Controversial opinion: hourly billing is the worst thing that ever happened to bookkeeping

I used to bill hourly, $75/hour, tracked every minute, sent detailed invoices showing exactly how I spent the time, thought I was being transparent and fair, turns out I was actively punishing myself for getting better at my job

Here's the math that changed my mind, when I started with a client their books took me 6 hours a month at $75/hour so I billed $450, over the next year I got faster because I learned their chart of accounts, set up bank rules, automated recurring entries, memorized their vendor patterns, by month 12 I was doing the same quality work in 3 hours, so my invoice dropped to $225 for the exact same deliverable

I literally made less money as I got better at my job, every efficiency I gained, every automation I set up, every minute I shaved off the process reduced my own income, the incentive structure was completely backwards, hourly billing rewards slowness and punishes competence

Switched to flat monthly pricing 3 years ago and it changed everything, I charge based on the complexity and value of the work, number of transactions, number of accounts, industry complexity, reporting requirements, the price stays the same whether it takes me 2 hours or 6 hours

Now when I automate something or find a faster way to do things I make more per hour not less, the efficiency gains benefit me instead of benefiting only the client, and the client gets predictable costs instead of an invoice that varies wildly month to month depending on whether their bank feed decided to cooperate or not

Some people will say flat pricing isn't fair because what if a month is way more complex than usual, and yeah that happens occasionally, but over a 12 month relationship the high months and low months average out and both sides end up better off than the hourly model

If you're still billing hourly you're leaving money on the table every time you get faster, switch to flat monthly and let your efficiency work for you instead of against you