Not All Accountants Charge for Their Time

Source: VeraSage Institute

The following has been excerpted, with permission, from the VeraSage Institute blog.

Ed Kless - 02/06/2009

Recently, we at VeraSage became aware of an accounting firm’s Web page that had a series of questions and answers regarding fees. Among the litany is this gem:

How do accountants charge?

“All Accountants charge by time. The longer it takes to prepare your Return the dearer it’s going to be. Some businesses sell hamburgers. Real Estate Agents get paid commissions, and ACCOUNTANTS SELL TIME. The more presentably you submit your accounts, the quicker we get it done, and the more cost effective it is. We only have 8.0 hours per day to sell and we would not be in business if we gave our product away.”

Not only is it wrong (all accountants do not charge by time, see our ever growing list of accounting Trailblazers), it seems this page has been cut, pasted, and ever so slightly altered by many firms in Australia and New Zealand. A Google search found seven instances of the same eff-ing page!

* http://www.wealthadvisers.com.au/Our_fees.asp

* http://www.oberg.com.au/page?pg=239&stypen=htmlprint

* http://www.enoka.co.nz/index.cfm/Guide_to_Fees

* http://www.hughson.co.nz/clinfo.php

* http://www.sheldonbusinessservices.com.au/articles%20for%20business.htm

* http://www.kwg.com.au/our_fees.htm

* http://www.richards.net.au/Docs/New%20Client%20FAQ.htm

I beg each of you to spend an hour on this Web site and learn something new.

To read the complete posting, click here.

From VeraSage Institute, http://www.verasage.com/index.php/community/.