“Businesses should have prices, not hourly rates.” – Ron Baker

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Ron, the godfather of pricing in the accounting profession. I greatly respect his work. He inspired me to put pen to paper and help figure out this mess of hourly billing for my peers. I am also very fortunate to live close to Ed Kless here in Dallas–Fort Worth, and he’s provided mentorship I’ll never forget. I’ll just say: if you ever run into one of them at the airport, corner them at the bar! It’s a lively debate with some of the smartest people in the profession.

In the previous chapter, we set the foundation for moving to high-value advisory services. Now let’s talk about how to price those services in a way that reflects their true value and empowers you to achieve the Balanced Millionaire lifestyle. This is where the ROI (Return on Investment) Method comes in.

Compliance note: Circular 230 restricts contingent fees for matters before the IRS. Use ROI only to estimate a fixed price up front, not to set a percentage of the realized savings on the back end. (See 31 CFR §10.27 and AICPA ET 1.510.001.) Any reference to percentage of savings here is based on up-front estimates and not contingent fees. In other words, your fee must be set ahead of time, not as a percentage of whatever savings you actually deliver later. That’s the magic of value pricing – no surprises for the client or for you.

I’ve worked tirelessly with the AICPA to gift the ROI Method of Value Pricing ™ to the profession, and it paid off when we announced its release summer 2025 at AICPA Engage! Coming soon to an AICPA member website near you or just grab it here: TaxPlanIQ.com/ROI-Method.

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We touched on this back in Chapter 1 with my personal “aha” moment, but it bears repeating: hourly billing is fundamentally flawed for advisory work. Why?

It caps your earnings by the number of hours you can work. There are only so many hours in a day (and you want many of them free!).

It undervalues expertise. If you spend 10 years mastering a skill and can solve a client’s problem in 30 minutes, is it fair to charge only 0.5 hour? Of course not. You’re charging for the 10 years, not the 30 minutes.

It incentivizes inefficiency. Under hourly billing, the slower you work, the more you earn (a terrible incentive as automation will offset this). Meanwhile, clients feel every tick of the clock and may hesitate to call you (stunting your ability to advise) because they fear the bill. By prioritizing time over actual results, we might unintentionally compromise our duty to act in the best interests of our clients. Frankly, it’s unethical.

It misaligns with client interests. Clients don’t really care about your time; they care about outcomes. Hourly billing doesn’t directly tie to any outcome.

Advisory services are where hourly models truly break down, because often the insights you provide can radically change a client’s financial outcomes, far beyond what any hourly rate would imply.

The ROI Method flips this model on its head. Instead of trading hours for dollars, you price based on the tangible financial impact you deliver.

The ROI Method is a value-based pricing strategy that aligns your fees with the measurable financial benefits your clients receive. In essence, you estimate or demonstrate the return on investment a client gets from your service and then price your service as a fraction of that return.

Instead of saying, “I charge $300/hour and that plan took 10 hours, which equals $3,000,” (when you quoted them $1,000, oops) you might say, “This tax plan should save you $38,400 over the next year. Your investment in our package is $8,930” which is an estimated 330% return on investment.

It’s a win-win: the client invests $1 to get possibly three times back; you get compensated well for the value delivered, not just time spent. You dedicate the time and effort to get it right.

Higher Fees (and worth every penny): When you price on value, you often can charge significantly more than you would have under hourly billing (typically 3- 5 x more). Clients will pay if the perceived ROI is high.

Improved Client Relationships: Clients will start to see you as a partner in their success, not a cost center. They’ll recognize a clear return on investing in your services, which increases satisfaction and loyalty.

Increased Profitability: You capture more of the value you create. If you save a client $100K and charge $20K, you both come out way ahead. That sure beats saving them $100K and charging $2K (which, sadly, does happen due to underpricing).

Reduced Burnout: You are no longer forced to work crazy hours to increase revenue. Instead, you focus on delivering results, potentially with less effort, and reap the rewards. You can actually work less and earn more (the holy grail of the four-hour workweek concept).

Differentiation: Most accountants still charge hourly or by form. By using ROI-based pricing, you stand out as forward-thinking and client-focused. It becomes part of your brand and market position.

Pricing on ROI is a simple math formula. Earlier we introduced the CURB factors, which help you assess how to adjust your pricing based on a client’s situation. Let’s break them down:

Complexity: How complex is the client’s situation? More complex = more potential issues to navigate = more value you can add (and often more work to deliver it). A simple W-2 earner has low complexity; a client with multiple businesses, properties, and international accounts has high complexity. High complexity generally justifies a higher fee, because there’s more on the line and fewer professionals capable of handling it well.

Urgency: How quickly are results needed? If a client needs a fast turnaround or a last-minute rescue (say, a huge tax issue with a looming deadline), that urgency means you must dedicate immediate resources and reshuffle work. It also often indicates they stand to lose or gain a lot in a short time. High urgency can command a premium (think “rush pricing”). Clients are often willing to pay more when something is urgent because the pain of not getting it done is front-and-center.

Risk: What is the risk if things go wrong, and how much risk are you taking by advising? Higher stakes = higher risk. For instance, a client pushing aggressive strategies or one with huge amounts at stake (like a $50M business sale) is a high-risk scenario. Your advice carries a lot of weight and potential liability, so price that in. (Sometimes you might even include a risk premium if you’re taking on an engagement that could be contentious or might require standing behind your work in front of the IRS or similar.)

(Intangible) Benefits: Higher benefits justify higher fees. Benefits could be anything from the type of savings (deferred vs. permanently eliminated, deferrals aren’t worth as much as permanent eliminations and can be discounted for their present value) to “white glove” services (what I call Concierge CPA offerings, like personally picking up and delivering client documents). Significant intangible benefits (peace of mind, saved time, stress reduction) also support a higher fee.

In practice, you might score each factor from 1 to 4 (1 = Low, 4 = Very High) and use those scores to guide a pricing multiplier or range. For example, suppose you rate a client’s scenario as:

Average = (3+1+3+2) / 4 = 2.25, which we multiply by 100 to get a 22.5% price estimate from the savings.

This average becomes a guideline for your fee as a percentage of the quantified savings or value you provide. The specifics of the scoring can be tailored, but the point is to systematically consider each dimension rather than arbitrarily picking a price or defaulting to hours.

Note: This chapter is split into two parts.

In Part 1, we covered why hourly billing breaks down and how the ROI Method reframes pricing around value instead of time.

In Part 2, we’ll get practical — walking through exactly how to implement ROI pricing using the CURB framework, build proposals, and handle client objections with confidence.

See you there!