Common Grounds

How does a firm change its CPA pricing model? Nathan Eads of Lally Group walks through his firm's version.

Nathan Eads is a partner and independent shareholder at Lally Group, an independent full-service accounting firm in Michigan, and has been a partner for 20 years. He and Emily Maxie talk through how Lally moved from billing time at a rate to dividing the year's fees by twelve, and then to subscription plans. New clients get three options, all subscriptions, and even audits are on them. Nathan covers why he talks about value before price, why Lally started many longtime clients on 18-month plans in May or June, where the pushback came from, and how a firm can test the idea with a couple of longtime clients. If you're asking what is the best pricing model, this is one firm's experience.

Key takeaways

• Start small. Add up what you bill a client in a year, divide by twelve, and send the same invoice each month. Nathan says billing now goes out a lot quicker.
• New clients at Lally get three options, and all are subscriptions. Audits are on subscription plans too.
• Talk about value before price. For a client coming from another CPA, Nathan starts with their experience with pricing and with their prior firm.
• For many longtime clients, Lally started 18-month plans in May or June, right after tax season. The price is locked, and there's room to adjust when the client moves back to a 12-month plan.
• The pushback Nathan remembers came from his own team: realization numbers and "what if we price it wrong." Reps and data settled it.
• Lally still tracks time, mainly to see whether its services line up with market value.

Timestamps

00:00 Meet Nathan Eads and Lally Group

00:31 From hourly to a consistent monthly bill

01:49 How clients reacted

02:48 Three subscription options for new clients, audits included

05:12 Explaining subscription pricing to an hourly-only owner

07:37 The problem it solved and the 18-month plan

11:56 Internal resistance

13:08 Do you still track time?

14:40 Did clients leave over the pricing change?

17:25 Where to start

19:19 What Nathan believes differently now

Do this week: Pick one client you've known for years and take them to lunch. Tell them you're thinking about a subscription model and ask what comes to mind.

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Welcome to Common Grounds — the podcast for the people running accounting firms.

There are plenty of accounting podcasts that keep you current on a fast-moving industry. Fewer give you something you can actually put to work on a Monday morning. That's the gap this show fills.

Host Emily Maxie sits down with firm partners, owners, and operators who've cracked one piece of the puzzle — firm health, work management, or client experience — and asks the questions you'd ask over coffee. What actually worked? What did they try that flopped? What would they tell their younger self?

The idea is simple: learn from people who've done it, and walk away with one thing you can use to run a stronger firm.

Grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair. New episodes drop soon — find Common Grounds on your favorite podcast platform.