What Do You Pay Your US Accountants/Year (for Corporations Only)?

[pro]

What Do You Pay Your US-Based Accountants/Year Inclusive of Everything Including Advisory, Bookkeeping, and Filing (for Corporations Only -- no personal)?

I'm not talking about taxes.
I'm talking about accounting and bookkeeping fees.

 

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[Kak]

My business and personal are done at the same guy. For everything he typically charges a bit over 1000. For right now things are simple. He will no doubt charge more this time around, I have a lot of expenses to write off.

 

[pro]

Here's why I'm asking: I'm paying $5,000-6,000/year and, right before taxes are due, accounting tried to charge an extra $800.

After I made it clear that it was not agreed upon, they insist on the following:
"I am not trying to be difficult, but we do not work for free. "

It's my understanding that $5000-6000 per year is higher than 90% of non-public business owners pay.

 

[Kak]

Oh wait, I thought you were talking about taxes. I do my own "bookkeeping" with quickbooks.

 

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[JEdwards]

I am over 10k easily all in...

 

[bflbob]

We are at about $125,000 including tax planning, personal taxes, accounting, retirement audits, and corporate and LLC audited financial statements. That's for about 25 companies.

Some require few services (maybe 25 transactions per year) to our biggest company ($100 mil and 400+ employees) which requires a ton of services including three separate audited financial statements each year.

Overall, this is a fairly useless statistic to try to gather, due to the variety of company needs, sizes and lending requirements.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

I'm at around 1,000/mo myself. But that includes doing our ACH as well.

 

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[pro]

We are at about $125,000 including tax planning, personal taxes, accounting, retirement audits, and corporate and LLC audited financial statements. That's for about 25 companies....this is a fairly useless statistic to try to gather, due to the variety of company needs, sizes and lending requirements.

I agree and that's why I wanted to narrow it down to the following:
1) No personal
2) No retirement
3) Not including taxes paid
4) Only LLCs, Cs, LLPs, S Corps etc in the US only

I also want to know for the people who spend over $10K/mo whether they are with one of the Big 4 (formerly Big 5 due to Arthur Andersen): Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, PwC (officially PricewaterhouseCoopers), Ernst & Young, or KPMG. I think this info could also help others in planning their growth to have a clean set of books.

 

[darkjediii]

over 10k includes tax planning

 

[pro]

I expected the median to be under $3000 once we get more participants.

I appear to have posted this on the Robb Report forum .

 

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[Ska2free]

I can understand why you're asking (just got a surprise $700 bill from our account too), but am not sure it will be an easy thing to suss out on the forum, bc of what bflbob said...diff company sizes and needs.

I am like kak, I do all the bookkeeping for 2 companies on quickbooks. With their enhanced payroll service, I handle all those filings as well. So the accountant really only does tax preparation for the two LLCs....and because those have pass through income, simultaneously does our personal tax prep. Personal tax 'management' requires retirement planning on some level, so it's all pretty entertwined.

I think we are around $3000 to $5000/year for the main company, but that's mostly tax prep and I'm becoming sure that we are being gouged.

 

[bflbob]

OK... here's some more precise info, since I have the numbers in front of me now.

These numbers are for audit only (no taxes).

Corp - $43,000
HUD Audit - $11,000
LLC Audit - $11,000
LLC Audit - $11,000
LLC Audit - $11,000
LLC Review - $5,100
LLC Review - $5,100
Partnership Review - $5,100
LLC Review - $5,100
ESOP Audit - $7,500
401(k) Audit - $5,300
401(k) Audit - $5,300

Total Fees - $125,500

Tax Prep for all related - $76,600

Additional fees for Per Diems, Meals and Travel - Approx $30,000

Tax Planning was additional.

This is for a large regional firm.

I hope this helps you to figure out whatever it is that you are hoping to gain from this.

 

[pro]

Update: I spoke to another firm who offered to do everything for $1500 per year

That's a savings of over $3,500 per year (using rough figures to not be identifying)

 

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[bflbob]

Our prior auditors were scheduled to come in for a tax planning session a few years ago.

My mother was dying of Alzheimer's, and they called the family in on the day that was scheduled. She passed away within a couple days. The auditors sent a nice floral arrangement.

A few days after that, they sent us a bill for $3,000 for "inconveniences related to Bob being absent during tax planning". They discounted it to $1,500.00.

We discounted it another $1,500.00!

They lost a $200,000 account by getting greedy.

But that can work two ways, Pro. A good CPA firm can save you a lot of money. A lousy one won't back you up, even if they made a $5,000 error. Make sure you check on how they've performed for others, not just how much they cost.

 

[pro]

Appreciated bflbob - thats why I like clear written agreements and I have verified this accountant and used them for stuff in another country. My current one caused me a lot of stress - the day before taxes were due they tried to get me to sign an agreement that indemnified them, and looked similar to a blank check where they could bill on an hourly basis. They said they couldn't file before I signed it even though I already paid for MONTHS.

Yeah the initial invoice extra they sent me was over $2000 EXTRA so I would have been paying close to $7,500...after I was infuriated that it was not agreed upon and last minute they reduced it.

I didn't know my money was safe because they're signers on my account, which added to the stress and I thought they might just take money (in a worst case scenario).

 

[MikeJesowshekCPA]

Sorry to bring this up after being dead for some months, but we are an accounting firm so thought I would be able to help put some numbers into prospective. Most of our clients we handle everything that involves finance. This can include bookkeeping, accounts receivable, accounts payable, etc etc. Our prices can range widely depending solely on the kind of services requested as well as the amount of volume the company has. What we tell our clients is that we will provide a full accounting department for a price lower than what it would cost to hire one associate.

I think that this is the best way to look at it. If you are hiring a firm to handle your all around finances you have to think of what you would charge an individual(s) to do it in house. Typically a firm has more experienced workers since they deal with many clients, and you therefore will likely get a better result than hiring an in-house team. If you were to bring two employees in your company to run your finances you have to figure that you would pay them a minimum of $30-$40k each per year. If you have a firm that will offer the same services for $30k per year, you are saving a lot of money that way, not to mention you also don't have to worry about retirement plans or insurance of any type. Just a different point of view we like to point out. Hope this helps!

 

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