Is the Price Right?

Source: CPA Trendlines

The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from an article by CPA Trendlines.

After hitting record billing rates in February, the nation's tax and accounting firms are facing new resistance to price increases, in which the industry seems to be taking one step back for every two steps forward, according to a new CPA Trendlines analysis.

CPA firm pricing trends. The index for CPA offices dipped slightly in September to 116.6. Don't fret too much, though, because the month-to-month chart is crazy-making, like so:

One-month percentage change in CPA firm pricing trends. The index dropped 0.5 percent from the previous month. For 2015 there have been four gains and five losses, none of them more than 0.7 percent.

Twelve-month percentage change in CPA firm pricing trends. Year over year, however, the picture looks a little different. The index is down for the first time this year, and that decline is only 0.3 percent from 2014. Put the data in chart form, though, and those eight months of “better than last year” still run downhill.

CPA firm pricing trends for financial auditing. Financial auditing dipped to 149.1, a decrease of 0.5 percent on the month and 0.4 percent on the year.

CPA firm pricing trends for tax prep and planning services. Tax preparation and planning fell as well, to 157.5, down 0.4 percent on the month but up 0.6 percent on the year.

CPA firm pricing trends for bookkeeping and compilation services. Bookkeeping and compilation ticked down to 108.3, a decrease of 0.3 percent on the month but an increase on the year of 0.8 percent.

For the complete article, read “Tax and Accounting Firms Wrestle Fewer Price Increases from Clients.”

From CPA Trendlines, November 19, 2015, cpatrendlines.com.