Pricing strategies for Accountants and Bookkeepers in 2025

According to The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB), on average, bookkeepers charge the equivalent of £25-£35 per hour, however, this can range anywhere from £15-£65.

This price swing highlights the common challenge of determining your bookkeeping and accounting fees. Rates can vary based on factors like experience, location, and services. And, prices may fluctuate according to your client’s size, deadline, and budget.

With prices varying this widely, it’s key to define the value of your skills and time, focusing on clients who match that standard. A consistent, efficient bookkeeping approach helps you set ideal rates confidently.

This article is about helping you understand different pricing strategies in order to set the right prices in 2025 and beyond. Plus, we’ll explore ways to maximise client billing and how technology can boost your fixed-rate margins and help price yourself competitively.

Different ways to price

In accounting and bookkeeping practices, there are four common pricing strategies: hourly, fixed, hybrid pricing, and value-based. Each has its pros and cons, and some may be a better fit for specific services or individual clients. Deciding on your pricing method is crucial, as it can impact your revenue, profitability, and client relationships.

Here’s a breakdown of each strategy:

• Per-hour pricing is calculated by multiplying the hourly rate by the hours worked after the project is completed. While it offers transparency and ensures payment for all the work done, it can lead to fluctuating monthly income and client concerns over high costs without a clear scope.
• Fixed pricing involves an agreed-upon total cost before the project begins. Often worked out based on a scoped set of hours for the task, this is a popular pricing strategy for standard tasks such as generating monthly financial statements or managing payroll. This method provides you with a steady revenue stream and simplifies budgeting for clients. However, scope creep can cause you to work more than initially forecasted without additional pay, impacting your profitability.
• Hybrid pricing combines aspects of both fixed and hourly pricing, allowing adjustments for project scope and complexity. Hybrid models provide clients with a set price while being flexible about any additional work needed. This strategy requires careful management on your part to avoid misunderstandings regarding costs.
• Value-based pricing entails charging clients based on the perceived value of your accounting services. This is similar to fixed pricing, but deliberately seeks to draw a line back to the ROI delivered to the client. This can be applied to traditional bookkeeping services, but is more common when bookkeepers offer advisory services that have a more obvious impact on a client’s bottom line.

Charging hourly is still a common practice amongst accountants and bookkeepers, especially when it comes to a new client partnership. Over time, you can assess set tasks and consider switching to something like fixed or hybrid pricing models. This approach provides clients with greater stability and predictability while enabling you to utilise automation more effectively.

The big change in bookkeeping is the adoption of value-based pricing, largely driven by bookkeeping automation. By automating tasks, bookkeepers are able to deliver the same value they used to, but in far less time. It also frees up bookkeepers to provide advisory and consulting services that lend themselves well to value-based pricing.

Defining “value” can be difficult, and it’s important to keep your project aligned with client goals and objectives. However, when partnering value-based pricing with advisory services and automation, bookkeepers are able to increase margins and offer more competitive rates, while taking on more work at the same time - more on this later.

Applying automation to improve fixed-rate margins

Research suggests that implementing process automation can save accounting firms up to 2,000 hours annually. Imagine how you could better spend that time. You and your team could focus on things like new client acquisitions, developing new services, and increasing your profit margins.

Here are 3 ways automation can help free up time:

• Receipt scanning/capture: Automating this simple process can save significant time and effort. Boosting efficiency, this reduces the mistakes and human error that come with manual input. With receipt scanning software, you can capture all the relevant information in real time and you don’t have to keep track of mounds of paper receipts either.
• Automatic transaction categorisation: This automation feature allows you to identify and sort financial transactions into categories without manual entry. Using algorithms or machine learning, the software is able to recognise patterns based on past entries and assigns transactions to the appropriate accounts.
• Integration with accounting software: Using bookkeeping automation software that integrates with your existing accounting solutions (Xero, Quickbooks & Sage) and e-commerce platforms (Paypal, Shopify & Stripe) means that your data is automatically captured and displayed across these platforms without manual entry. This integration not only helps to simplify various accounting tasks, but also gives your team instant access to real-time data.

When paired with something like fixed pricing, automation enables streamlined, efficient workflows that reduce the time and resources needed to complete each project. With consistent, automated processes, you can offer reliable fixed rates, making your services more attractive to clients and giving you the scalability to expand without compromising on quality and profit.

Of course, automation also means you can complete projects faster while still maintaining your hourly or fixed rate. This allows for larger margins or passing the savings on to clients for more competitive service offerings.

How to maximise your billing as a bookkeeper

Client billing directly impacts your revenue and profitability, securing steady cash flow and financial stability. Research from Accounting Today highlights firms that effectively manage their billing practices can improve their cash flow by up to 20%.

Precise and prompt billing reflects professionalism and also cultivates trust and loyalty in your client relationships. But, in order to maximise your client billing and recoverability, it’s important to focus on a few key areas that can make a significant difference. Some of these include:

Position yourself as future-proofed: Investing in automation and technology allows your business to adapt and evolve with industry trends and client needs. As a future-proofed accounting firm, you’ll also instil confidence within clients and help attract new talent to your growing team.

Free up time for more opportunities: Reducing repetitive, labour-intensive tasks will free up resources to focus on other areas that can help grow your business as a whole. By minimising manual data entry, your business can shift focus towards more strategic decisions, reducing opportunity costs and improving overall profitability.

Provide outsourcing support to accountants: Subcontracting with accountants allows you to tap into a pool of specialised industry expertise and resources. This will enable you to expand your offering while maintaining competitive pricing and flexibility when it comes to meeting evolving client demands.

When client billing is maximised by focusing on these key areas using fixed or value-based pricing models, it will help to strengthen your firm's financial well-being, support your overall growth, and improve your client relationships. It also frees up time to look at expanding into advisory services.

Adding advisory services

As automation streamlines routine tasks, bookkeepers have the opportunity to expand into other service delivery areas. Some of these could include:

Cash flow management: Help clients better control their inflows and outflows, ensuring stable financial health and empowering them to make more informed, strategic financial decisions.

Budgeting and financial planning: Equip clients with budgeting strategies to allocate costs and funds effectively. By offering this service, your clients can meet short-term financial goals and stay on track for future growth.

Tax planning: Help your clients stay compliant and minimise tax liability by providing guidance around eligible deductions, credits, and other tax-saving opportunities.

By reducing the hours needed for admin-heavy tasks, you can pivot your expertise toward advisory services that help your clients gain strategic insight to grow their business. This ties in with the value-added pricing model, where clients can see the tangible benefits of your expertise and how it can impact their overall financial success.

Let Dext help you achieve bookkeeping automation efficiency

With the right pricing, maximised client billing, and automation tools, you can boost competitiveness, take on more client work, and increase your profit margins in 2025. You’ll also free up resources and streamline workflows, allowing your team to better support clients in achieving their specific goals.

At Dext, we provide bookkeeping automation tools that help accountants and bookkeepers save time, reduce errors, and gain insights by simplifying tasks like receipt capture, invoice processing, and real-time financial reporting.

Designed to enhance client experience, our client portal offers a range of benefits too. It provides detailed insights into client performance, which helps you assess client health and performance. And, it features tools for custom reporting and simplified billing, enabling you to create tailored reports that meet specific client needs.

Discover how Dext can help your bookkeeping business grow from strength to strength in 2025. Sign up for our 14-day free trial today!