Should you charge your clients during the pandemic?

COVID-19 changed everything across the globe. While accounting professionals have, luckily, still found their services are needed, many are struggling to answer this question: Should you charge your clients or not, and, if so, what for specifically?

1. Offer Information, Not Services, for Free

In this time of crisis, it’s important to give clients the information they need to succeed for free. 

2. Accountants Can Continue Charging Clients for Providing Services

Officially, accounting professionals can continue charging for their services. 

3. No One Has Stopped Charging Altogether

While the opinions on what and how to charge differes no one has stopped charging clients entirely, nor do clients seem to expect that they’ll receive work for free. Those accounting professionals who have experienced some resistance are likely not employing the value pricing practices, which is causing the problem.

More Takeaways

So, the question of whether to charge clients seems to be a moral one. Treating clients as family is the way to go. The best approach is to provide as much help and support as possible. This should be the primary goal. Creating a Facebook group for clients. Contractual obligations to clients as well as professional obligation to be aware of what’s going on and to research information. This is where a big chunk of time should be spent. Then there is the moral obligation to peers and community to share information.”

In practice, while putting a hold on taking on new clients, keeping open lines of communication with current ones is crucial. A common first step has been to reach out to the people using services and asking them to speak up if there’s an issue. Several clients usually ask to default on their payments until a later date. Otherwise, they advise to draw a line between simply offering information and actually performing a service.

This goes back to focusing on the best interest of the client rather than your own. What you don’t want to do is just lower your rates across the board. Talk with your clients, on a case by case basis. Some businesses are ramping down but others are ramping up and might need more services. There should be scholarship clients. You set up so many scholarship slots, and then the ones who need it can take it for a certain period of time and then they go back to their regular rates with you…. came up with packages.