Why EOFY is the Best Time to Fix Firm Pricing and Stop Absorbing Software Costs

Software costs keep going up. Engagement letters rarely reflect what the firm actually delivers. Scope creep is a permanent state. And most firms are still lifting fees by 3 to 5% a year while their cost base climbs faster than that.

EOFY is the one clean reset point in the calendar to fix all of this. Engagement letters are being updated. Tax planning conversations are happening. Clients are already expecting changes.

We recently ran a webinar with Aly Garrett from All In Advisory and Amy Holdsworth from Clarity Street, hosted by Trent McLaren. The session looked at how firms should think about pricing, scope, and software subscriptions in the lead-up to July 1.

This blog shares the main takeaways from that discussion.

If you'd prefer to watch, here's the recording:

Why EOFY Is The Right Time To Reprice

Aly's view is that the lead-up to EOFY is the most natural window for pricing conversations with clients.

"The most valuable conversation I have with my clients is actually at tax planning, where they see the value of what I'm giving to them. I actually talk to them about their pricing for next year in that particular meeting, and I usually get the sign up pretty much straight away."

The timing works because the value of the firm's work is most visible during tax planning. Clients are looking at numbers that show what the work is worth. The pricing conversation becomes a natural extension rather than a separate, awkward one.

Amy added a useful frame on which firms have room to do this properly. If your lodgement percentage is below 85% by now, next year is already shaped. Firms hitting their targets have the headspace to fix pricing. The ones chasing extensions do not.

Why 10% Should Be The Minimum Annual Increase

When the conversation turned to how much firms should be lifting fees, Amy was direct.

"Gone are the days of the 3 to 5% increase year on year. It should be a minimum, in my opinion, 10%. Because that's just life, that's just the way that it is."

The number is not arbitrary. Software vendors firms depend on have been pushing 7.5% and 10% increases on different parts of the stack. Wages are climbing. Compliance burden is climbing. AML obligations are landing. If software is rising at that rate and your fees are not, the gap is your margin.

Aly's experience reinforced the point. A 10% rise a few years ago produced her best year ever, without working harder, without losing clients.

"I had the best year I've ever had, but we weren't working harder. We didn't lose any clients."

Aly also flagged what happens when price rises stack. Firms that hold off for two or three years and then push a big catch-up increase always get more resistance than firms that lift fees a little every year. Small annual rises train client behaviour. Clients start expecting them.

Scoping Is The Conversation That Changes Everything Else

Asked what the single most important thing firms should focus on, both Aly and Amy said the same word. Scoping.

The fix is to invert how scope is usually written. Most engagement letters list what is in scope and leave the rest. That feels safer, but it does the opposite of what is intended. Clients fill in the gaps themselves and assume everything else is also covered.

Listing what is out of scope is more powerful. It makes the inclusions look more valuable by contrast, and it gives the firm a clean place to charge when out-of-scope work comes up.

Aly's examples of out-of-scope items in a typical compliance engagement included FBT on cars, finalising STP, finalising return to work, reconciling bank accounts, correspondence beyond a stated time limit, and changes to corporate secretarial work beyond the annual review.

"I wasn't strict enough on what is out of scope, and actually listing what is out and what is in. Because then the client thinks, well, everything is in."

Tight scope also gives the firm a clean response when clients push back on price. Amy's framing for that conversation: "That is the price. What would you like me to start removing from the service that we're offering?"

That sentence only works when the scope is written down.

Most Firms Are Already Doing Fixed Pricing, Badly

Hourly billing is rarely the model firms think it is.

"For all those firms that are fearful of fixed pricing. You are fixed pricing. You're just doing it at the end of the job, not at the beginning."

The WIP write-off at the end of the month is a fixed price. The firm decides what the client pays, without the client in the conversation, after the work is already done, usually at less than what was on the clock.

Moving to proper upfront pricing is the same decision made earlier, with the client present. Quote the work up front. Get agreement up front. Bill against scope rather than time.