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Pricing Strategy

What Losing Your Best Bookkeeper Reveals About How You Price Yourself

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Alicia Katz Pollock, founder of Royalwise, published author, and host of The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast, spent two years training a bookkeeper named Brenda. It started as a coaching relationship, but ended up with Brenda earning $10,000 a month and giving notice because she’d outgrown Alicia’s “tiny little clients.”

That’s absolutely a success story. But when Alicia shared this story with Questian Telka and Nancy McClelland on a special crossover episode between The Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast and She Counts, they heard something Alicia hadn’t noticed.

“Oh my God, I’m undervaluing myself,” Alicia admitted. “But it wasn’t part of my narrative, and I wasn’t thinking about it that way at all.”

That moment of recognition became the foundation for a brutally honest conversation. Three experienced professionals with decades of combined expertise discovered they all struggle with the same thing: chronically underpricing themselves. As a result, Alicia decided to build a paid bookkeeper incubator that turns her expertise into a scalable training model.

The episode dug into the invisible forces that cap the growth of technically brilliant professionals who can untangle any set of books but can’t bring themselves to charge what that skill is worth. As Alicia put it, “The ability to expand really happens when you step into your own worth.”

 

When Your Best Employee Outgrows You

Brenda’s journey from a coaching client to a $10,000-a-month earner unfolded gradually over two years. She asked insightful questions during Alicia’s coaching sessions. Then she began handling Alicia’s smaller bookkeeping clients. She bought a few personal finance accounts from Alicia’s book of business. She landed her own clients. Finally, a church hired her for $4,000 a month.

“Hey, Alicia, I need to give you notice,” Brenda said. “I can’t do your tiny little clients anymore.”

Alicia’s first reaction was panic. “What am I going to do now? Am I going to take these back and do them myself? Am I going to sell off my book of business?”

Nancy, who’s run a Chicago CPA firm for 25 years, had her own parallel story. Her first employee left without warning to start a competing firm after Nancy trained her from scratch. “I taught her everything she knew,” Nancy said. “And she didn’t tell me that’s what she was doing.”

When Nancy shared her frustration with Hector Garcia, he offered another perspective: “Yeah, but what if you don’t teach them everything they need to know and they stay?”

Questian, founder of a fractional CFO firm focused on nonprofits, cut through the emotion. “When that takes place, it forces us to realize the value of what we’ve built.”

That’s the mirror moment. When someone you’ve trained walks away making more than you charged for the same work, it stops being a staffing problem. It becomes a pricing problem.

Rather than shrinking after Brenda’s departure, Alicia asked herself, “If it worked for Brenda, can I repeat the success? If it works for one person, can I scale it?”

Why We Undervalue Ourselves

When Questian asked why technically excellent bookkeepers undervalue themselves, Alicia’s answer was immediate: “Human beings are wired for insecurity.”

Nancy wanted that line as a promotional clip. But the conversation identified three specific patterns that keep even accomplished accounting professionals from charging what they should.

Poverty consciousness hits hard

When Alicia calculated her incubator program’s value at roughly $19,000 a year, her first thought was “Who the heck is going to pay $19,000 to be part of this?” The discomfort was physical. “Everybody wants to spend a minimum amount of money,” she said. She worried about being seen as greedy.

She’s not alone. Nancy’s husband jokes she’ll eventually come home with a live chicken from bartering with clients who can’t pay. Then one client actually started raising backyard chickens and gave them eggs. Alicia’s husband trades Apple training for eggs, too. Someone recently told Questian she “runs her business like a nonprofit.” 

“It’s not entirely untrue,” she admits.

Helper mentality runs deep

When your identity centers on serving others, asking for significant money feels wrong. Alicia genuinely worried that some clients would only do bookkeeping if she kept prices at rock-bottom levels. Nancy confessed she hasn’t embraced value pricing “at all.” The instinct to help can override business sense.

The expertise blind spot might be worst

Nancy explained it perfectly. “Oh yeah, I know how to do that. It only takes me ten minutes.” When years of expertise compress complex tasks into quick execution, experts discount the outcome’s value because the effort felt minimal. But clients aren’t paying for your ten minutes. They’re paying for the decade that made ten minutes possible.

Reading Blair Enns’s book The Four Conversations at Hector Garcia’s Reframe conference, Alicia encountered the expert’s mantra: “I am the expert. I am the prize. I am on a mission to help. I can only do that if you let me lead. I accept that not all will follow.”

“My value is not me being able to untangle complicated books,” Alicia realized. “That’s what I do. And it has value, but that’s not my value.” Her real value includes a master’s in teaching, two decades of QuickBooks expertise, practice management knowledge, and industry relationships so deep she can text Intuit product managers directly.

Nancy connected this to value pricing. “When everything depends on you and your hands and your knowledge, your time fills up, and there’s a cap. But when you multiply your expertise through others, your impact expands.”

Building the Incubator

Alicia did something most business owners wouldn’t dare. She asked her community whether her idea was any good.

At a Royalwise OWLS membership meeting, with Brenda present to tell her own story, Alicia asked, “Is this a good idea or a stupid idea?” The response was immediate. Members wanted hands-on experience with real clients because “every single one is different.”

The training model follows a deliberate progression. In month one, Alicia does the bookkeeping while interns watch. In month two and beyond, interns do the bookkeeping while Alicia talks them through it. By month five or six, they work independently, with Alicia only reviewing.

But the incubator goes beyond bookkeeping mechanics. She’s enrolling interns in Mariette Martinez’s accounting lifecycle course. She set up a roundtable with business coach Richard Roppa-Roberts without Alicia present so interns have a safe space for support or, as Alicia put it, “a grievance panel if it’s needed.” Everyone takes her hands-on QuickBooks training course built from her published textbook.

The financial structure makes it work for everyone. Interns earn 60% of client fees as salaried employees. Her lawyer insisted on employee classification, which meant Alicia unexpectedly doubled her company’s size and had to navigate employment registrations across multiple states. “Some of them were like twice as much,” she said about certain states’ requirements. “But for me, that’s exciting because I’m learning something new.”

She secured sponsorship from Double and converted it entirely into scholarships. She offered payment tiers and prorated fees for existing members.

The pricing felt right when she considered Brenda’s trajectory. If working with Alicia can lead to $10,000 in monthly income, then $19,000 annually is a clear investment.

Behind the incubator sits strategy. With 10 to 15 years until retirement, Alicia wants something she can sell. “Right now, Royalwise is based on Jamie and me. We are the product. But that’s not something you can sell.”

She’s also thinking about the profession. With outsourcing and AI reducing opportunities for US-based bookkeepers, the incubator invests in domestic talent. “We need to have talented people here.”

This is explicitly a pilot program. “We are building this together,” she told her cohort. Her exit strategy is still up in the air. It might continue with new cohorts, become permanent staff, or scale differently.

Questian, navigating her own business transformation, offered the episode’s emotional core. “I’m on the right track because I am absolutely terrified.”

Nancy pushed back against advice to “not be afraid.” Fear is human. Your brain is protecting you. The answer is to act anyway. “Be afraid,” Nancy said. “And do it anyway.”

You Get What You Have the Courage to Ask For

Three successful women in accounting discovered (again) that even people others admire struggle with insecurities. Alicia didn’t realize she was undervaluing herself until Questian and Nancy reflected her story back to her. Nancy still catches herself working for free. Questian is navigating changes she’s not ready to name publicly.

None have figured it out. All are moving forward anyway.

Here’s what their conversation teaches us:

  • Your best employee leaving is data, not a disaster. When someone you’ve trained outgrows your practice, it reveals what you’ve built and whether you’re pricing accordingly.
  • Technical mastery isn’t business authority. Knowing QuickBooks doesn’t mean you know how to price services or lead others. Those require separate skills, community, and practice.
  • Undervaluation has specific causes. Poverty consciousness, helper mentality, and the expertise blind spot are patterns, not flaws. You can interrupt patterns once you see them.
  • Scaling expertise multiplies impact. Training others creates value for clients, team members, the profession, and yourself.
  • Fear is a compass, not a stop sign. If the next step terrifies you, you’re probably headed in the right direction.

The accounting profession faces change. Outsourcing and AI are reshaping US-based bookkeeping. Professionals investing in domestic talent, including Alicia’s incubator, are investing in the industry’s future.

But these breakthroughs didn’t happen alone. Every pivot came from honesty about fears, mistakes, or unknowns. Community and vulnerability are business strategies.

The episode closed with Oprah Winfrey’s quote, “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.”

So ask. Ask for fees reflecting your expertise. Ask your community about your ideas. Ask for help building what you can’t build alone.

Listen to the full episode and share your own undervaluation story in the Unofficial QuickBooks Accountants Podcast LinkedIn group. When you undervalued yourself, what helped you move past it?

If you’re thinking “who would pay me for what I know,” you’re in good company. Three experts had the same thought, caught themselves, and chose to charge anyway.

Alicia Katz Pollock’s Royalwise OWLS (On-Demand Web-based Learning Solutions) is the industry’s premier portal for top-notch QuickBooks Online training with CPE for accounting firms, bookkeepers, and small business owners. Visit Royalwise OWLS, where learning QBO is a HOOT! 

Two-Thirds of Accounting Staff Hate Private Equity—But Partners Love It

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Two-thirds of partners at private equity-backed accounting firms say they’re satisfied with their arrangements. But ask the staff actually doing the work, and you’ll hear a different story. Over half are dissatisfied, with one director calling the situation “a dumpster fire.”

This stark disconnect emerged from an Accounting Today survey discussed on The Accounting Podcast by hosts Blake Oliver and David Leary. The episode also revealed a disconnect in pricing. Tax preparers charge an average of just $280 for a basic 1040 (CPAs) or $228 (enrolled agents). These numbers had David asking incredulously, “Where are these people? I’ve never been quoted this low of a price.”

The Private Equity “Dumpster Fire”

The numbers from Accounting Today’s survey reveal a profession divided. Among partners and owners at PE-backed firms, 67% report satisfaction (40% very satisfied and 27% somewhat satisfied). But look at staff responses and it’s almost a perfect mirror image: 52% are either somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.

The anonymous comments from survey respondents paint an even bleaker picture. “It is a dumpster fire,” said one director at a large firm. “Low morale, people leaving, bonuses cut, pay raises eliminated or lowered.”

Another director at a very large firm agreed. “It’s horrible and dysfunctional. Losing clients, staff leaving, and partners pay more attention to their bank account than taking care of staff. Most partners are counting the days until they can leave with their money in hand.”

Perhaps most concerning for the profession’s future, 64% of respondents believe private equity will have a negative impact on the integrity and independence of public accounting firms. Another 56% think clients will suffer negative consequences.

“The industry will take a hit and the clients will take a hit,” David noted. “That’s not going to bode well for everybody else.”

It’s worth noting that fewer than 400 of the 44,000 US CPA firms have taken private equity investment, so less than 1%. But these tend to be larger, high-performing practices, and the trend only started accelerating around 2022.

Tax Preparers Leave Money on the Table

While PE-backed firms wrestle with cultural upheaval, smaller practitioners face a different challenge: chronic underpricing. The National Association of Tax Professionals’ 2025 survey reveals CPAs charge an average of just $280 for a basic 1040. Enrolled agents charge even less at $228, while non-credentialed preparers average $185.

These numbers shocked David. “Since I stopped doing my own taxes and pay an accounting firm to do them, it’s $1,200 to $1,300 a return. I’ve never been quoted this low of a price.”

Still, the survey contained some encouraging news. When preparers raise fees, clients rarely leave. Melissa Bowman, an EA in Ohio, increased prices 12-20% across the board twice since 2020, and “not one client left because of pricing.”

“If not one client leaves after you implement a substantial price increase like that, you’re still underpriced,” Blake pointed out.

One particularly surprising finding is that 18% of preparers don’t charge extra for state returns. “TurboTax has trained 45 million taxpayers over the last 30 years that you have to pay extra to get your state return done,” David noted. “The fact that almost 20% don’t charge for doing the state return seems crazy to me.”

Billion-Dollar Audit Relationships Raise Independence Questions

The independence concerns raised by private equity pale next to the decades-long, billion-dollar relationships between the Big Four and their largest clients. Deloitte has audited Microsoft since 1986, collecting $78 million in 2025 alone.

“This is like a $2 billion relationship between Deloitte and Microsoft over the last 40 years,” David calculated. “With that much money involved, the motivations just can’t be aligned with the public.”

The situation gets more complex when you consider that these firms also sell consulting services. “Doesn’t Deloitte sell Microsoft consulting type services and they implement Microsoft Copilot AI type things, but they also audit Microsoft?” David asked.

Blake acknowledged the concern. “These firms are audit firms, but they’re also consulting firms. And consulting teams are some of the biggest resellers now of the technology their clients develop.”

Change may be coming whether firms want it or not. With Microsoft cutting 15,000 jobs in 2025, David predicts inevitable pressure on audit fees. “They’ll go back to their auditor and say, ‘we don’t want to pay this much for our audit. We want you to use AI,’” David predicts.

What’s Next for the Profession?

The AICPA is seeking comments on ethics rules updates for alternative practice structures—the arrangements that enable private equity investment. But there’s a catch. Despite announcing the comment period weeks ago, the actual exposure draft won’t be available until December 29.

“Today is the 23rd,” David pointed out. “If it’s not done today, when are they doing this? Christmas Eve, Christmas Day?”

David predicted the process could drag on. “This could take a decade,” he suggested.

The accounting profession is under pressure from private equity reshaping firm culture, chronic underpricing in tax prep, and billion-dollar audit relationships raising independence questions. For practitioners, there is a clear need to raise prices and watch the PE developments carefully.

For the complete discussion, including a story about a Scottish police officer’s heroic retrieval of evidence from a toilet and concerns about IRS readiness for tax season, listen to the full episode of The Accounting Podcast.

She Fired Every Client She Had and Made More Money Within 24 Hours

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Life has a way of interrupting our best-laid plans. As this episode of She Counts begins, co-host Nancy McClelland is racing to handle another family crisis. Her mother must be moved from her nursing facility with just two days’ notice after Medicaid refused coverage. It’s the kind of real-life emergency that women in accounting juggle daily while trying to run businesses and serve clients.

Stepping in to help is Candy Bellau, CFE, co-host of the Unbalanced Podcast and a fraud expert who knows firsthand what it’s like to manage a parent’s care from another state. “While I was in it, it was hard. It was so hard,” she shares. “I got a lot of insight afterward. What am I doing with my life? What am I doing with my family? Why am I running my business this way?”

The two had a raw conversation about how chronic underpricing affects women across accounting and how to break the cycle.

From Six Figures to Financial Ruin

Candy’s story sounds impossible until you realize how common it is. At 16, she was already supporting her entire family, negotiating a full-time salary for part-time bookkeeping work. “They hired a full-time person to do the job, and they couldn’t do it,” she recalls. When asked to fix the mess, she saw opportunity. “Why don’t you pay me what you were paying her? I will come in every day after school. You should send a car to pick me up.”

That teenage negotiator became a New York powerhouse. “I would get bonuses that were 100% of my salary,” she explains. “I was making so much money.” Her credit was so perfect that a BMW dealership handed her keys to a convertible without even a down payment, telling her to “go show off to your friends.”

Then she moved to New Orleans for love.

“I immediately brought it way down,” Candy admits. Despite years of experience in turnarounds and investigations, she started charging $25 an hour. “I thought, oh, these people can’t afford New York prices.” Soon she was charging $350 a month to run entire businesses—handling bookkeeping, HR, compliance, even picking up mail. “I did everything.”

The financial collapse was swift. “I did everything I would never let a client do. I depleted my retirement account.” Credit cards maxed out. Cash advances followed. While living in a 600-square-foot house with a baby, she maintained a 1,500-square-foot office she couldn’t afford. The breaking point came when she couldn’t pay the minimum on her credit cards while two mortgages loomed.

“I was lying about my reality,” she confesses, “trying to live the same lifestyle I had in New York without making the money.”

The $6,000 Wake-Up Call

Desperate for solutions, Candy enrolled in a $6,000 marketing course for accountants. What she found shocked her. “It was ‘tired of doing hair? Be an accountant. Don’t want to fix cars anymore? Be an accountant.’”

These complete beginners were using scripts to close $4,000-per-month deals while asking questions like “What’s QuickBooks?” and “What is a bank reconciliation?”

“Literal morons in this group,” Candy says, still incredulous. “And here I am charging $350 a month.”

Even more infuriating were her male colleagues. They’d invite her on sales calls, knowing she had the expertise they lacked. After she’d solve all the problems and outline the work, they’d ask what she would charge.

“I might say, I know what I’m doing. I would do this for like $5,000 a month,” Candy recalls. “And they’d say, ‘$5,000 a month? Are you insane? I wouldn’t do this for less than ten.'”

When she asked if they knew how to do the work, they answered, “I have no idea, but you’ll clearly do it for five and I’ll charge them ten.”

The Real Cost of Underpricing

The research confirms Candy’s perception. Women in professional services charge at least 25% less than men, sometimes up to 50% less. “The median woman in an online labor marketplace in the US sets a bill rate that’s 13.5% lower than a median man,” Nancy notes.

But statistics don’t capture the human cost. When Candy asked her team what would make them happy, the answers broke her heart.

“I would love it if I could take my kid to the doctor when they were sick,” one employee said. “I would love to be able to go to the doctor when I get sick. I don’t have health insurance.”

Another employee, after receiving a raise, shared something that changed Candy’s perspective. She said, “This is the first time in my life that I’m living with somebody out of choice and not need. For the first time in my life, I am making enough money to leave.”

“Everybody needs to make a wage that they can live off of without a man,” Candy resolved. “That became one of my driving forces.”

The irony wasn’t lost on her. “I can’t help anybody if I have to shut this place down and get a job. The person I wasn’t helping was me or my team. I was helping everybody else buying second houses, boats and stuff. And here I am thinking we’ll just have spaghetti again tonight for dinner.”

The Day Everything Changed

After the marketing course revelation, Candy did something drastic. “I fired every client I had.”

Her husband was stunned. When he asked about the office rent she couldn’t afford, she told him, “I no longer have low-priced clients.” His next question: “Do you have any leads?” Her answer: “Nope, but now I can take them.”

Within 24 hours, she got a call about a potential client. “I said, sounds to me like it’ll be $3,500 a month. She just paused and said, ‘That sounds fair. Where do I sign?’

She replaced all her fired clients with just two new ones, each paying what dozens had paid combined.

Breaking the Cycle

The conversation reveals five essential strategies for escaping the underpricing trap:

  1. Reframe from cost to value. “Because it’s easy for us, we price that way,” Candy explains. “Instead of charging for what we are bringing to the table: the education and the years of experience.”
  2. Practice raising rates incrementally. Start with specific client groups rather than everyone at once.
  3. Build community. “Don’t just go at it alone,” Candy urges. “Call somebody you respect.” During the episode, co-host Questian Telka realizes she’s underpricing a current cleanup. “I was underpricing it in my mind already,” she admits.
  4. Model confidence for others. Show other women what’s possible through your own pricing decisions.
  5. Recognize the long-term impact. When women underprice, they perpetuate industry-wide disparities and create businesses too fragile to provide security for their teams.

Candy now uses specific language that commands higher prices. When prospects aren’t ready, she tells them, “You’re not ready for a firm like me. Here’s where you need to be. When you hit this point, I’m the exact firm you want.”

For cleanup work, she tells clients, “If you need 12 months cleaned up and my monthly rate is $3,000, it’s the same monthly amount for the cleanup. If I discount it, you’re going to say, why did I sign on monthly?”

And always, “If you don’t pay me up front, I don’t lift a finger.”

No Margin, No Mission

Nancy shares a piece of wisdom she heard from a client: “No margin, no mission.” Without sustainable pricing, there’s no health insurance for teams, no living wages, no ability to weather crises like caring for aging parents.

Candy dropped her own family’s health insurance until everyone on her team could have it too. “Until we all have health insurance, nobody has health insurance,” she announced. The urgency drove her to find the revenue quickly.

“These things that are important to me,” she says now. “If clients don’t want to work with us the way we’ve got things set up, they’re not our client.”

Your Next Step

This episode strips away the polite veneer covering pricing discussions in accounting. The gender wage gap isn’t just about employment. We recreate it every time a woman undervalues her expertise.

As Oprah says, “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.”

The conversation already changed Questian’s pricing. It just might change yours too.

Join the conversation by following the She Counts Podcast LinkedIn page and comment under “Marking Ourselves Down.” Do you struggle with pricing and asking for what you’re worth? The hosts want to hear from you about topics for future episodes and would love your reviews to help other women in accounting find this community.

Find Candy on LinkedIn and learn about her firms, Kramerican Business Solutions for controls work and Vandelay Forensic Group for fraud investigations. Yes, both are Seinfeld references, and yes, she just passed her private investigator exam.

Listen to the full episode to hear more of Candy’s story, including details about her financial recovery and the specific strategies she uses to maintain sustainable pricing today.

Stop Pricing the Deliverable and Start Pricing the Relationship

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Marie Greene once spent more than 20 hours on a client she was charging just $12. But she only realized how little she was charging for her time when her firm started tracking time. While extreme, Greene’s story highlights a problem that plagues accounting firms everywhere: chronic underpricing that leaves practitioners exhausted and struggling to grow.

In this episode of the Earmark Podcast, recorded live in Los Angeles during the Advisory Amplified tour, host Blake Oliver explores the pricing puzzle with Greene, a CPA and founder and CEO of Connected Accounting, and Ryan Embree, Director of Partnerships at Ignition. Together, they tackle one of the profession’s toughest challenges: how to charge what you’re worth without losing clients.

The Time-Tracking Wake-Up Call

Greene’s journey to better pricing started with tears of frustration. “I literally cried, but I didn’t know it was so bad. My pricing was so bad until we started tracking time,” she admits. Even though Connected Accounting had always used fixed fees instead of hourly billing, they had no real grasp on whether their pricing made sense.

The problem got worse when Greene hired her first team member. She’d been pricing based on how quickly she could complete tasks, not realizing she was “super mega efficient” compared to most people. “When it takes someone a normal amount of time, I was destroying my budgets and I couldn’t delegate fast enough. And then I was just buried in work,” she explains.

This pattern isn’t unique to Greene’s firm. Embree sees it repeated across hundreds of firms he works with at Ignition. The problem often hides in compliance services, where firms fall into the trap of charging “the same as last year.”

“If you quoted someone X amount of dollars seven years ago and they’re still paying that fee, that is the biggest opportunity,” Embree points out. Many firms hesitated to raise prices during COVID when clients were struggling. But as Embree notes, “price increases are normal. They’re a part of business.”

Eventually, Greene’s managers staged an intervention. They took over pricing and told her to stop selling certain services at unsustainable rates. Six years later, the firm has a much more realistic pricing model. But it all started with that uncomfortable first step of tracking where time actually goes.

Pricing the Whole Relationship, Not Just the Deliverable

The real breakthrough came when Greene realized she was charging two clients the same amount for identical services, but one required far more time and attention than the other.

“You can’t just price the deliverable, which is a P&L at the end of each month,” Greene discovered. “You have to also price the number of touchpoints. You have to price how often they have ad hoc random questions that are not part of the scope.”

Connected Accounting now looks at multiple factors when setting prices:

  • Number of bank accounts (17 credit cards vs. one checking account makes a difference)
  • Transaction volume (one account with 1,000 transactions can be more work than multiple quiet accounts)
  • Number of bills and invoices processed monthly
  • Meeting frequency (weekly touchpoints vs. monthly check-ins)
  • Communication style and expectations

This approach also creates natural price escalators. “We’ve always been very clear up front that we grow with you,” Greene explains. “As you add employees, as you add bank accounts, as your transaction volume increases, our fees increase.”

Embree adds that this reframing helps clients understand price changes. “They know they’re growing. They know they’ve exceeded scope. So they know they’re just kind of leveling up to a new level of service.”

Beyond pricing existing services correctly, firms often miss revenue by not telling clients about everything they offer. Greene discovered this after creating a comprehensive list of which clients used which services. “I was like, oh, we only have six accrual clients, or we only have three that use X.”

This led to casual conversations during client meetings. “We’d say, hey, by the way, we notice you do this. Who does your payroll?” Greene recalls. “We’re not saying we sell payroll and you should buy it, but it was just planting a seed.” Often, clients would respond enthusiastically, not even knowing Connected Accounting offered that service.

Having the Conversation: A Live Repricing Role-Play

During the discussion, Greene demonstrated her approach to repricing conversations in a role-play with Embree acting as the client. She showed how her strategy turns a potentially awkward discussion into a collaborative planning session.

Greene starts with enthusiasm, not numbers: “Hey, Ryan, how excited are you about next year? What are you looking forward to doing with the business?”

When Embree shares his growth plans, she follows with genuine concern: “And with the growth, what are some of the things that keep you up at night?”

Only after understanding his challenges does she pivot to solutions: “Would you be interested if we can find a way to help you lower some of your costs by not having to hire one more admin, and we can take on some of the grunt work?”

The conversation naturally flows into discussing additional services like benefits renewal and talent retention strategies—services Embree’s character didn’t even know Connected Accounting offered.

After these discovery conversations, Greene presents three-tier proposals. “I was no longer trying to force a single price. I showed three and then they could choose. And that was the relief,” she explains. This approach gives clients control while removing the pressure of “selling” a single option.

Despite common fears, clients rarely leave over price increases. Embree observes, “A lot of firms that want to cut clients think raising fees is the way to go. And the short answer is no, they actually still stick around.”

In fact, the worst clients often prove surprisingly price-insensitive. “Whatever the fee is, you can’t actually price them out,” Embree notes.

Technology makes these conversations easier. Connected Accounting now automates annual increases using opt-out language in engagement letters. “Every year in December, we send a notice saying, hey, you have 30 days to cancel your services. But just so you know, effective January 1, all pricing across the firm is going up 3%,” Greene explains.

This mirrors how services like Amazon Prime handle increases: making them expected rather than exceptional. As Oliver points out, “That fee just goes up every year. And we get the email and we look at it and we accept it.”

Your Pricing Transformation Starts Now

Greene’s journey from charging $12 for 20-plus hours of work to running a profitable firm with systematic pricing shows that transformation is possible, even if it takes time. The lessons are: track your time to understand true costs, price the entire client relationship rather than just deliverables, and reframe price discussions around growth and value.

The fear of losing clients to price increases is largely unfounded. When one client left Connected Accounting for a competitor offering a deal, they returned after 12 months and started paying the competitor’s higher rate, which Greene then maintained. “The market often values accounting expertise far more than practitioners themselves realize,” she discovered.

Greene admits she still gets nervous before pricing calls. But she’s learned that authenticity matters more than perfection. “They see how excited I get. They know I’m a huge nerd, I love technology, I love accounting,” she says. “Eventually, they’re like, okay, cool. She sounds like fun to work with.”

Embree emphasizes that positioning yourself as an expert dramatically increases what clients will pay. “People’s willingness to pay is infinite for that piece of mind,” he notes. “To know that you have an expert in your corner that has done this with other clients and knows everything about you and your business.”

The profession’s chronic underpricing doesn’t just hurt firm owners; it limits the entire industry’s ability to innovate and serve clients well. When accounting professionals charge appropriately, they can invest in better tools, training, and talent.

Ready to stop leaving money on the table? Start by tracking where your time really goes. Then look at your client list and identify who’s grown beyond their current service tier. Finally, practice having value-focused conversations that celebrate client success rather than apologizing for price increases.

The full episode includes the complete repricing role-play, detailed pricing metrics, and specific strategies you can implement this week. Because as Greene’s story proves, the biggest barrier to profitable pricing isn’t your clients’ willingness to pay. It’s your own reluctance to ask.

Raising Prices Without Losing Clients: A CPA Firm’s Success Story

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Setting the right price for your services can feel like walking a tightrope. How do you increase your rates without alienating your loyal clients? Can you boost your bottom line while maintaining strong client relationships? For many CPA firm owners, these questions aren’t just theoretical – they’re critical to the success and growth of their businesses. Today, we dive into a real-world success story that proves it’s not only possible but potentially transformative for your practice.

In a recent episode of the Who’s Really the BOSS podcast, Rachel and Marcus Dillon, owners of a family-run CPA firm, share their journey of transforming their pricing model. By aligning their pricing with the value they provide, the Dillons 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.

Strategic Approach to Price Increases

The Dillons successfully raised prices without losing clients using a strategic approach. They simplified their pricing process by implementing evergreen engagement letters in 2022, eliminating the need for annual renewals.

“We used to send out updated engagement letters every year with pricing to every single engagement. And that was stressful,” Marcus Dillon explained. The shift to evergreen letters allowed the firm to focus on value-based pricing rather than annual negotiations.

The timing of the price increase announcement was also crucial. The Dillons announced their increases on February 15th, with an effective date of April 1st. This timing, while unconventional as it fell during tax season, was strategic. It allowed clients ample time to consider the changes and ensured that most tax work was completed before potential client transitions occurred.

Marcus emphasized the importance of regular, small increases: “Always go get a small price increase every year. If it’s 3%, 5% something. That way people are always in the habit of expecting a price increase that goes along with inflation.”

Transparent Communication and Client Management

Central to the Dillons’ success was their commitment to transparent communication. They used QuickBooks Online to create detailed estimates that showed the full market rate for their services and a “loyalty discount” for 2024. 

“We put the year 2024 on there. That way, they could see that that reduces or goes away over time,” Marcus explained regarding the loyalty discount. This transparency helped clients understand the pricing structure and set expectations for future adjustments.

Rachel Dillon was in charge of communicating the price increases to clients. “We never want to hurt the relationship of the “team of three” with the client and have to have awkward conversations,” Rachel explained. So pricing almost always goes through Marcus and myself.”

The Dillons used email tracking software to gauge client reactions and follow up as needed, ensuring no client felt ignored or undervalued.

Balancing Client Retention and Profitability

The Dillons’ approach yielded impressive results. For Client Accounting Services (CAS), the client base decreased from 81 to 75 over three months. However, the average revenue per CAS client increased from $1,823 to $2,103. Their AIM (individual tax) service saw a similar trend, with client numbers decreasing but average revenue increasing.

The Dillons were strategic about which clients they were willing to lose. “We knew that clients under $1,000 a month under the legacy pricing are going to have to go up beyond a thousand,” Marcus explained. This approach allowed them to focus on clients who valued their services and were willing to pay for the expertise provided.

They also thoughtfully handled special cases, such as clients selling their businesses. Rachel emphasized the importance of this approach: “Any time a client is going through an M&A deal, our team’s hours go up. There are just more requests, more clarifications.”

Overall, the firm achieved a 94.15% acceptance rate on CAS price increases by June 1st, with total monthly recurring revenue increasing by 6.46% despite client attrition. This outcome aligns closely with what Marcus calls the “80-10-10 rule”: 80% of clients accept the increase, 10% have questions but ultimately accept, and 10% leave.

The Dillons learned valuable lessons from this process. “Creating capacity seems to attract more ideal clients,” Rachel noted. Letting go of clients who were no longer a good fit created space for new, higher-paying clients better aligned with their service model.

It’s worth noting that the process wasn’t without emotional challenges. “The two to three weeks and even the week and two after we sent these out, there were tons of conversations between [Marcus] and me with our leadership team,” Rachel shared. You know, just going through all the scenarios.”

The Dillons also emphasized the importance of having a network of professionals to refer clients when they no longer fit the firm’s service model. This allowed them to maintain positive relationships even when parting ways with clients.

The Dillons’ experience shows how CPA firm owners can successfully implement price increases while maintaining strong client relationships. Their story proves transparency, clear communication, and strategic timing can boost profitability without sacrificing valuable client connections.

For CPA firm owners, the broader implication is clear: when handled thoughtfully, price increases can be a powerful tool for business growth. However, success requires a delicate balance between valuing your services appropriately and maintaining the trust and loyalty of your client base.

To gain more detailed insights into the Dillons’ strategy and hear about their experiences firsthand, listen to the full “Who’s Really the BOSS” podcast episode. Their story offers practical advice for any CPA firm owner considering a pricing strategy overhaul.

Remember, as a CPA firm owner, you provide valuable expertise and services to your clients. Don’t be afraid to price your services accordingly. With the right approach, you can increase your profitability while strengthening, not weakening, your client relationships.

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.