Billing Opinion

[dascpa]

I friggin hate the Client Portal.  Client's upload ten thousand files of all different kinds.  Just got in one of Word files, Excel files, 82 picture files and 4 .pdf files.  I tell clients no pictures but they don't listen.

Downloading, organizing and getting rid of crap takes longer than preparing the tax return itself.

I'm asking the community - do you charge differently for portal files or have an opinion of how to stop this?  I can't just add a new line on a bill without advance warning to clients since it didn't happen in prior years.

[rbynaker]

I bill by the hour anyway but lately I've been tracking this time separately and splitting out a line item at the top of the invoice for "Printing, converting and organizing documents."

[IRonMaN]

Thank you for reassuring me that my choice to not provide client portals was a good choice.

[dkh]

Can't you charge for the extra time spent sifting through "crap" documents as part of the return preparation costs?   Wouldn't need to be a new line on the bill.

[IRonMaN]

“CRAP” fee - I like it😁

[rbynaker]

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@IRonMaN wrote:

Thank you for reassuring me that my choice to not provide client portals was a good choice.

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Not much difference.  Even if stuff is mailed or dropped off I'm still tracking this time for opening their envelopes and pulling out all of the crazy stuff like utility bills, this year's property assessment, uncashed dividend checks, a newsletter from their HOA, the entire August broker statement where nothing special happened, and one receipt for a pair of eyeglasses because the glasses place told them they could write it off on their taxes.

[rbynaker]

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@IRonMaN wrote:

“CRAP” fee - I like it😁

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As CPAs we have to be more professional than that!  It should be clearly labeled as Collating, Reorganizing, Assembling and Processing documents.

[Just-Lisa-Now-]

I hate portal uploads too, I cant decide if I should raise my fees for these, or just ditch my long distance clients that want to use it, for me its not really all about the money, Im looking for a more hassle free life.

[IRonMaN]

But Rick, you can charge more if you call it a Critical Revenue Analysis Procedure fee. 😜

[dascpa]

Long-distance clients? My portal uploads are close to 75% of my clients.  They could be around the corner and still upload.  And if they're young it's all on their phone.  

I guess in the end next year I'll write a note with my annual January 1st mailing and inform them that fees will be adjusted accordingly.  I'm cheaper than H&R and all the other services and I charge what is fair.  Too many others I've seen rip off their clients with outrageous fees.  Maybe as I get closer to the end of the career I shouldn't care as much.

I was told by a CPA Practice Advisor that I should charge wealthier clients more.  My opinion is, if they go to Macy's to buy a shirt and so do I they should not pay more for the same product because they're wealthier.  Guess you now know which side of the political spectrum I am on.

[IRonMaN]

They do it because it is more convenient for them.  But it isn't so convenient for us.  In all seriousness, for those clients that are local, consider charging a convenience fee for those that use the portal.  We accept credit cards, but the majority of those that use plastic is because they get points or miles.  Well, my fees are very reasonable (too low) so I'm not going to eat the fees because you want to earn some extra benefits by paying that way.  I charge a convenience fee for the use of plastic.  It's a nominal fee but at least it recoups most of the fees that I would get clipped for by the end of tax season.  

[Just-Lisa-Now-]

Oh wow, if therye local, we meet in person.   The majority of my long distance people send me their stuff by USMail, I only have a dozen or so that use the portal.

75% portal uploads, ugh!   not for me.

[BobKamman]

My clients just send me their stuff as email attachments.  Mostly pdf or doc attachments.  Some of them combine all the pages before sending, and for some of them I have to click on each (without waiting for one to finish before starting the next) and wait a few minutes to print out the pages I want.  I try to run a tight ship but I don't need portholes.  

[rbynaker]

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@dascpa wrote:

My portal uploads are close to 75% of my clients.  They could be around the corner and still upload.

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In my experience this is all just a trade-off.  I spend some more time organizing documents but then I don't have the 30 minute conversation about what their grandkids are doing or how many medical procedures they had last year.  Or for clients on the younger side you don't have to spend 20 minutes explaining bonus depreciation to them and why they shouldn't rely on a random YouTube video for tax advice. 😉

You could conceivably hire somebody to organize the documents for you.  There are plenty of PDF tools that someone who doesn't have to know much about income taxes can use to convert, orient and organize everything you need into one PDF file in the order you want it for efficient tax prep.

[IRonMaN]

Or, you could just shut the portal down. 😲

[rbynaker]

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@dascpa wrote:

I was told by a CPA Practice Advisor that I should charge wealthier clients more.  My opinion is, if they go to Macy's to buy a shirt and so do I they should not pay more for the same product because they're wealthier.  Guess you now know which side of the political spectrum I am on.

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I can't tell.  You're not conservative because a conservative would want to make more money.  You're not liberal because a liberal would want wealthy people to pay for everything.  Libertarian? 🙂

[BobKamman]

Definitely not a socialist.  From each according to her ability, to each according to her needs.  Or something like that.  But probably refuses to do returns for dry cleaners.  They charge more for blouses than for shirts. 

[abctax55]

I can't just add a new line on a bill without advance warning to clients since it didn't happen in prior years.

@dascpa   Why not?   

They changed their way of submitted crap, er ...  important tax documents.  Changes = higher fees.

MY favorite this year is three/four/five emails with attachments and the comment "I may have already sent these" so ya' gotta check to see.  

[dkh]

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@rbynaker wrote:

Or for clients on the younger side you don't have to spend 20 minutes explaining bonus depreciation to them and why they shouldn't rely on a random YouTube video for tax advice. 😉

I see what you did there......lol ..........good one !!

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[pamdory]

I don't charge my wealthier clients more.  But I occasionally charge my poorer clients less...

I feel your pain about the collection of data in the "paperless" age.  I'm blessed with an office manager who takes care of downloading and printing from the portal.  But I get stuck dealing with email attachments. 

Then there are the older (read: my age) tech challenged clients who try to be tech savvy.  I know I'm in trouble when they walk in with nothing but a smart phone or tablet. They repeatedly send me links that take me to an account login .  Or they can't figure out how to get it out of their phone/tablet and I end up asking for their device so I can just get the job done and get back to work. 

But it still better than my early days of taking a bag of receipts and cash register tapes that smelled like stale donuts and turning it into financial statements.

[abctax55]

I don't charge my wealthier clients more.  But I occasionally charge my poorer clients less...

@pamdory   Love it !!

(Or sometimes, nothing at all  🙂  )

[IRonMaN]

"I don't charge my wealthier clients more.  But I occasionally charge my poorer clients less..."

Ditto.

[rbynaker]

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@dkh wrote:

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@rbynaker wrote:

Or for clients on the younger side you don't have to spend 20 minutes explaining bonus depreciation to them and why they shouldn't rely on a random YouTube video for tax advice. 😉

I see what you did there......lol ..........good one !!

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I just picked a random hypothetical example.  Any similarity to actual persons or events, is purely coincidental. 🙂

[IRonMaN]

This is beginning to sound like an episode of Dragnet - "only the names have been changed to protect the innocent"

[BobKamman]

Just yesterday I had clients in my office who were missing 1099 packages on 2 out of 3 broker accounts.  They called their broker, who emailed the statements to them, and then they forwarded them to me.  I printed them out (as usual, I just need the first two pages of 10 or 12) and it really didn't slow down the appointment, mostly because we talked more about their upcoming trip to Italy  than about taxes.  They are going to Pompeii, which is fine, but I told them not to miss the museum in Naples, where all the good stuff from Pompeii was sent, including the room with all the recovered porn.  

At least technology has improved so that we no longer have to deal with the clients who thought it would be OK to be late for an appointment as long as they had a cell phone and could call ahead to report their tardiness.  Even my clients who have lived through more than 60 summers are giving up their land lines.