Price increase letter to bookkeeping clients
Copy it, replace the bracketed bits, send it. Below the letter: the text-message version, how much notice to give, and what to say when they push back.
Hi [NAME], Ahead of [YEAR/QUARTER] I want to give you plenty of notice on fees. From [DATE], your monthly fee moves from [OLD PRICE] to [NEW PRICE]. Two reasons, and I would rather be specific than vague about it. Software and filing costs per client have risen every year since we agreed the original fee in [YEAR]. And the work itself has grown — you are now at roughly [N] transactions a month against the [ORIGINAL N] we scoped, plus [PAYROLL / SECOND ENTITY / VAT], which was not in the original arrangement. What you get stays the same or better: [LIST — monthly reconciliation, VAT returns, payroll, year-end pack], with the same turnaround. If you would rather restructure than pay more — moving [SPECIFIC TASK] back in-house, for instance — I am very happy to do that instead. Just say and I will put both options side by side. Thanks as always. [YOUR NAME] [BUSINESS NAME]
60 days, and never in the middle of a filing period
8–12%, or a move to a proper monthly package
The text-message version
For the customers whose entire relationship with you lives in a phone. Send it before the visit, never on the invoice.
Hi [NAME] — sent you an email about your [YEAR] fee, nothing urgent but worth a read before [DATE]. Happy to talk it through any time. [YOUR NAME]
Why it is going up, in words you can use
“Rising costs” persuades nobody because everyone says it. Name the actual driver in bookkeeping instead:
- software licence costs per client have gone up every year
- the scope quietly grew — payroll, extra entities, more transactions than the original quote assumed
- most practices are pricing on volumes that are years out of date
When they push back
You will hear these within a week. Having the answer ready is the difference between holding the price and folding on the phone.
- "I could get this cheaper online."
- "You could, and for a very simple set of books it might be the right call. What you would be giving up is someone who knows [SPECIFIC THING ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS] and picks up the phone in filing week." Name the specific thing. Generic value statements lose to price; specific ones do not.
- "Why now — nothing has changed for me."
- Show the volume. "When we set the fee you were at [N] transactions a month; you are now at [M]." A client who has grown almost always accepts this, because the number is theirs and it is good news.
- They go quiet and you assume it is fine.
- It usually is — but follow up once at 14 days. Silence on a fee email is normally acceptance, and the practices that lose clients over fees are the ones that never confirmed.
Is a price rise even the right move for you?
Sometimes it is not. Sometimes the money is in a service plan for customers you already have, or in the job you are quoting below cost without realising. Describe your business in one sentence and you will get three specific moves back — priced per month, with the arithmetic written out so you can put your own numbers in.
Free, no signup, about thirty seconds. If one of them is a price rise, you will get the number to put in the brackets above.
Give me three movesOther trades
A template, not legal advice. If you have a written contract with these bookkeeping clients, check what it says about notice periods and price changes before you send anything — the contract wins over any template, including this one.