Accountants - how much do you charge / are you charged per hour?

[PixelHerder]

DH is a part-qualified accountant and is looking into going freelance. His target market will probably be small businesses who don't employ an accounts person on their payroll. He would be offering services like preparing tax returns, management accounts, profit & loss, payroll, cashflow forecasts etc.

Does anyone have an idea of what he should be charging? Any advice gratefully received.

bump because i want to know how much an accountant would charge to do a return if we handed over all our shitty bits of tatt to sort out.... (can you tell i got my first tax return to do today!)

Hi
My accountant charges around £50 an hour(fully qualified and sage expert). Payroll is charged at a flat fee of £350 p.a. I do my own returns but seriously worry if this is thr right thing to do! I'm trying to find a book keeper as I just can't keep up (around 100 transactions a week)

Thanks, that's useful to know.

Anyone else? (I know it's a tedious subject but there is football on so you never know )

my accountant charges, £100 per month, for that I get, general appointments, probably 3 to 4 a year for 2 hrs, plus wages, payslips, for me and one other (i run an empire!) year end, and vat returns, plus advice on the end of the phone, whenever needed, he is a star.

hope this helps, good luck to hubby!

thanks colacubes, that's really useful . I guess a contract like that works well for everyone as you have advice available when you need it.

Mine is £90 ish a month
He does the same as colacubes' one

You're welcome pixel,

As a freelance, I charge a daily rate of 1% of my desired annual salary. This figure is based on the industry assumptions that a freelance can do 100 chargable days per year (the rest being taken up with training, my own admin, canvassing for work, holidays, etc).

So, for example, if he currently earns £35k, then £350 per day would be about right.

If he thinks he can do more than 100 chargable days - and he may well be able to - then it can be adjusted accordingly.

The hard bit is working out how to translate that for a client - i.e. charge in days, or work out how long something might take and then convert it to a figure for the whole job, or even the whole job for a yearly or monthly fee.

I am thinking of doing the same, although maybe more bookkeeping, management accounts, VAT. I don't really want to do year end accounts or tax returns, and think payroll could be done more efficently and cheaper by a bureau (eg my current employer!).
I am fully qualified with 10 years post qual experience.
I think the top rate I would get would be £35ph, with £25-30 being more likely (Cambridge). To compare if I work out my current hourly rate allowing for holidays and bank holidays it is about £28.
I am looking at a day a week type work (or month or quarter), where someone doesn't need a full time book-keeper but would benefit from the additional expertise I can bring.
FWIW my charge-out rate is £125ph where I currently work.

If I do it I would probably set up a limited company and pay myself a small salary and dividend the rest out and avoid the tax. I work part-time and wouldn't want to do any more hours atm.

The only thing putting me off is taking the leap - I want some guaranteed work first

Kama, I probably ring once a month with a general question, and sometimes he's able to answer, and other times he will go off and check, or pass on to one of his clerks but I always get the answer i need asap. When I first started out he was very patient, in meetings even when they went on for hours!! and phone calls I probably rang him twice a week fo the first 6 weeks.

He has also sorted some lingering problems from a past accountant that weren,t dealt with properly and ended with the revenue on my doorstep with a warrant !!! I rang him he told me what to say, he spoke to the right people etc had it sorted in 2 weeks, ended up paying £3.52, compared to the thousands they were asking, and for that he charged me nothing.

Not to sure about the size of his client list, he's well established been going about 30 years, couldnt guess.

Hope that helps, what is it you are looking into?

Gosh, lots of useful stuff here, thanks everyone.

Chasingsquirrels, fwiw I have a friend who is a self-employed book-keeper/accountant working in the Bath area. She says that since she started about 6 years ago she has been offered more work than she can handle and is having to try and pass some of it on to other people now as she can't cope. She is having trouble finding someone suitable to pass it on to though. Good luck if you do decide to do it!