Subscription Isn’t Your First Step. Packaged Pricing Is.

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Renew’s 2025 Bite Size Benchmark Assessment of Accounting Firms proves it.

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Subscription isn’t the starting point. It’s a destination. For most firms, the first step is simpler, clearer, and far more urgent: stop leaving money on the table and fix your pricing.

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Get Renew's Packaged Pricing Playbook for Accounting Firms

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The brutal truth in the numbers

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Let’s look at some key accounting firm pricing metrics that tell the story:

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• Average hourly charge rate: $152. Renew’s target is $200+. The best firms are already over $300.

• Average revenue per client: $6,175. The target is $12K. Elite firms are at $23K+.

• Minimum price for a business client: median ~$4K. The target is $6K+, with leaders hitting $10K.

• Price increases: Renew’s accounting firms averaged 14% price increases in 2025 and lost only about 5% of clients.

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The message is clear: accounting firms are still underpriced, and their teams are overworked to make up for it. The industry continues to rely on long hours and “free” work instead of fixing the root problem…pricing discipline.

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Why packaged pricing comes first

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Packaged pricing is the bridge. It creates order where there’s chaos, discipline where there’s leakage, and fairness where there’s been years of giving stuff away for free. Done right, it means:

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• Three clear service tiers, with you recommending the right fit.

• A higher floor, so you don’t get trapped with <$1K “Insanity Zone” clients who drain energy and margins.

• Monetizing access, so those quarterly touches and quick questions aren’t free but included in a package.
• Client habits built on clarity, where deliverables are defined and value is obvious — no more nickel-and-diming on hours.

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Instead of seeing packages as a limitation, the best firms use them as a filter. They attract clients who value clarity, while naturally pushing away those who don’t.

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The danger of skipping steps

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Jumping straight to subscription without fixing your floor pricing is a recipe for disaster. All you’re doing is locking low-value clients into low-value recurring deals. This will only amplify your pricing mistakes.

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The firms that succeed—the ones with $12K+ average client revenue and $1.5M+ per partner—started by packaging, pruning, and repricing. Only then did they move to subscription.

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Moving the needle on pricing

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Subscription is part of the future, but the immediate lever you can pull, right after 10/15, is packaged pricing. Raise your minimums. Package your services. Stop leaking value through “free” work and vague scope. The benchmarks are clear: the firms that do this create capacity, profit, and open up opportunities for strategic growth. The firms that don’t keep grinding longer hours, churning through team members, and earning less than they’re worth.

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You deliver high-value work. It’s time your pricing reflected it.

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Get the Playbook

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At Regroup 2025, our face-to-face conference in Austin, Texas, the highest rated session was our interactive Pricing Workshop. As a result, we decided to codify some of the key learnings.

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We’ve put together a high-level Packaged Pricing Playbook to help you take the first step. It will take you 5 minutes to read. Inside you’ll find:

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• The three mistakes firms make with packages and how to fix them.

• Ideas on how to structure your own three tiers.
• A sample framework you can adapt immediately.
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Download it now and stop leaving money on the table.