How we price
Ask, and you get a fee in writing
Priced on the volume of your business and the nature of the work — never on your turnover. For a one-off matter — a property sale, a notice, a backlog — on the sequence the matter needs, never on the amount at stake. You are told what the fee is, and what it covers, before anyone starts work.
01What the fee is built on
Two things decide it: how much there is, and what it takes.
A fee here is built from two things: how much there is to do, and what doing it actually involves. For recurring work that is transactions, registrations, returns, entities and the state the records arrive in. For a one-off matter — a property sale, a notice, a backlog — it is the sequence the matter needs and how much of it is already done. It is never a percentage of your turnover, and never a percentage of a sale price or a refund: those measure the size of your transaction, not the size of our work.
Recurring work
You are billed for time and skill, and for exactly what you ask for — an extra report, a second entity, a second GSTIN, a reconciliation nobody else runs. Two businesses with the same revenue can need very different amounts of work, and one of them should not be subsidising the other.
A one-off matter
Here there is often no turnover to speak of at all. A non-resident selling a house has a sale price, and a fee keyed to it would rise with the property market rather than with the work. Two sales of identical value are a fortnight apart if one seller has clean title, a valuation and time before the deed, and the other has none of the three.
- How much there is
- Recurring: transactions, invoices, GSTINs, entities, people on the payroll. A one-off matter: how many steps the sequence actually has, and how many of them are already behind you.
- What doing it involves
- Recurring: a clean monthly return and a four-year reconciliation with a notice attached are not the same job. A one-off matter: a property sale with the certificate applied for in time is not the same job as one being untangled after the deed.
- What you specifically ask for
- An extra report, a second entity or GSTIN, a lender pack, a remittance file assembled for your bank, a reconciliation nobody else runs. Named in the quote, priced in the quote.
Never on turnover
A percentage of turnover is a charge for growing, not a charge for work. It bears no relation to the number of returns filed, the state the records arrive in, or the hours the matter takes. We do not price that way, and we will tell you what your fee is built on, item by item, if you ask.
02Getting a fee
Four things, and you have a number the same week.
You do not need to assemble a file. These four are enough to quote against, and if something is missing we will tell you which of them we still need rather than sending a range.
What the work is
Recurring filings — GST, income tax, TDS, ROC — or a single matter such as a property sale, a notice or a backlog.
Roughly how much
Invoices a month, GSTINs, people on the payroll. For a one-off matter, the shape of the transaction. An estimate is fine.
Where it stands
Current, behind, under a notice — or, for a sale, whether the deed is signed. This is usually the biggest single driver.
Any date already fixed
A deadline, a lender, a deed date, a bank waiting on a remittance.
03What is never in a fee
Three things you will not find on an invoice from us.
A cut of your refund
We do not bill on a percentage of any refund we recover for you, and not on a percentage of a sale price either. A fee that rises with the number is a fee with an interest in the number, and the number is supposed to be the law’s, not ours.
Government fees, marked up
Registration fees, stamp duty, portal charges and the like are passed on at cost, with the receipt. They are the government’s money, not a margin.
A referral fee
Where your matter needs a professional we cannot be — a chartered accountant, a cost accountant, a company secretary, a registered valuer, an actuary — you appoint your own. We take no referral fee, so the professional who signs answers to you.
If the scope moves
A quote is only worth something if it holds.
Every fee is quoted in writing before any work begins, against a scope written down in the same document. If the scope changes we re-quote in writing and wait for you to agree it.
And the assurance that matters: you will never meet a surprise on an invoice. If we simply misjudge how long the agreed scope takes, that difference is ours to absorb. If something genuinely new emerges mid-way — a notice that was not on the table, a year that turns out to need reconstruction — we stop, name it, and agree a revised fee in writing before that work begins. The fee can move when the matter truly moves; it never moves without your consent, and never after the fact.
The questions this usually raises
Three of them, answered.
“Why not just publish a price list?”
Because a list prices the label, not the job. Two businesses filing the same returns can be a morning apart or a fortnight apart; two property sales of identical value can be a fortnight apart too. A list has to guess — which means it either overcharges the simple case or carries an asterisk against the real one. You get a number for your matter instead, before anyone starts.
“So the price depends on what you think I can pay.”
No. It depends on volume and on what the work involves — and never on your turnover, which is the figure a fee would key to if it were pricing your pocket rather than the job. Ask us to break the quote down and we will.
“I already have someone.”
Keep them. We work alongside your existing accountant and share our workings openly, in a form another professional can check. Most of our matters involve one specific problem, not a takeover.
Tell us the work. You get the fee in writing.
What the work is, roughly how much of it, and where it stands. A monthly calendar or a single sale — either way you get a fee and a scope in one document, and if the work falls outside it later you hear that before we start rather than on an invoice.
Ask for a fee