Bookkeepers are in Trouble!

Is the bookkeeping profession in crisis?

There is such a huge amount of change going on in our profession right now.

We are seeing the rise and increase of Cloud accounting. We are seeing artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation like bank feeds, and not too long ago we also saw Intuit QuickBooks launching Bookkeeping Live - alive bookkeeper, at really low prices.

What we are going to see over the years to come is increasing downward pressure on prices for compliance work and particularly for bookkeeping.

If you are a bookkeeper, CPA, accountant, or do bookkeeping services, this blog is for you.

I’m going to share with you my thoughts on where the profession is going and how we can overcome that.

How do we rise to the challenge? How do we make sure that we can continue to build a very successful accounting practice? How do we beat technology, outsourcing, low-cost competitors, and now software companies that are getting in on the bookkeeping action?

Here are four things we can do…

#1 - Stay Relevant

We have to stay relevant if we want to be successful and build a great firm. 

We have to make sure we add more value. We have to do more than anybody else. We have to focus on the customer, what they want, what they value and do more of that.

If all we ever do is the compliance, the data entry, the data crunching, then we will be in trouble.

We need to see what else we can do. How can we add value to our customers?

Remember, it’s not about winning every customer - you just need to win the right customers. Those customers will appreciate it when you add more value. They will buy more from you and pay higher prices.

#2 - Langauge

We need to change our positioning. The language we use and the way we communicate what we do is important.

One of the problems with bookkeeping is it has a low perception of value - people don’t see it as a valuable service.

My advice is, if you are a bookkeeper, change the language you use. Come up with a different name for both you and for bookkeeping. If you are a firm of accountants or CPA, don’t call it bookkeeping, come up with something better.

Words are so important.

#3 - Communicate your value

We need to become better at telling people what it is we do for them.

Your clients have no idea what you do. They are not trained in the profession like we are. They may have a vague idea, but they probably don’t really know what you do, and more importantly, they don’t know why you do it.

Create a system for telling your clients what you do so that you can consistently convey your value to every single existing or potential client.

Don’t simply say “We do bookkeeping”, because clients don’t see that as being valuable.

Change the way you say it “We do bookkeeping, let me explain the process that we go through”.

I know that as part of bookkeeping there are dozens of processes that you go through. You reconcile a bank account you post the bank payments, the bank transactions, you reconcile the sales ledger, you reconcile the sales tax, the payroll.

Communicate that to your client so that they start thinking:

“Wow, there is a lot of stuff you do. I’m so glad that I’m not having to do all of that. I can see it needs to be done properly. I need a professional.”

#4 - Give clients choice

Give your clients some options. Everyone values things differently.

You will have some clients who will be willing to pay you higher prices, but if you don’t give them the option of a premium package, you can’t earn premium package fees.

Always give the client choices.

I’ve just written an ebook called ‘How To Price Bookkeeping’. If you want to grab a copy of that then you can click here.

Or click on the image below...

In this ebook, I’ll take you through the 5 steps that you can work through to get better prices from bookkeeping. You can turn it into a much more profitable service and make much more money. Start your journey to pricing more effectively and with confidence.

You can achieve results like this: 

“Needed to celebrate a little today. I’m sure I still did everything COMPLETELY wrong, but baby steps. I JUST SIGNED A $19K CLIENT!! I had the original fact find interview on Tuesday, and delivered my proposal & price today. He took PREMIUM!

Sarah Moss

Number Wise Business Services

New Brunswick, Canada

If you found this valuable and would like to learn more about value pricing, I run a free live online training session every month with a topic chosen by you. Attend live and you can ask me any questions you have. Click here to register and I will send you an invitation to the next session.

Wishing you every success on your pricing journey

Mark Wickersham

Chartered Accountant, Public Speaker and Author of Amazon No.1 Best Seller “Effective Pricing for Accountants”