your invoices need to be sent. Do you bill clients weekly, monthly, quarterly, or on an annual basis? Maybe it varies depending on the client engagement. Whatever the case, set up your system accordingly.
What’s your payment structure? Think about the mechanics of your billing procedure. Are you paid on an hourly or per-project basis? Do you charge a deposit or bill everything upfront? Do you prefer initiating payment after a service has been rendered? The right answer depends on your business.
What types of payments do you accept? Next up, think about the payment methods you choose to accept. Credit and debit cards are highly convenient and have become the standard when doing business. You could also consider accepting automated clearing house (ACH) payments – a favorable option if you’re wary of credit card processing fees.
When do you send invoice reminders? Iron out what happens when payments are delayed. When should reminders be sent? If you’re enforcing penalties like late fees, how much would they cost?
Use the information you’ve gathered above to find and select the right automated accounts receivable software tailored for your accounting firm. Create a list of features you need, then use it to guide your research.
One of the key tasks at this stage is to evaluate the platform’s features and capabilities. Set your sights on solutions that tick the right boxes and enable you to implement your invoice processing.
If you require upfront payment before starting an engagement, your invoicing system should be able to do that. Take Ignition, for example, which enables you to require payments before a client accepts a proposal.
Or, let’s say your payment schedules vary from one client to the next. Maybe you have a combination of month-to-month and annual engagements for your bookkeeping services. In these instances, it helps to have a system with flexible invoicing capabilities.
Ignition, for instance, offers invoicing features and automated billing to support various billing schedules – including weekly, monthly, annual, or on project completion.
Another important consideration? Software integrations. For accounting and bookkeeping workflows, it’s recommended that you choose a system that integrates with your business solutions. These may include your accounting software, client engagement platform, payment processor, and customer relationship management (CRM) software.
When your various systems are able to talk to each other, information flows from one app to the next, further reducing manual work and double entry.
Once you’ve selected a solution tailored for your accounting or bookkeeping firm, the next step is to get the system up and running to fit your workflow and billing processes. This is the stage where you:
The specific steps and actions you need to take will depend on your client billing software. Some accountants choose to use their accounting software to send invoices, while others may opt to use their client management platform.
Determine which setup works best for your business and go from there.
If you’re using Ignition, you can integrate the software with solutions such as Xero and QuickBooks to streamline your invoice processing, client billing, and client proposals. This allows Ignition to access your client lists and streamline your client proposals. Invoices are created from your proposals, and this gives you some flexibility to configure these before sending them to the client.
Finding and setting up the right AR automation process takes some time, but it’s certainly worth the effort. Here are some of the benefits you can unlock through automated invoicing.
Automation reduces the time you spend on the accounts receivable workflow. Rather than taking minutes (maybe even hours) out of your day to manually generate and send invoices, your system can take care of everything for you.
This frees up time, empowering you to devote more energy towards other aspects of your business, such as business strategy, revenue growth, personnel development, and client satisfaction.
“Using Ignition has probably saved me anywhere from 10 to 20 hours a month.”
Marie Greene, Founder & CEO, Connected Accounting
Doing things manually opens you up to human error. For example, if you’re manually entering payment amounts, it’s all too easy to mistype a number or add another zero to the invoice.
A study from Qvalia shows that in Nordic countries, 25 percent of invoices – despite undergoing a correction process internally – contained errors that resulted in lost business revenue. On average, an organization is spending 31 days to resolve and correct errors in invoicing.
Sending an incorrect invoice not only triggers additional back-and-forth with the client, it also reflects poorly on your business.
These errors can also delay the invoicing process, which means you may not don’t get paid right away. Automated invoicing paves the way for rapid payment by ensuring on-time delivery, and reminders to pay in the event the invoice remains unpaid beyond the deadline.
Between the time it takes to generate invoices and the cost of paper (if you’re mailing out invoices), the money spent on manual processing can add up. Research by SAP Concur found that it costs an average of $12.90 to process one invoice.
SAP’s study also found that automation is helpful in decreasing expenses, delivering an average of 29 percent in cost reductions.
One of the downsides of manual procedures is the tendency to be inconsistent. When a person is tasked with manually creating invoices every time, that process can vary slightly from one period to the next.
Let’s say an employee sends an invoice monthly. On the 1st June they send the invoice at 8am sharp. But as the month progresses they become busy and aren’t able to invoice the client again until the 5th July.
Scenarios like these, that can impact your cash flow and business operations, are a thing of the past when you’re using an automated invoicing system. Because everything is done automatically, you don’t have to worry about inconsistent processes.
Your clients receive their invoices on the same day and time every month, so they always know when to expect the bill. This consistency also makes you look more professional and improves your client relationships.
Ignition streamlines the important components of your client engagements – from proposals, contracts, and billing. Watch a comprehensive demo of our the the leading revenue generation platform for accounting and professionals services, and discover why thousands of accountants choose Ignition to run their practices.
Find out the benefits of accounts receivable automation and how to implement it in your business.
Whether you call it ‘scope creep’, ‘requirement creep’, ‘out-of-scope’ work, or ‘kitchen sink syndrome’, if you’re an accountant or tax professional, you are undoubtedly familiar with the scenario. A client is paying you to complete Task X. But sooner or later, you find yourself completing Tasks X, Y, and Z, but still getting paid only for Task X.
Scope creep is when your clients ask you to take on work that goes beyond the original agreement you made in your engagement letter. At first glance, these additional tasks can add up and start to feel overwhelming. But the great thing about scope creep is that it’s also an indication that your client's business is growing and that they need more of your services to support that growth. This increased demand can lead to higher revenue for you!
Of course, it's important to carefully manage scope creep to make sure it doesn't negatively impact timelines, resource allocation, or the quality of the services you provide. But handled well, scope creep can be a positive sign of client satisfaction and business opportunity.
Let’s look at some scope creep examples. If someone buys a loaf of bread from a baker, they hand over their money and walk out with their sourdough. They don’t get to go back to the baker a few hours later and ask for an assortment of muffins, donuts, and pastries at no additional cost, do they?
Likewise, large businesses typically have systems – “control procedures” – in place to deal with changes in the scope of a project. For instance, if an infrastructure company has been paid to provide a six-lane highway for 50 miles, it’s not simply going to eat the extra costs of providing an eight-lane freeway for 75 miles if the client suddenly wants a more substantial road.
But service providers, such as bookkeepers, accountants and tax professionals, often find themselves in a scope creep no-man’s-land. They’re offering a service – not a physical good – so there can sometimes be some fuzziness around what exactly they’re providing. Although it's theoretically possible for firms to put control procedures in place, doing so risks antagonizing or even losing customers. For example, if a small business owner who has paid you to take care of their annual tax return for several years rings you to discuss cost-cutting strategies for a few minutes, are you going to insist that they sign a form and pay a consultation fee before you take their call?
Judging by the results of Ignition’s State of Client Engagement report, that’s unlikely to happen. In fact, the survey found that 89% of accountants have delayed or avoided having awkward conversations with clients, and 43% of them ended up absorbing the increased time and cost themselves when scope creep occurred.
But what happens when that client starts ringing you every few days for advice? What happens when you’ve got other clients asking for an extra service here, an extra report there? It’s great that they’re coming to you for help, but these extras can really add up!
“I’ve lost count of the number of new clients who’ve told me, ‘My stuff is very easy; it will hardly take you any time to take care of it’,” he says. “That is often true in the early days. But then the client gets a business credit card. Then they get a couple more business credit cards and maybe a business loan. Now things aren’t so quick and easy, but you’re still charging the client as if nothing has changed.”
Dillon Towey, co-founder of Franchise Resource, LLC
Dillon Towey is not alone, and scope creep occurs across many industries and organizations. The key is recognizing it when it does happen and managing it in a way that works for both you and your clients. For you, that means effectively tackling scope creep and no longer doing work for free.
Related article: Find out how Dillon Towey successfully managed scope creep at Franchise Resources LLC. Read the article.
Out-of-scope work can present itself in a number of ways. In the accounting and tax world, you might recognize these ‘creeps’:
Business creep – When your client changes their mind about what they want. A classic example is when clients request compliance services but then realize they want or need advisory services, too.
Effort creep – When you or your team spend more time and effort than necessary to finish a task or project by getting too stuck on the details.
Hope creep – When you're overly optimistic and then underestimate how long a task will take. This can be especially true when you're trying out a new service.
So, how does this happen? There are a handful of primary causes of scope creep:
Poor communication: This is a particularly common culprit behind scope creep. Such communication breakdowns can result in unclear expectations, a lack of transparency, and misaligned assumptions by you, your clients, or both.
Undefined objectives and deliverables: When you don’t clearly establish a piece of work’s desired goals and outcomes from the get-go, it can become difficult to manage expectations and handle the resulting scope creep.
Changing requirements: As projects progress and businesses grow, clients’ needs and priorities often evolve. This can lead to requests for additional services or features that you didn’t agree on in your original engagement.
Overpromising and underdelivering: Saying that you can do more than you realistically can may result in out-of-scope work, as you have to do additional work to honor those promises.
If your accounting or tax firm is not properly managing out-of-scope work, it can significantly impact the business. For one thing, because you’re not billing for additional work, you may not be able to meet your own revenue targets and achieve your business goals. Scope creep can also result in higher-than-expected costs, general inefficiencies, and excessive amounts of unpaid overtime for staff. This, in turn, can lead to burnout and high employee turnover rates. So, these factors affect not only your bottom line, but also your team's productivity and morale.
The good news is, your firm can easily leverage available technology to help you manage scope creep and make it work for you.
Say, for example, your firm charges by the hour, and that one of your clients is paying $1,500 a month for 10 hours of work. In recent months, however, your team has spent 15 to 20 hours servicing the client but is still billing only $1,500. Enter practice-management software. This handy tech tool helps automate and streamline day-to-day operations of professional services firms. Practice-management software can identify gaps between what clients are paying for and what they’re getting. It does this by:
Tracking project tasks and progress.
Comparing them with the original scope of work and budget, and;
Generating reports and analytics that highlight any discrepancies or areas of concern.
Ignition also has a service edits feature that allows accountants and tax professionals to make adjustments to active services after a client has signed a proposal. For instance, if your firm needs to raise its prices or add a new task for a client that’s scaling up, it can use the service edits feature to do this. Plus, Ignition can automatically notify your clients of any changes you make. It makes it easy to alert clients that you will charge them for out-of-scope work and then bill them appropriately.
By leveraging Ignition and Karbon’s software, Dillon Towey from Franchise Resource mastered scope creep. When he told his existing clients they would have to start paying more for out-of-scope work, most of them had no problem with the new arrangement. And any new clients had to sign off on paying an overage for any out-of-scope work. Unsurprisingly, revenue, margins, and workplace morale improved considerably.
“Everything is transparent, so there is rarely any unpleasantness,” Dillon Towey says. “Accounting firms can now use their tech stack to ensure they don’t end up out of pocket and their clients don’t end up feeling aggrieved,” he says.
Want to learn more about how Ignition can boost your bottom line – and your morale – by helping you handle scope creep? Watch our online demo.
If your firm is doing extra work but not receiving extra payment, you’re experiencing scope creep.
Hear from three business owners to uncover how they use Ignition to get paid on time, every time.
Client engagement refers to a variety of interactions between a professional service provider and their customers. Interactions can take the shape of email communications or an impromptu chat, Instagram posts or a formal contract – anything that constitutes communication, passive or direct. The formal contract component of this in an engagement letter is not only a great tool to manage the expectations of your client relationships, but as an accountant or bookkeeper they are likely a vital step in staying compliant.
The most successful client relationships are built on trust, open communication, and realistic expectation-setting. Understanding your client's needs, pain points, and objectives is key to determining the solution you can offer.
Further, keeping the feedback loop open indicates your commitment to improve and grow with them. Clients appreciate an openness to feedback and a willingness to learn and improve. Follow the steps mentioned above to build lasting relationships with your clients and to keep your professional services business thriving.
To that end, Ignition helps you create exceptional client experiences and foster win-win relationships. With features that facilitate proposals, billing, and client management, Ignition’s client engagement and commerce platform makes doing business a breeze. Start a free trial today.
Client engagement letters are not just a great tool for managing client expectations.
As the annual whirlwind known as tax season fast approaches, accounting and tax professionals are once again gearing up for the frenzy.
But surviving tax season, or ‘busy season,’ as we’ve come to call it, isn’t just about dotting your Is and crossing your Ts. It’s about recognizing your value in a competitive landscape and making sure your compensation adequately mirrors your expertise.
This isn't a journey you need to navigate alone.
The right mindset and tools can be the compass guiding you toward an effective and profitable pricing strategy.
Using its capabilities as an all-in-one proposal, client agreement, billing, payment, and workflow automation platform, Ignition offers crucial insights so you’re not flying blind this busy season. Analyzed customer data pinpoints tax pricing trends in the United States, arming you with information to guide and inform your pricing strategy.
The data focuses on US accounting, bookkeeping and tax professionals using Ignition whose firms earn over $150,000 in revenue, and breaks down the average prices for key tax services provided in 2023 to date, across the four major US time zones.
The table provides you with some important insights and takeaways for pricing your own services.
One thing is clear: pricing isn’t a one-size-fits-all game. Prices vary across time zones, so it pays to recognize the unique demands of your area when setting your pricing strategy.
There are other factors to consider as well, says Tiffany W. Davis, President of Washington Accounting Services Inc., and an Ignition customer. “I also feel as if the knowledge, the education, and the training of the practitioner are important as well to how they are priced… adding that into the numbers as well as experience and qualifications to be able to justify pricing,” she says.
“You don't want to put [benchmark pricing] out there to say, ‘Hey, you should be charging someone $1,500,’ and they’ve just started, and they don't have the experience and the accolades behind them.”
Still, says Steven Byler, CXO and Co-Founder of GrowthLab Financial Services, the data is a solid reference point for firms that need a boost of confidence to expand their pricing strategies.
“Any time you can aggregate data and say, ‘Here are some actual numbers from people who are actually pricing and selling these services,’ it’s good. These are your peers.”
Tiffany W. Davis agrees. “I think it's always good to have that information available, because not everybody’s as progressive as we may be, and it may give them some confidence to be able to say, ‘Hey, I'm below the average. Maybe I need to think about not necessarily going up to that [benchmark price], but maybe I need to do something’.”
The complexity of a client's requirements can also play a role in pricing. Consider, for example, the client’s entity structure, whether they have K-1 distributions, and if they own rental properties.
"Complexity doesn’t increase my price, at least not directly,” says Jeremy Wells, Owner of JWellsCFO.
“Complexity can increase the value of a desired outcome I’m able to help a taxpayer achieve. Or complexity could reflect a chaotic approach to personal finance, and what the taxpayer actually needs is a strategy founded on simplification and better focus,” he says.
“I’ve seen plenty of this over the past few years with the rise (and, in some cases, fall) of side hustles, cryptocurrencies, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), real estate investing, and other financial activities,” says Jeremy Wells.
“Sometimes, you can deliver a lot more value – and therefore charge a much higher price – by simplifying a situation that has gone out of control."
So, are you factoring in such scenarios so you can set your rates to accurately reflect what your services involve?
If you use Ignition, for example, the built-in service library can save you the time and effort of doing this yourself. The service library enables Ignition customers to automatically import a selection of the most popular services in their region, with recommended pricing, for use in their proposals.
The National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP) 2023 Tax Professional Fee Study adds yet another dimension to this story. The study highlights that although many tax professionals increased their fees, a significant portion may still be undervaluing their services, perhaps out of fear of alienating clients.
Yet, looking at the NATP’s numbers and Ignition’s numbers side by side, Ignition customers are charging more. In fact, in the past year, they raised their prices by 10% on average.
This comes as no surprise to Jeremy Wells. “Ignition seems to attract more technologically progressive firm owners, who understand that pricing in the tax accounting profession generally does not reflect the immense value we can and do provide to the market,” he says.
The fact that Ignition customers are confidently charging more is not just because they’re bolder than the average tax professional.
With the Ignition platform’s capabilities for streamlining proposals, client engagements, and billing, they have the tools they need to adjust prices smoothly, and they set their fees to match the professional services they deliver.
Looking back at Ignition’s pricing data, Steven Byler concurs. “If you can show that the average Ignition user is able to charge more than the average practitioner, that's going to be a draw toward Ignition.”
Sure, making pricing adjustments is a delicate balancing act. You want to make sure you're paid what you're worth, but also keep things fair and transparent for your clients.
"Pricing is a lot more than assigning a dollar amount to a product or service,” says Jeremy Wells. “It’s the result of positioning in the marketplace, knowing your customers’ needs and wants, and how you frame your offer."
He shares his approach: “First, I don’t price services. I’ve used subscription pricing since I started my firm almost six years ago.
“Second, I don’t focus on ‘tax season’ per se; rather, I focus on an ongoing relationship that includes preparing returns, answering questions, offering advice, and clarifying positions throughout the year – not just during the three months before a filing deadline,” he says.
“The [tax] return is merely a reconciliation of the work that the taxpayer and I have done all year long. That’s what I price,” says Jeremy Wells.
Steven Byler and his team at GrowthLab use another approach: “We use Ignition to give every tax customer two fixed fee options: one for an on-time filing and one for an extension filing. We're going to charge more for the on-time filing, because those are premium weeks for my team,” he says.
“And if the customer is willing to pay the premium price, then I'm willing to put them into the premium timeframe; but if they're not willing to pay the premium, then they can go on extension and we can process their return when we have more time to deal with them and their data.”
You want to leverage available tools that embed price adjustments within engagements and renewals. Here, Ignition’s got your back. The platform’s service library, tiered-pricing option like the one GrowthLab uses, and new Price Increase feature let you adjust with confidence.
With the price increase feature, Ignition customers can automatically increase prices when renewing client agreements to boost profitability and counter rising business costs. Ignition prompts you to review your pricing and easily apply a percentage price increase when renewing or creating proposals.
After looking at client complexities and the value of each service you provide, the next step is effectively communicating your pricing increase to your clients. Properly packaging your services in a professional, well-articulated proposal can go a long way toward showcasing their value and yours.
Of course, tax season or not, who has the time to create a tailor-made proposal for every client? Again, this is where Ignition comes in.
With expertly designed, industry-vetted proposal templates specifically for tax services that include recommended pricing for the included services, the platform ensures that you always present your offerings in the most professional manner.
Ignition also saves you a considerable amount of time. Truth be told, Ignition customers save on average more than six hours a week creating proposals and issuing engagement letters.
When you don’t need a full-fledged proposal to communicate with your client, Ignition also has email templates you can use to communicate your pricing increase:
Hi [FIRST NAME]
This is to let you know that there will be an increase of [INSERT AMOUNT] in our [INSERT SERVICE LINE] pricing. This will take effect when our current engagement ends, which means that if you decide to renew our engagement, the new agreement will reflect this pricing.
We’ve made every effort to delay and minimize our price increase. But as you may know, businesses across the country are experiencing ever-increasing costs, and our accounting firm is no exception.
This change in our pricing will enable us to continue delivering high-quality services and help ensure that your business is well taken care of.
We truly appreciate your support and we look forward to continuing to work with you.
Sincerely,
[SENDER NAME]
Hi [FIRST NAME]
After carefully reviewing our costs and services (which we also encourage you to do), we have made the decision to increase our monthly engagement pricing. Beginning [INSERT DATE], your engagement will cost [INSERT AMOUNT] per month.
Please know that we have made every effort to minimize and delay this price increase. But as you know, costs have been steadily increasing since last year. This change in our pricing will help ensure that our team has all the resources needed to serve you.
We thank you for being a valued client and we hope to continue working with you in the years to come.
Best regards,
[SENDER NAME]
Hi [FIRST NAME] —
We wanted to let you know about changes to our hourly rates. Beginning [INSERT DATE], our new prices will be [INSERT AMOUNT].
Please know that we have done our very best to hold off on raising our rates. That said, businesses across the country have seen major increases in costs, and our firm is no exception.
This new hourly rate will allow us to continue delivering our services with the quality and care you’ve come to expect from us.
We appreciate your business and look forward to supporting you and [INSERT BUSINESS NAME] going forward.
Best regards,
[SENDER NAME]
Ignition proposals not only streamline your process but also enhance the client experience. For example, you can present your clients with a choice of up to three proposals, ranging from essential offerings to premium packages. This effortless process simplifies the decision-making for your clients, guiding them towards the optimal choice that aligns perfectly with their requirements.
"What Ignition makes easy is providing a professional, low-friction way to deliver proposals to customers,” says Jeremy Wells.
“With customizable email notifications, PDF brochure attachments, and embedded videos, I can create and reinforce the high-quality positioning I strive for with my firm while demonstrating a deep, personal understanding of each and every customer. So, I can create an experience that aligns with higher pricing relative to the market," he says.
It's all about presenting your value in the right light.
When it is tax season, or as your firm scales to take on bigger projects, you may be inclined to send out a deluge of proposals. With its bulk proposal feature, Ignition can also help you strike that delicate balance between quality and quantity by speeding up the process without losing that personal touch.
Keep in mind, too, that the end of a client agreement does not – and should not – mean the end of a relationship. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of tax season, it can be easy to let opportunities to renew client engagements slip through the cracks.
With Ignition, you can stay proactive with automated reminders and other effective client management tools to make sure you are continuously nurturing your client relationships.
The other advantage of using Ignition for your tax clients is automating client billing, client payments and getting paid upfront. This is a big but beneficial change for firms that are used to waiting for their clients to pay them after they do the work. (By the way, if customers push back on inputting their payment information upfront, just imagine how hard it will be to get them to pay once you’ve done the work.)
It’s a massive shift in the relationship – rather than doing the work and then having to act as debt collector, chasing your clients for payment, you are billing appropriately for the full service you provide.
This, in turn, changes how you communicate with clients once their tax prep is complete.
It changes the conversation from ‘I’m done; you owe me’ to ‘I've finished your return, and we're all set. Let’s talk about the other services we provide.’ That’s a much better position to be in.
What’s more, it again saves you time. Ignition customers report saving an average of more than nine hours a week billing, invoicing, collecting, and reconciling payments.
Related article: Find out how to eliminate accounts receivable in Your guide to achieving a zero AR practice.
It’s true, raising your pricing game – and your prices – isn't just about figures in a spreadsheet. It's about understanding and earning compensation for the deeper value and efficiency you bring to the table. To sum up, here's how you can power up your approach:
Conquering tax season is all about seizing the opportunities that come with it. With every challenge tax season throws at you, there's a chance to up your game.
With Ignition, you can feel confident that you've got the right tools at your fingertips. From expert-crafted proposal templates for forms like 1120C, 1120S, 1065, and 1040, to optimized service pricing and terms. We make sure you're set up for success, both in value and efficiency.
Want to find out more? Watch an on-the-spot demo. Then create an account with Ignition today to unlock access to templates, including service pricing and terms.
Discover your value in a competitive landscape and ensure your compensation reflects your expertise.
For accounting and tax professionals, tax season can be a whirlwind.
You clock in countless hours, navigating tax laws and tax compliance demands, and deadlines to ensure your clients are all set.
But after this intense period, what then?
Instead of just catching your breath, it's prime time to think bigger: tax advisory services. After all, your clients have tax questions and financial questions on their minds all year-round.
How can they handle their taxable income better?
How should they pay their team?
How can they grow their business model the right way?
They're looking for tax advice more than just at tax time. That's where accounting and tax professionals really come in.
Plus, after tax season, if you haven’t transitioned to a zero accounts receivable firm, you can often find yourself chasing after clients for payments.
But shifting to tax advisory services can ease this strain.
It's a steady, year-round gig, and your clients won't be reeling from a hefty one-off tax bill.
For both your sakes, it's time to step up, offer more proactive tax planning, and help clients navigate their tax scenarios and other challenges.
When you offer advisory services, you go beyond the tax returns and number-crunching.
You want to offer that helping hand to clients in the areas they struggle with the most.
This can include anything from financial planning, tax strategy development, and business restructuring advice to more targeted areas, such as succession planning or mergers and acquisitions guidance.
Essentially, it's about using our knowledge and expertise to deliver strategic tax insights that drive our clients’ businesses forward.
These niche areas are well worth exploring, as it’s never been more important for professional services providers to stand out.
Choosing an advisory niche lets you hone a specialty and future-proof our accounting and tax firms.
It's your ticket to resilience and continued relevance in the face of lightning-quick technological advancements.
Automation, cloud-based solutions, and artificial intelligence (AI) are revolutionizing the business landscape, quickly and efficiently taking over routine tasks like tax preparation and invoice processing.
Think data entry, document creation, and even intricate financial document reviews. This technological shift isn't here to replace us, but instead to amplify our value.
Narrow AI (also known as weak AI), which is AI that tackles a specific task like tax compliance checking, is ramping up accuracy and minimizing the mundane.
Combine these with machine learning's ability to identify financial trends and anomalies, and the potential for transforming accounting and tax for the better is clear.
With your everyday tasks streamlined, you’ll have a leaner operation and more freed-up time to become a strategic tax advisor.
This will differentiate you in your field, enabling you to deliver unparalleled, tailored tax advice and insights.
Ultimately, embracing these tech tools lets you do more with less, carving a path to a more profitable business model and strategic survival.
Tax advisory presents a prime opportunity for you to capitalize on your existing compliance work.
By expanding into this area, you can boost our income potential and transition from a seasonal income model to a more stable, year-round business model.
This pivot helps mitigate the familiar ebbs and flows you encounter with a traditional tax season, ensuring a steadier flow of taxable income throughout the year.
What’s more, according to Intuit's recent taxpayer insights report, there's clear client demand for this type of service.
Clients don't just want you to handle their tax returns.
They expect their tax professionals to guide them toward better financial outcomes using the latest methods and technologies.
So how can you deliver on these expectations?
Start by using tax forms as a stepping stone to understanding your clients' overall financial landscape.
These documents offer a snapshot that you can use to assess what additional services your clients may need.
“It’s very easy to file a tax return; it’s very easy to find a bookkeeper, but they really want and need insights and advice,” says Sean M. Duncan, CPA, President and Founder of SMD Consulting & Accounting, LLC.
“In fact, a lot of time they assume you’re giving them that advice and it’s not happening. There’s this massive need for people to get insights from the experts, which is their tax experts or bookkeeping professionals.”
So, what's the answer to this gap?
It's time to go beyond basic services and step up as the expert your clients are looking for.
From there, you can build tailored offerings such as cash flow analysis, benchmarking against industry standards, comprehensive budgeting, and strategic tax planning.
By responding to this evolving demand, tax professionals can meet – and exceed – client expectations.
You can also position your business for greater profitability and client loyalty.
The takeaway is that tax advisory is so much more than a complementary service.
It's your chance to enhance client relationships, modernize operations, and tap into a significant tax planning opportunity.
Once you’ve decided to offer tax advisory, start thinking about how to price these services – and be strategic about it. Consider value pricing:
Unlike traditional methods that may involve hourly rates or fixed fees, value pricing focuses on both the tangible and intangible benefits you provide.
This approach can minimize your client roster but maximize your work quality and value. You’ll reap the rewards of less stress, more standard working hours – even during tax season – increased employee morale, and a better client experience.
Tiered pricing packages – think bronze, silver, and gold, for example – may be a great option for your accounting firm.
Providing tiers clarifies options for clients and eliminates the unpredictability of hourly pricing. Using tools such as Ignition, for instance, you can showcase as many as three proposals, guiding clients to pick the one that best suits their tax liability needs.
In a nutshell, create a pricing strategy that brings in a decent margin for services in high demand.
Then, be sure to leverage technology and strong communication to enhance this strategy to make sure your practice thrives in its advisory niche.
Settling on tax advisory – tick! Determining pricing – tick! Now it’s time to launch your tax advisory services!
Here’s a quick guide to start you off on the right foot:
Introduce your tax advisory services to a select group of your clients.
This soft-launch approach allows you to perfect your strategy, ironing out any issues, and sets a strong foundation for broader deployment later.
Hold an initial tax strategy scoping session, then follow it up with a more comprehensive tax advisory proposal alongside your clear engagement letter.
Keep in mind, too, that presentation matters. Templates from companies such as Ignition and Intuit offer you the tools to craft and automate compelling, personalized tax proposals and letters of engagement, which further streamline and boost your client interactions.
There’s no question tax advisory opens doors for accounting and tax professionals, offering consistent, year-round taxable income and ending those seasonal revenue peaks and troughs.
Sure, there’s hesitation: traditional tax compliance work, despite its demanding hours, is familiar territory with reliable returns.
But, in an age when the industry is rapidly pivoting toward digital transformation, clinging to the old ways isn't a sustainable business model.
Embracing change, especially with tools such as Ignition at your fingertips, is the path forward.
Ready to take the leap and be part of the future of accounting and tax services? Watch an Ignition demo today and unlock your firm's next potential growth chapter.
Editor’s note: This article first appeared on Intuit Tax Pro Center.
Shift to a steady, year-round gig, leaving behind the struggle of chasing payments
Most bookkeepers and accountants would agree that keeping clients coming back is critical to success. When you're generating repeat business, you can achieve better predictability with your revenue, helping you run your firm more efficiently. And since it's typically up to 5 times less expensive to retain existing clients than to acquire new ones, having a steady stream of repeat clients also leads to higher profits.
That being said, driving repeat business consistently doesn't happen by accident. Strong client retention stems from having an excellent re-engagement strategy – which is exactly what we'll talk about below.
In this article, we'll share pointers that accountants and bookkeeping professionals can follow to re-engage clients, reduce churn and keep them coming back.
The first step to successful client re-engagement is determining which clients you want to continue working with.
As Joshua Lance, Head of Accounting at Ignition, puts it, "just because this was a good client three years ago does not mean they are a good fit for your firm now." Think about the state of your business and where you want to go, then make sure you're working with clients who align with your goals and objectives.
If you're using Ignition, you can use the Pipeline Report to gain visibility into this. "The Pipeline report is great because you can see what engagements are ending in the next 90 days and provides you with information in advance of when you need to adjust and re-engage," adds Joshua.
He continues, "identify what clients are no longer the right fit and reach out to those clients to let them know that you will no longer be working with them, so they have enough time to find a new accountant."
From there, you can work on actively re-engaging those customers who are a good fit.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make during the re-engagement process is to put it off until the last minute. According to Joshua, this creates a poor experience and "will cause your client to potentially be upset by the changes being made."
"Generally, you need to start the process at least a couple of months in advance. This provides time to assess if you want to retain the client and figure out pricing. You will also want to communicate your re-engagement plans at least 45-60 days prior to re-engagement to allow time for discussion and client acceptance."
Emma Crawford-Falekaono, Managing Director, EMEA at Ignition, offers similar advice and says that "having the conversation early" is a must. She recommends doing it around "3 months ahead where possible."
As for the length of the conversation, aim to book a 60 to 90 minute meeting. In-person is ideal, but if it's not possible, you can opt for a virtual call instead. It may also help to factor in the specific client relationship, what the client is familiar with and their preferred communication methods.
"This would also be dependent on how you segment your customer base," says Emma. "Higher-value clients may call for a more personalized approach."
Already have your meeting scheduled? The next step is to iron out your agenda. The first part of the conversation should center around:
The services you provided/are providing in your current engagement
What they thought of your work
The value that the client gained out of your engagement
It helps to take a forward-thinking approach to your client re-engagement conversation. After revisiting your past or current engagement, take the time to discuss what's next for the client.
Ask them about their goals and what they have in store for the business in the coming months or years.
Depending on their response, you can use this as a chance to expand the scope of your agreement.
Suppose a client tells you they'd like help expanding their operations. They want to open a few more retail stores and will therefore also need to hire new staff members.
Hearing this, you propose they sign up for an advanced financial management package. This includes regular monthly catch-ups with your team where they'll run through the client's finances before advising them on next steps, payroll assistance for their growing team, setting up credit control systems to improve their cash flow, and so on.
Taking this step demonstrates proactiveness on your part, which earns you additional points with the client. By taking the time to listen to their specific ambitions and tailoring your services accordingly, you are showing the client you're not just a service provider – you're a trusted partner.
This elevates your status within their business, which then goes a long way to creating long-term customer loyalty.
Don't let the re-engagement meeting end without bringing up pricing. While this part of the conversation can be a little awkward, accountants and bookkeepers simply cannot afford to skip this step.
As Josh points out, "by not increasing pricing, you are putting financial strain on your firm and yourself. With increased labor and software costs across the board and scope creep issues, it is a good time to increase your pricing and be firm with that decision."
The good news is that if you've effectively communicated your value through the best practices above, then discussing your new rates will be relatively straightforward.
That's why Emma recommends "pinning the conversation around value provided to the client."
"Clients are happy to pay if they can see the value of the services," she adds.
Now, if you do get pushback on your prices, it's a good idea to provide clients with additional ways on how they can continue working with you.
"[The way] I recommend handling this with clients is to provide three options," remarks Josh. "One option keeps your current price, but reduces scope to fit that price, one keeps the same scope and increases price and the third one is your reimagining of what you think the scope should change to and the price with that new scoping."
You can craft a modified engagement and proceed accordingly, depending on what the client says.
Whether you're speaking with a few clients at a time or having several conversations over a given period, it's essential to keep your re-engagement strategy consistent.
"Not having a consistent approach or process across the business and client base" should be avoided, says Emma.
Aside from creating a less-than-stellar client experience, failing to have standardized re-engagement processes also makes things more difficult for you, the service provider. When your procedures aren't well-documented or are different every time, you can miss certain steps and even create confusion within your team, ultimately diminishing your efficiency and lowering profitability.
So, strive to standardize your re-engagement strategy. Document your procedures and use client engagement software to automate certain steps.
Ignition, for example, has several features that can streamline your client re-engagement processes. The software offers legally vetted templates to help you craft engagement letters that are both compelling and compliant.
And with automated reminders, digital signatures, and built-in billing capabilities, you can get your engagement letters signed ASAP, while ensuring you get paid for your work.
Standardization and automation can also save you and your team a significant amount of time. Industry data shows more than forty percent of workers spend a quarter of their week on manual activities. By streamlining tasks like sending engagement letters and reminders, you and your team can free up time for higher-value activities.
While it's best to re-engage clients while they're still active, you may also wonder how you can breathe new life into dormant accounts. To that end, we've put together a few tips to help you reconnect with inactive and churned clients.
Before popping into your client's inbox, do some research to tailor your approach. Look at their current website and explore their social media profiles to see if anything has changed since you last worked with them.
It also helps to research the right point of contact. Depending on how long you've been out of touch, your original contact may have left the company. You can maximize the success of your outreach by simply verifying the best individual to connect with.
Your re-engagement email should be concise with a touch of personalization. Use this message to communicate why your services are a good fit for their business and make it easy for people to respond by having a clear call to action.
Consider the template below.
Hi [NAME] —
It's been a while, but I hope things are going well at [COMPANY NAME]. I've recently looked into your business and saw you just introduced a new product. I think that's terrific news! [REPLACE THIS SECTION WITH A PERSONALIZED OBSERVATION].
I know we haven't spoken in a while, but we've had an excellent working relationship in the past, and I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce some updates that I think would benefit [COMPANY NAME].
Since we've last worked together, we have [INSERT UPDATES RELEVANT TO THE PROSPECT. This could be a new product, service, process, etc.].
It would be great to have a conversation so we can catch up on what's new in your business. Are you available this week to chat? Feel free to schedule a call at your earliest convenience.
Looking forward to speaking with you,
[YOUR NAME]
Crafting an effective client re-engagement strategy offers a host of benefits for your business – including greater levels of productivity, higher profits, and less stress. That’s why it pays to adopt tools and processes that make client re-engagement a breeze.
Ignition is one tool that can help! Watch a demo today to see the software in action and discover the tools that can help you keep clients coming back.
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Unfortunately, Ignition doesn't support payments in South Africa, but it's something we're working on in the future.
You'll still be able to engage clients seamlessly with online proposals and automated engagement letters, and run your business on autopilot by connecting apps to Ignition.
