Banding together under the hashtag #CallForChange, a collective of accounting leaders organized by professional services platform Ignition has published an open letter to push for an end to late payments, unbilled work and inefficient processes.
The letter, “Stop Underselling Your Worth,” was spurred by a recent report from Ignition that found U.S. accounting firms losing an average of more than $76,000 in revenue each year due to unrecovered out-of-scope work. The report further noted that 94% of firms have to chase clients for late payments, 43% absorb the time and cost when the scope of client work increases and 89% delay or avoid awkward conversations with clients.
“The hard truth is that for years accounting and tax professionals have put up with working for free, not getting paid on time and avoiding raising prices,” says Ignition CEO and co-founder Guy Pearson. “It’s time we remove the old way of doing business, dragging our profession and client relationships down. By embracing change, we can improve firm profitability and also invest more time in R&D to uplift client service levels.”
“As accountants, we struggle with valuing ourselves, even though we’re worth it,” adds Logan Graf, chief tax officer at The Graf Tax Co., and one of the letter’s nearly 40 signees. “We provide value to our clients and deserve to be paid for that value.”
Ignition is following up on the letter with a series of webinars and additional educational pieces tied to the same theme.
