Accounting & Bookkeeping & Small Business Forum

[ajetrumpet]

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum. My first question:

What is the going rate for accountants in different areas of the country here? I have heard from a few people in my state that Accountant aim to charge $200 per hour for their services to the community. That's seems a bit too much to me, but they work like lawyers I understand. They are paid for their knowledge. I am thinking about starting up something like this, but am not sure what rate I should calculate. Does anyone have any input on this subject? Would appreciate it...thanks!

[irsfixer]

ajetrumpet wrote: Hello everyone. I am new to this forum. My first question:

What is the going rate for accountants in different areas of the country here? I have heard from a few people in my state that Accountant aim to charge $200 per hour for their services to the community. That's seems a bit too much to me, but they work like lawyers I understand. They are paid for their knowledge. I am thinking about starting up something like this, but am not sure what rate I should calculate. Does anyone have any input on this subject? Would appreciate it...thanks!

Payroll services command among the lowest billing rates in the industry. No one gets $200/hr for payroll services since they are generally done by $10.00 an hour clerks.

[TonyDent84]

I know my economics professor also owned an accounting firm, and he charged $300 per hour for his services. But, when he would describe what he'd do for his clients, it sounded more like law than accounting.

As for payroll, I see a lot of ads online for $12 per hour. But, these are payroll processing companies. I guess $10-$20 per hour would be a good rate. I only did payroll for companies I worked for in the past, I don't do it for any of my clients. They pay less than $1,200 a year to have an outside company do it for them.

[Richard Noot]

Your clients are paying under $1200.00? You do not do payroll for them?

Why not? You do not like them or what?

[TonyDent84]

Richard Noot wrote: Your clients are paying under $1200.00? You do not do payroll for them?

Why not? You do not like them or what?

It's not that. I offered some of them payroll services too, one of them keeps telling me "next month" each time I see him. As for the others, they said they'll think about it. I did payroll for only two companies...both of them were very small, so I feel intimidated doing it for bigger companies. That's why I really don't push it. I started thinking seriously about it though a few weeks back when I lost this one huge potential because I didn't offer payroll. If I do it again for my clients, then I'll probably just do it through Excel.