The billable hour remains the foundation of accounting firm pricing, but the data suggests a gradual shift is underway.
Between 2020 and 2025, charge-hour billing declined from 70.0% to 67.1% of total revenue, while alternative pricing models continued to gain traction.
Firms are beginning to incorporate value-based and fixed-fee arrangements as part of a broader response to changing client expectations and advances in technology.
The transition is not uniform.
Some firms are moving more quickly, particularly those with more complex service offerings and deeper client relationships. Others continue to rely heavily on traditional billing structures, often adapting more slowly.
The data shows that the shift is not happening all at once. It is taking place incrementally, through targeted adoption in specific service lines and client segments.
This creates a more complex pricing landscape, where firms are operating with a mix of models rather than a single standard approach.
The full IPA Insights report provides detailed breakdowns of pricing model adoption by firm size and trend direction over time.
