don’t lose your shirt over process.
by jody padar
radical pricing – by the radical cpa
why is mcdonald’s easy to price and why is their product so consistent no matter where in the world you are? you know that if you get a big mac in chicago or one in new york, it will taste and cost the same. this is because of standardization, and you shouldn’t underestimate the role digitized data plays in maintaining this consistency.
more: six steps to creating a standardized practice | four ways automation pushes the paradigm shift | are you the key signal caller for your clients? | value pricing requires defining your clients | how value pricing impacts your employees | 6 steps to start value pricing | what are you selling? | three critical factors drive the value pricing trend | accounting disruptors are heading your way … with deep pockets | the convergence of trends makes pricing changes imperative
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.
your firm can standardize and price just like mcdonald’s does, if you have the right tech infrastructure, in addition to standards related to both clients and workflow.
the number one hurdle keeping firms from standardizing services is how they receive data and documents from clients. data may arrive in shoeboxes of receipts, reams of paper, quickbooks desktop files, excel files, checkbooks, registers and any number of other archaic data collection methods.
you may have some clients who arrive with banking credentials and bank feeds and others who don’t know where to start.
if you allow this amount of chaos to walk through your door, you will not be able to standardize your processes. as a facilitator, you are as much a part of the problem as your clients.
from an hourly perspective, perhaps this lottery system of incoming documents and data doesn’t really matter. it’s probably irritating to your employees who handle the chaos, but an hour is an hour, and the client will be billed for however long it takes to get things organized.
if you’ve tried using a fixed or value price and didn’t think it worked, this is likely the reason. you don’t have to “lose your shirt” here. if you have all the pieces in place, it will work.
when you value price, client information has to arrive in a standardized format. it is up to you to tell your clients what the standard is, but here are some options:
- scanned pdfs
- digital pdfs
- csv/excel
- apis
you have to figure out how you want this data coming in because it will influence how you standardize all your other processes. you or your client services admin should walk clients through what it takes to fulfill your standards.
it really doesn’t matter how data arrives, as long as it is in the same expected format whenever it does. this will help you deliver timely service because team members won’t waste time hunting down receipts when they should focus on providing services and deliverables.
if your goal is to provide upfront pricing to your clients, then you cannot waste time organizing incoming data and getting bank feeds. upfront pricing rests on the shoulders of upfront client standardization. you cannot have one without the other.