Value Billing Makes CPAs More Human

Source: CPA Success

The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Bill Sheridan.

The CPA profession has been buzzing about value billing for years now, and why not? The rest of the world sets prices based on a product's value, not on how much time it takes to make it. Isn't it time professional services follow suit?

Old habits die hard though, don't they? Billable-hour evangelists roll out all the same old objections, including this gem: “If we don't track our employees' time, how will we know if they're doing their jobs?”

Some CPAs are starting to get the message. There are plenty of success stories out there, and if the next generation of CPA leaders has its way, there'll be more on the way soon.

What I'm beginning to realize, though, is that this whole value billing debate has less to do with value and more – much more – to do with people, and with the very future of business. Value billing is a huge part of the people-first movement.

To deliver value to our clients, we must first determine what's valuable to our clients. It's no longer good enough to sell what we do. We must build trusted relationships with our clients so we know how to best serve them.

If that's true, I'd argue that value billing makes us more human. It forces us to stop hunting billable hours and start building relationships. The focus shifts from us to them. If the business of the future is social, value billing might just be its cornerstone.

For the complete blog entry, read “Value Billing: The Cornerstone of Social Business?”

From CPA Success, the blog of the Maryland Association of CPAs, February 7, 2013, http://www.cpasuccess.com.