DBA

This Accounting Firm Finally Turned “We Should Give Back” Into a Measurable System

Earmark Team · February 5, 2026 ·

Most accounting firm owners consider themselves generous people. They write checks to local charities, sponsor community events, and encourage employees to volunteer. But ask them to quantify their firm’s charitable impact over the past three years, and most would struggle to produce meaningful numbers.

The irony is, professionals who build careers on measurement and accountability often treat their own charitable giving as an unmeasured afterthought.

Marcus and Rachel Dillon faced this same challenge. As co-leaders of Dillon Business Advisors, they listed “giving back locally and internationally” as part of their vision, along with concrete, measurable goals. However, it became a reminder of good intentions that hadn’t yet become systematic action.

In this 2026 New Year episode of Who’s Really the Boss?, the Dillons skip the typical resolution-setting advice. Instead, they share how they live out their rally cry for the year: “lead change, create impact.” For them, IMPACT actually spells out their firm’s values. And they’ve finally found a way to measure it.

The Control That Creates Commitment

The Dillons knew what they wanted to accomplish. The challenge was finding a mechanism for accountability.

A separate bank account seemed obvious. It would be easy and fast. But Marcus saw the flaw immediately. “We wanted that control mechanism in place as opposed to just setting up an additional bank account that we could redistribute or transfer money back into,” he explains.

Their solution was The DBA Impact Fund, established through the National Christian Foundation in 2025. With a donor-advised fund, once money goes in, it can’t come back out. Those dollars are committed to charitable purposes forever.

This constraint is exactly the point. For firm owners who want to build charitable giving into their operations, a donor-advised fund provides accountability that willpower alone can’t.

The practical benefits extend beyond commitment. Funds can be invested and earn returns while accumulating for larger initiatives. The account works like a checking account when distributing money to approved charities. And because it generates standalone statements, the Dillons can share their giving transparently with their team.

Creating the fund was simple. “It literally took five minutes. I went to NCF’s website to create the fund, connected a bank account, and started transferring money,” Marcus notes. Five minutes to solve a problem that had lingered for years.

The Power of Simple Math

With the fund established, the leadership team, which includes Marcus and Rachel, and their directors, Amy McCarty, MBA, and Lezlie Reeves, CPA, decided how much to give.

They came up with a simple formula: 1% of every dollar invoiced, deposited the first week of each month based on the previous month’s revenue. The formula doesn’t consider collections, net income, or profit after expenses. Just invoice revenue.

“There’s direct accountability and no creative accounting or math involved,” Rachel emphasizes. “There’s no ‘it depends.’ Or I have to wait until I run the calculations.”

Anyone can look at the monthly invoice total, calculate 1%, and know exactly what to deposit. No waiting to close books or opportunity for excuses when margins feel tight.

They chose revenue over a fixed dollar amount for a specific reason. “We tied it to revenue because we believe in growth,” Marcus explains. As the firm grows, so does the giving. The charitable impact scales automatically with business success.

“We started with 1% because it’s easy,” Marcus admitted. They can always give more during strong periods, but the baseline stays constant and predictable.

When they created the fund in mid-2025, they made an initial deposit to “true up” all the invoices from earlier in the year. By 2026, they had a solid foundation ready to deploy.

Making Water Flow: The Team Experience

The Dillons wanted their team to experience generosity firsthand.

For their signature initiative, they selected Living Water International, an organization that drills water wells across Latin America and Africa. Both Marcus and Rachel have participated in Living Water trips. They know people on the board and have seen how it operates.

“We know it is a well-run organization,” Marcus explains. “If we were going to choose any one large charity to use this first season of the DBA Impact Fund, we wanted to go with a safe bet.”

The project spans two years. In 2026, The Impact Fund will purchase a well location in Latin America. In 2027, around 20 people, including team members, spouses, clients, and Collective member firms, will travel to install the well.

The Impact Fund covers all costs, removing financial barriers. “The purchase of the well is not voluntary,” Rachel explains. “That’s happening for the whole team. Going on the trip will be voluntary.”

Marcus calls Living Water trips “entry-level” mission experiences. They have structured itineraries with backup plans, safe accommodations, good food, and often a fun activity on the final day. Her first trip included ziplining on the way to the airport.

Birthday Wishes That Matter

While the well project creates a collective experience, the DBA Impact Birthday Gifts program gives individual team members a voice in the firm’s giving.

On each employee’s birthday, they direct the Impact Fund to donate $1,000 to any approved charity of their choice. The program costs employees nothing and adds to their existing birthday recognition.

“It’s significant enough that it does make an impact,” Marcus explains. “If we were only to do $100, they may not feel that it was as much of an impact.”

The program also helps with recruiting. When future team members ask how the firm celebrates birthdays, the answer now includes something more meaningful than cake in the breakroom.

Your Turn to Measure What Matters

The DBA Impact Fund is unusual in that it approaches charitable giving with the same discipline that firm owners bring to client work.

The framework has three parts:

A donor-advised fund that creates real accountability
A simple 1% revenue calculation that eliminates debate
Team involvement through collective projects and individual choice

“As accountants, dollars are an easy way to measure things,” Marcus observes. “And if you want to put dollars to what you care about, this is one small way to do it.”

The Dillons are transparent about their experiment. “We’re entering into the second calendar year of the funds being there, so it’s still an early experiment,” Marcus acknowledges. “If it fails, we won’t hold back from speaking to the failures.”

For other firm owners considering something similar, you don’t need a perfect plan. You need a mechanism that creates accountability and a calculation simple enough to execute consistently.

What would 1% of your firm’s revenue look like directed toward charitable purposes? How might involving your team—not just as contributors, but as participants—change your firm’s relationship with generosity?

For the full conversation, including more of Marcus’s mission trip stories and the team’s approach to capturing impact, listen to the complete episode.

Rachel and Marcus Dillon, CPA, own a Texas-based, remote client accounting and advisory services firm, Dillon Business Advisors, with a team of 15 professionals. Their latest organization, Collective by DBA, supports and guides accounting firm owners and leaders with firm resources, education, and operational strategy through community, groups, and one-on-one advisory.

From Stuck to Strategic: How Top CPA Firms Break Free from Endless Problem Loops

Earmark Team · January 15, 2026 ·

Picture a CPA firm owner sitting across from the same colleague at the same conference, one year later, complaining about the exact same problems: the same staffing issues, same client complaints, and same technology frustrations. Marcus Dillon sees this scene too often, and it breaks his heart. “One of the most disappointing things to me,” he shares on the latest episode of Who’s Really the Boss?, “is whenever you have a conversation with somebody a year later and they’re in the same exact place they were when you previously talked to them.”

But in a packed ballroom at Hotel Vin in Grapevine, Texas, 105 accounting professionals gathered this October to make sure they’d never be that person stuck in an endless loop of unaddressed challenges. Over two and a half days in October 2025, firm owners, leaders, and carefully selected team members came together for Gather 2025, an event that offered CPE credits but delivered something far more valuable than continuing education.

About two-thirds of attendees were firm owners and leaders, while the remaining third were team members positioned to create ripple effects back in their firms. “You want to bring a team member who can learn and take part in table discussions, but then also take what they’ve heard and learned back to others on your team,” Marcus explained.

From Growth to Excellence: A New Chapter in Leadership

After a year focused on “the goal is growth, not comfort,” Marcus introduced a new rally cry for 2026 that signals a shift in how successful firms approach leadership: “Lead Change, Create Impact.” This evolution is more than a tagline change; it marks a maturity in thinking about what drives firm success.

“We’ve had a very large growth year,” Marcus reflects. “We added a couple of director level positions, did a couple of acquisitions, and continue to grow Collective by DBA very intentionally. So now we’re going into a season of refinement and then excellence.”

This natural progression, from growth to refinement and excellence, mirrors a cycle that successful firms navigate intentionally. But growth isn’t just about numbers. As Rachel emphasizes, when they adopted their previous rally cry, “We’re really thinking about growth personally and professionally, of what does it look like to delegate to someone else? What does it look like to upskill and learn that next new thing, or say yes to something we don’t feel we have the skill set for?”

Rachel shares a particularly striking insight she heard recently from author Ruth Chou Simons, “You don’t have to be blooming to be growing.” Sometimes the most critical development happens underground, in the roots and foundation of a firm’s culture. These invisible victories, such as saying no to wrong opportunities, developing team members’ skills, or refining internal processes, often matter more than year-end revenue numbers.

The data from Gather 2025 validates this approach. While participating firms showed revenue increases, the standout statistic was a 10% decrease in owner production hours. For an industry where firm owners routinely work 2,000+ hours annually in production, this reduction shows genuine progress. As Marcus points out, this matters enormously for succession planning. “If there was a firm owner working over 2000 hours per year, as a buyer, you probably have to hire two people to replace that outgoing owner.”

The Four P’s Framework: Your Roadmap Through Change

Change doesn’t fail because people resist it, but because leaders haven’t provided the clarity teams need to embrace it. The Four P’s Framework, which Marcus discovered through his C12 leadership group, transforms vague announcements into actionable roadmaps.

“We used to talk about change and how we communicate change to the team,” Marcus recalls. The standard three questions (What’s changing? What’s staying the same? How does this impact me?) weren’t enough. The Four P’s provide a complete structure:

Purpose answers “Why are we changing?” But “the lens that you answer that question through should be your mission, vision and values,” Marcus emphasizes. “You’re not changing your mission vision values based on a change. You’re seeing the change through the lens of those mission vision values.”
Picture addresses “What does success look like?” Marcus admits this is his personal weakness. “You have to paint a great picture of what it looks like on the other side of this change and what it looks like going through this change.” Teams need to visualize both the journey and the destination.
Plan tackles “How do we get there?” This includes specific milestones. “You’ll know when you’re 20%, 50%, or 80% there and you can celebrate and then maybe push or sprint to that next threshold,” Marcus explains.
Part clarifies “What is my role?” This component “helps foster ownership, provide clarity” by making it crystal clear how each person contributes.

The framework came to life during DBA’s recent acquisitions. Purpose aligned with their mission of “impacting others and creating a great place to work.” Picture showed “a fully integrated team under one brand, serving very similar clients in very similar ways.” Plan mapped out specific 30-day and 90-day milestones. And each team member received a clearly defined part. Some continued with existing clients, others mentor new colleagues, and others take ownership of new relationships.

Rachel’s reflection provides crucial context. “We have not always done it this way. We communicated the change, but rarely thought through all four parts.” The difference is dramatic. “You as the leader will not be in it on your own, trying to drag people along,” she notes. “You will have people who step into their role and know what it looks like to be successful.”

Solving Problems Together: The Power of Collective Intelligence

While firm owners tackled KPIs and succession planning in one room, team members gathered in another for a revolutionary session called “Borrow a Brain, Share a Solution.” With over 24 anonymously-submitted real firm challenges, participants tackled everything from lead generation to remote team connectivity to AI adoption.

“Even staff members had great ideas for lead generation,” Rachel observes. “It’s not always up to the leader to solve every challenge in the firm.”

The structured approach went beyond brainstorming. Teams identified questions needing answers, developed solutions, assigned implementation responsibilities, and specified necessary tools. They documented all frameworks and made them available through the Collective Community Resource Center, creating a permanent library of tested solutions for the 300+ team members now on the platform.

Angel Sabino, Jr., Dillon Business Advisor’s Director of Technology, demonstrated exactly how firms could build their own AI agents using Microsoft Copilot. “He built this AI agent for internal DBA team members to ask questions,” Marcus explains. “What’s our PTO policy look like? What firm holidays exist? What do I need to do to get this approved?” The agent pulls answers from the firm’s knowledge base, providing instant, accurate responses.

“He can also break it down into simple enough terms and pictures,” Rachel notes. This wasn’t about showcasing technology for its own sake, but solving the real challenge of making standard operating procedures accessible and useful.

The case study sessions added another dimension. Firm owners could submit data anonymously and pose specific questions to peers. Marcus calculated the value. “I did quick math. It was about $20,000 per hour in that room.” But the true value transcended hourly rates. It was about getting honest feedback from people who “truly care about you without having a vested interest.”

Putting It All Into Practice

The event’s structure reinforced its practical focus. After sessions on everything from KPIs to AI implementation, the final afternoon wasn’t filled with more presentations. Instead, teams and firm friends gathered to process what they’d learned and create action plans. “What did you hear? What are you going to work on?” became the guiding questions as DBA and Collective team members wove through conversations offering support.

The result? As one attendee shared with Rachel, “This is the first time I’m leaving feeling confident about what I’m going to do and not feeling overwhelmed and defeated that I’m not doing enough.”

Even the venue contributed to the experience. The Hotel Vin’s European-style food hall offered variety without leaving the building, while The Baked Bear ice cream truck (featuring customizable cookie ice cream sandwiches) provided a sweet networking opportunity in perfect October Texas weather.

Your Next Step Forward

For Collective by DBA members ready to continue this journey, Recharge 2026 awaits in Mexico (April 22-25) at an all-inclusive, adults-only Marriott resort. “We’re going international,” Rachel announces, promising two days of CPE, karaoke, collaborative dinners, and the option to extend your stay. Given that the group will occupy over 50% of the boutique hotel, spaces are limited.

But you don’t need to wait for an event to start implementing these insights. The frameworks, tools, and collaborative approaches shared at Gather 2025 offer immediate value for any firm ready to move beyond the cycle of unsolved problems.

Listen to Rachel and Marcus Dillon’s full conversation to discover how two leaders who’ve “been in this game since 2011” learned to stop dragging people through change and started leading them toward impact.

As Marcus reminds us, when you look back at your biggest wins, you won’t remember the change itself. You’ll remember the people who journeyed alongside you. The question is, will you be remembered as someone who helped others navigate change, or as someone who kept showing up with the same unsolved problems? The choice (and the tools to succeed) are yours.

Why a Smaller Client Base Helped This Firm Accelerate Revenue

Earmark Team · January 22, 2025 ·

What if growing your accounting firm meant intentionally serving fewer clients? While this strategy may sound counterintuitive, one firm discovered a leaner client roster was the secret to success: they grew from $2 million to $3 million in revenue while reducing their client base from 2,400 clients to just over 100.

In a recent episode of the Who’s Really the BOSS? podcast, Rachel and Marcus Dillon shared how their firm achieved this transformation over the past seven years. Instead of endlessly pursuing higher client volumes and ever-expanding tech stacks, they prioritized building a scalable infrastructure and preserving a strong culture—an approach that might turn traditional assumptions about firm growth upside down.

Rethinking Growth: Less Can Be More

2017, Dillon Business Advisors brought in an average of $2M annually in revenue from 2,400 tax clients—what many would view as a thriving practice. But despite its profitability, this high-volume model came with challenges. Tax work accounted for 80% of revenue, leading to heavy accounts receivable cycles and intense tax seasons that strained the team and its infrastructure.

In a bold and seemingly paradoxical move, the firm began strategically exiting large blocks of clients.

“We exited blocks of clients that equated to more than $1 million of revenue,” Marcus explains. “And that growth from $2 million to $3 million while exiting clients was very hard.”

This shift required restructuring leadership, implementing new processes, and thoroughly rethinking client service. Along the way, the Dillons solidified the philosophy that true, lasting growth depends on establishing a solid base first—before taking on new business.

Today, the firm supports about 100 monthly clients and 10 to 15 family groups, generating $3M in revenue, with 75% arriving through monthly recurring revenue. This deliberate, high-value approach replaced the burn-and-churn cycle of their previous volume-focused model.

Building a Scalable Foundation

Armed with lessons from their challenging transition, the Dillons focused on building infrastructure through two main channels: technology consolidation and process refinement.

Streamlining Technology

Instead of adding more applications, the firm focused on maximizing its core technology stack.

“Your client base and where you’re at revenue-wise should drive the processes and the technology you use, not the opposite way around,” says Marcus.

While the average accounting firm might rely on 30 different apps, Dillon Business Advisors consolidated. Rather than deploying specialized reporting tools, they maximized features in their existing software. They also merged communication platforms, moving their phone system to Zoom to unify it with their video conferencing solution.

Perfecting Processes Before Automating

Dillon Business Advisors applied the same philosophy to refining operational processes, especially for onboarding new clients. The firm adopted a “team of three” model—assigning a client service manager, controller, and CFO to guide each client’s onboarding. Before adding automation, they made sure the manual process ran smoothly.

“We had to look at the process and figure out exactly what we needed to solve for,” explains Rachel. “And then we chose the technology to put in that place.”

As a result, the team now completes a full client onboarding—including bookkeeping setup, tax review and proforma, and initial financial reporting—in just two to three weeks, all without sacrificing service quality for existing clients.

Cultivating Culture for Sustainable Growth

Alongside technology and process refinement, the Dillons knew preserving firm culture was vital for sustainable expansion. They introduced two key strategies: creating development paths for existing staff and adopting a culture-first approach to acquisitions.

Developing Internal Leadership

In mid-2024, Dillon Business Advisors launched a Subject Matter Expert (SME) program, enabling employees to grow their leadership skills without changing roles. SMEs receive extra compensation for staying up-to-date on industry changes and mentoring team members in specific areas like payroll, tax, or QuickBooks Online.

“They don’t have to move to a different role within the firm,” Rachel says, “And they don’t have to look outside the firm to work on their leadership development.”

This initiative helped the firm retain top talent while cultivating deep in-house expertise.

Culture-First Acquisitions

Their cultural focus also shapes the firm’s acquisition strategy. Rather than scooping up just any practice, the Dillons specifically target sub-$1 million firms with teams of five or fewer. Cultural alignment, not potential revenue, drives their decisions.

“We definitely want to maintain everything we’ve built at DBA and not dissolve into another brand or another culture,” Marcus adds.

Applying these selective criteria ensures each new addition strengthens rather than dilutes the firm’s carefully nurtured culture.

Conclusion: Build First, Then Grow

Dillon Business Advisors’ evolution from a sprawling 2,400-client roster to a specialized firm illustrates that growth isn’t just about scaling up in size. By consolidating technology, refining processes, and investing in culture, they’ve built a more profitable and resilient business model that runs on monthly recurring revenue rather than seasonal peaks.

For firm owners looking to grow more sustainably, the Dillons recommend building the foundation first. Then, when your people, processes, and technology are in place, growth can happen without the chaos that often accompanies rapid expansion.

For deeper insights into these strategies, listen to the full episode of the Who’s Really the BOSS? podcast. The Dillons share practical, real-world guidance for any firm owner on a growth journey.

Why This Modern Firm Still Tracks Time—and How It’s Boosting Their Success

Earmark Team · November 20, 2024 ·

What if the secret to modern accounting success isn’t abandoning time tracking but reimagining it? Dillon Business Advisors (DBA) discovered that time tracking—separated from billing—is a powerful strategic tool for managing their subscription-based practice.

In a recent episode of the “Who’s Really the BOSS?” podcast, firm leaders Marcus and Rachel Dillon discussed how this traditional practice transformed their modern firm. While many industry thought leaders suggest firms discard time tracking and hourly billing, DBA found that maintaining it—with a crucial twist—provided valuable insights into team management and business growth.

Time Tracking as a Strategic Tool in a Virtual Firm

Traditional firms primarily use time tracking for billing. However, in DBA’s virtual environment, it’s a crucial window into team performance and client profitability.

Marcus explains, “In a virtual environment, it’s hard to wrap my mind around what’s going on. Not that I care how much time is being spent, but it weaves into our project management. It highlights an abnormal month, and then we can discuss what happened.”

Rather than using time data for invoicing, DBA leverages it to gain operational insights—which are especially vital when managing a remote team across multiple client engagements.

When team members feel stressed about particular clients or workloads, time data provides objective evidence to evaluate the situation. Rachel notes, “Often, when there are outside stressors and client requests pulling on you, you may perceive one as your biggest problem over the other, without data to support that.”

Tracking time is also valuable for managing their subscription-based services. The firm regularly compares historical time data against current trends. For instance, “If two months ago it took our team eight hours to complete the engaged work, and now it’s taking 14 hours, is it still the same work, or are there out-of-scope tasks? Has the business increased in volume or complexity?” Data from time logs allows DBA to proactively address scope creep, adjust pricing when necessary, and ensure their team isn’t overwhelmed by expanding client demands.

Combining Manual Oversight with Data Analysis

While many firms aim to fully automate their time data oversight, DBA prefers a manual approach, especially in a virtual environment.

Their monthly review process, which takes Marcus and Rachel around three to four hours, combines tools like Excel pivot tables with human analysis. DBA finds that manual review provides strategic insights that automation might miss.

Rachel explains, “I see it not as invoicing but as clearing out time for write-ups and write-downs. It gives us extra accountability to address issues sooner rather than later. If you’re busy, you might not address out-of-scope issues or potential team burnout as promptly.”

Marcus agrees, “I need to be looking at this data monthly.”

This intentional review helps the firm quickly identify patterns, recognize potential team burnout, and spot clients needing pricing adjustments—crucial insights they might miss with a fully automated process.

Leveraging Time Data for Strategic Decisions

Time tracking’s strategic value extends beyond daily operations, influencing growth, staffing, and firm valuation decisions.

DBA finds that understanding team capacity through time data helps them manage part-time staff and plan for growth.

For part-time remote team members, time tracking ensures workload balance without compromising quality. Marcus explains, “If a part-time person doesn’t have billable work, they’ll log off, and it’s hard to know—are you willing to give DBA more time, or were you really done?” This led to committing to consistent hours for part-time staff while optimizing their workload using time data.

Time data is also valuable for firm valuation and succession planning. Marcus notes, “Allan Koltin says the most valuable firm is the one with team members and no clients.” He describes a recent M&A event in which “because they had excess capacity, they were more valuable to the buyer—nobody wants to buy overworked and burned-out employees.”

This shifts excess capacity from a cost to a valuable asset, enabling strategic marketing, growth, and succession planning decisions. Whether determining when to “turn on a little bit more marketing” or evaluating pricing for new engagements, time data provides insights for informed decisions on firm growth and future value.

Transforming Traditional Metrics into Strategic Assets

As firms evolve toward value-based pricing, DBA’s experience shows firms can reimagine traditional tools like time tracking for modern practice management.

Viewing time data as a strategic tool rather than a billing metric allows firms to gain essential insights and maintain oversight of team members in a virtual or hybrid environment.

To learn more about transforming traditional metrics into strategic assets, listen to the full episode of the “Who’s Really the BOSS?” podcast. Marcus and Rachel share additional insights about managing virtual teams, optimizing processes, and building a modern accounting practice that thrives beyond the billable hour.

Struggling to Communicate Your Worth? Revolutionize Your CPA Firm’s Pricing Strategy

Earmark Team · May 10, 2024 ·

Are you tired of wrestling with pricing your services for potential clients? Do you struggle to communicate the value of your accounting services? It’s time to rethink your pricing strategy.

In a recent episode of the “Who’s Really the Boss” podcast, Rachel and Marcus Dillon, the founders of DBA, share their journey of transforming their pricing model from traditional, transactional pricing to a value-aligned subscription approach. By aligning their pricing with the value they provide to clients, Rachel and Marcus have streamlined client relationships, better communicated their worth, and optimized their practice for growth.

Let’s examine how adopting a value-aligned pricing strategy can benefit your firm. We’ll delve into the process of developing a subscription pricing model, the importance of analyzing internal data and conducting market research, and the benefits of communicating value through transparent pricing.

The Evolution of Pricing at DBA

Like many CPA firms, DBA initially priced their services based on what clients paid their previous CPA, a practice known as “apples-to-apples” pricing. Marcus Dillon explains, “We priced just like every other CPA firm does. And I know if you’re listening to this and you hear what I’m about to say, you’re going to shake your head. Because if you can gain access to their QuickBooks Online account and see what they paid in the past, you’re going to charge them what they’ve at least paid, or a little bit more.”

However, as DBA grew and evolved, they realized that this pricing approach needed to reflect the additional value they provided to their clients. They then shifted to value-based pricing, which aimed to align their fees with the perceived worth of their services. While this was a step in the right direction, it presented challenges. Value-based pricing required individual negotiations with each client, making it difficult to scale the business.

The turning point came when DBA decided to implement a subscription-based pricing model. This approach allowed them to streamline their pricing, remove owners from setting prices for each client, and better communicate the ongoing value they provided. By offering a set of standardized service packages, DBA was able to create a more predictable revenue stream and simplify the client onboarding process.

DBA engaged a consulting group to conduct secret shopping to gather insights and benchmark their pricing. The consulting group reached out to firms similar to DBA, posing as potential clients, and obtained quotes for comparable services. This process provided valuable information on competitor pricing and helped DBA ensure their fees were competitive while still reflecting their unique value proposition.

Developing a Subscription Pricing Model

DBA’s subscription pricing model offers a straightforward approach that benefits the firm and its clients. The model consists of three service plans: Essential, Premier, and Elite, with base prices of $1,500, $2,000, and $3,000 per month, respectively. Marcus explains that these prices are not set in stone: “We do give ourselves a little bit of flexibility in that we could customize that pricing based on complexity of the industry or number of transactions.”

The primary differentiator between the plans is the level of advisory services included. Clients on the Essential plan receive annual CFO meetings, while those on the Premier plan have quarterly meetings, and Elite plan clients benefit from monthly CFO interactions.

The Benefits of Subscription Pricing

Subscription pricing offers several advantages for both CPA firms and their clients:

Predictable revenue: Firms can better forecast their income and plan for growth with a subscription model.
Simplified client relationships: By clearly defining the services included in each plan, subscription pricing reduces the need for constant negotiation and scope creep.
Improved cash flow: Regular, recurring payments help to smooth out the peaks and valleys often associated with project-based work.
Enhanced client retention: Subscription pricing encourages long-term relationships and provides ongoing support and advisory services opportunities.

By adopting a subscription pricing model, CPA firms can create a more stable and scalable business while providing their clients with the clarity and support they need to succeed.

Aligning Pricing with Value

To effectively align pricing with the value provided to clients, DBA conducted a thorough analysis of their internal data and considered their desired profit margins and business goals. This process involved examining write-ups, write-downs, services provided, and team capacity to understand the resources required to serve clients effectively.

Marcus says that DBA worked backward to get to the pricing. He says, “To get to that point and know what we wanted to charge, we reverse-engineered how many clients we wanted to serve on an ongoing basis. And our max limit is 150 client relationships. Beginning with that in mind and knowing the size of the business and the size of the team that we wanted to work with, the amount of profit that we wanted to make – that’s how we started to engineer pricing and make sure it was in line with market and the value we could bring.”

This process relied on considering their desired profit margins and the size of the business they wanted to build. By setting clear goals and working backward, DBA could create a pricing structure that supported their long-term vision for the firm.

The Importance of Data-Driven Pricing

CPA firms looking to align their pricing with the value they provide should consider the following steps:

Analyze internal data: Examine write-ups, write-downs, services provided, and team capacity to gain a clear picture of the resources required to serve clients effectively.
Set clear goals: Define your desired profit margins and the business size you want to build, and use these goals to guide your pricing decisions.
Conduct market research: Gather data on competitor pricing to ensure that your fees are competitive while still reflecting your unique value proposition. Consider engaging a consulting group to perform secret shopping and obtain quotes for comparable services.
Continuously monitor and adjust: Regularly review your pricing and make adjustments as needed based on market changes, service offerings, and client base.

By taking a data-driven approach to pricing, CPA firms can ensure that their fees accurately reflect the value they provide and support their long-term growth and profitability.

Communicating Value through Pricing

One of the key challenges many CPA firms face is effectively communicating the value of their services to potential clients. This is particularly true for firms offering comprehensive support and advisory services, as clients may not be accustomed to paying for these offerings. As Rachel notes, “When I was conversing with people, they weren’t expecting the price that I would say. A lot of the people that were finding us, either by referral or just Google search, were mostly looking for a tax return and tax savings. They hadn’t experienced someone pricing all of the services that they’re going to need for the entire year, plus one of those services being advisory. So they just weren’t expecting it.”

To address this challenge, DBA decided to publish their pricing on their website. By providing transparency around their fees and the services included in each plan, DBA could better communicate the value they offer and help potential clients understand the comprehensive nature of their support.

Publishing pricing also had the added benefit of streamlining the sales process. By allowing prospects to self-qualify based on their budget and needs, DBA reduced the number of initial conversations with clients who were not a fit for their services. This freed up time and resources to build relationships with clients who were more likely to benefit from their offerings.

Tips for Communicating Value through Pricing

If you’re considering publishing your pricing or looking for ways to communicate the value of your services better, keep the following tips in mind:

Be transparent: Clearly outline the services included in each pricing tier and the value clients can expect to receive.
Highlight the benefits: Focus on the outcomes and results your clients can achieve by working with your firm rather than just the features of your services.
Use case studies and testimonials: Share success stories from past clients to demonstrate the tangible impact of your work.
Offer a range of options: Provide different pricing tiers or service packages to cater to your target market’s diverse needs and budgets.
Be open to customization: While published pricing can be a helpful starting point, be prepared to create custom plans for clients with more complex needs.

Embracing Value-Aligned Pricing for Long-Term Success

By analyzing internal data, considering desired profit margins and business size, and conducting market research, DBA developed a pricing model that communicates the value of their services and supports their long-term growth.

Are you ready to unlock the full potential of your CPA firm? Start by examining your current pricing strategy and identifying opportunities to better align your fees with the value you provide.

To learn more about aligning your pricing strategy with service value, listen to the full episode of the “Who’s Really the Boss” podcast featuring Rachel and Marcus Dillon. Their insights and experiences offer valuable guidance for any CPA firm looking to transform its approach to pricing and increase overall firm value.

Rachel and Marcus Dillon, CPA own a Texas-based, remote client accounting and advisory services firm, Dillon Business Advisors, with a team of 15 professionals. Their latest organization, DBA | FIRM, supports and guides accounting firm owners and leaders with free resources, education, and operational strategy.