Hourly Billing IS Unethical

Source: VeraSage Institute

In his blog, Ron Baker disagrees with Ric Payne (see previous article, Defending an Attack on Time-Based Billing). As background for his position Baker provides an explanation of ethics from a philosophical perspective. We won’t recapitulate it here, except to indicate his invocation of the Golden Rule. If you do not like being billed by the hour by others, and if you don’t believe all businesses should bill by the hour, then you should not bill by the hour. There aren’t many businesses from which you would accept anything but fixed rates. Think about airlines, insurance companies, etc.

Baker acknowledges Payne’s argument that it is ethical if the customer knows the price in advance and agrees to it. But he says most firms that bill by the hour do not fix the price in advance. They may give hourly rates or a range of prices.

Hourly billing, says Baker, is for the convenience of the accountants, not their clients.

Measuring CPA Leadership Effectiveness

Full Service Real Estate Investment and Mortgage Finance.