They encompass everything from basic bookkeeping services to more advanced analyses and advisory.

We explore the typical client accounting services offered by accounting firms below.

What Are Client Accounting Services?

Client accounting services (CAS) refer to accounting services outsourced by business owners to accounting firms.

These client advisory services and outsourced accounting services support businesses in a myriad of ways.

Businesses will often seek out client accounting services to:

• Receive more cost-efficient support and service. It costs more to hire a dedicated accounting team than to outsource the work. Outsourced accounting may save money over time, no matter the service.
• Avoid mistakes. A small business owner may not be up-to-date on compliance. They may also make minor mistakes that have major repercussions. Utilizing outsourced accounting services ensures that their finances are in good hands.
• They receive valuable insights (with some service offerings). CAS can be instrumental in helping business owners understand their financial situation and strategize using current financial data and financial forecasts.

Whether you’re an accounting firm looking to expand into CAS or you’re wishing to offer more accounting services to business clients, the market is ripe with opportunity.

Here are the 12 common client accounting services offered by accounting firms.

12 Typical Client Account Services

1. Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is an essential financial service that every business owner will require.

Bookkeepers and accountants are tasked with tracking every financial transaction within a business.

This includes, but is not limited to client invoices, sales, utility bills, and more.

This plays a crucial role in allowing business owners to track their financial health. Then, they can make more informed business decisions.

Bookkeeping can be one of the more time-consuming CAS for accountants. Navigating between multiple platforms, uploading documents, and beyond can slow your business down.

Keeper allows you to streamline your operations and save time for advisory.

How?

Keeper is the leading QuickBooks and Xero-integrated bookkeeping practice management software.

With Keeper, you can:

• Automate expense categorization and reconciliation
• Upload and track receipts with ease
• Track and prepare 1099s
• Generate comprehensive reports in just a few clicks
• Communicate directly with clients
• Manage projects and tasks with team members

Change the way you approach financial services like bookkeeping with Keeper.

2. Tax Preparation and Planning

As an accounting firm that offers CAS, tax preparation and planning is a solid addition.

CAS like tax preparation ensure that business owners’ taxes are being filed flawlessly in accordance with state and federal law.

They help business owners find the most tax savings to save more once tax season rolls around. These client advisory services ultimately help businesses preserve more of their wealth.

Tax preparation and planning are offered by many CPAs and larger accounting firms.

3. Payroll Management

Business finances feature a complex interplay of various elements. One such element is payroll.

Payroll management is often easier for business owners to offload. This is especially true if they’re responsible for a larger workforce.

Accounting firms that offer payroll management are responsible for accounting tasks like:

• Tracking and calculating wages
• Making sure that the right amount of taxes is being deducted and paying taxes
• Disbursing payments on time
• Keeping detailed and regularly updated records
• Reviewing employee benefit plans
• And so on

Payroll management ensures that a business’s workforce is being properly compensated. It also guarantees that all compensation is being properly managed and accounted for.

4. Accounts Payable

Most businesses rely on vendors and suppliers to support their operations.

In this case, they’ll enlist the help of accounting firms offering CAS to track accounts payable.

Recording accounts payable requires accountants to:

• Track all business expenses and related invoices
• Record outstanding debts on a company’s balance sheet
• Verify that outstanding debts match current financial records
• Process payments so that no outstanding debts remain
• Dispute any issues that may exist within financial records with suppliers or vendors

Accounts payable services are offered alongside their counterpart: accounts receivable.

5. Accounts Receivable

When you’re tracking accounts receivable, you’re recording outstanding debts that need to be paid to the company you’re offering CAS for.

As with accounts payable, you need to track and record outstanding debts.

Accounts receivable can offer numerous insights into the efficiency of payment collection.

With consistent payment data, you can help businesses determine:

• How long it’s taking them to get paid
• Where inefficiencies exist in their current payment system
• If there are frauds or errors that are impacting financial information and records
• And more related to cash flow management
• This service will ensure companies are getting paid and that all debts are accounted for.

6. Financial Statement Preparation

Your role as an accountant goes beyond tracking finances for tax reporting.

Let's imagine that a business needs documentation to demonstrate financial performance to shareholders. Maybe they're looking to apply for more funding. In either case, they’ll need financial statements prepared ahead of these activities.

That’s where an accounting firm comes in.

This service leverages existing financial data to produce reports like income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and other crucial documentation to illustrate a company’s financial health.

7. Cash Flow Forecasting

Staying on top of finances is essential for businesses that want to know their financial health now.

But many businesses are constantly looking to the future.

CAS, like cash flow forecasting, gives businesses the insights they need to estimate their financial health in the future.

In the case of positive forecasts, this can help them invest in new products, scale their business, and enlist the help of new talent.

In the case of less promising forecasts, they still receive support. They can make financial planning decisions that will help them remain profitable.

This service will help businesses anticipate what moves they need to make next. It will also ensure client satisfaction moving forward.

8. Accounting Advisory and Consulting

An accounting professional is more than someone who tracks expenses and produces reports.

An accounting firm will often act as a guide for the businesses they offer client accounting services to.

Accounting advisory and consulting is a good example.

Client accounting advisory services typically go hand-in-hand with other services mentioned here. This includes accounting work like tax planning, cash flow forecasts, and wealth management.

Put simply, you offer them the advice they need in order to navigate the business landscape with ease. This may include everything from changes in their finances to changes in laws that could affect them.

9. Controller Services

Controller services are simply a different name to refer to outsourced financial support.

Some controller services may be as simple as providing basic bookkeeping and accounting help. This is especially true if smaller businesses are seeking out controller services.

Other businesses may need more extensive support. This could entail complex accounting processes like managing mergers and acquisitions or overseeing investor relations.

As an accounting firm, you determine what level of support and which service you can provide.

10. Virtual CFO Services

A CFO is in charge of overseeing an entire financial department within a company.

Their role is to ensure that all financial operations are running smoothly. They also provide valuable guidance and strategic insights that drive an organization forward.

As you can see, a lot of this is what’s listed here in this guide. Many accounting firms will offer CAS like virtual CFO services. They stand in as professionals for organizations.

Many will enlist the help of a fractional CFO when they don’t need a full-time CFO in the business. You provide the service, and they benefit from your valuable insights and guidance.

11. Business Valuation

Business valuation serves to help businesses determine how much their company is worth.

This can be instrumental during mergers and acquisitions or if someone is selling a business.

It also plays a role in shareholder disputes.

Accounting firms can offer CAS like business valuation to support business owners with the above. This outsourced accounting service may not be as in-demand as others. However, it’s still requested and important to the business community at large

12. Wealth Management

Businesses need to be savvy with their resources to grow effectively.

That’s where client advisory services like wealth management come in.

Accountants can guide businesses on what to do with their wealth to consistently improve their finance.

With the right support and investment insights, companies will continue to reach new heights.

If your accounting firm knows how to manage wealth, you could offer this service. It can be a valuable addition that will support each large potential client.

Streamline Your CAS with Keeper

As an accounting practice, you understand that time is money. Integrating new solutions into your strategy that help you save time and engage in bookkeeping and CAS more efficiently is essential.

Keeper helps you streamline your client accounting services so that you can save time for advisory.

With Keeper, you can:

• Speed up your month-end close.
• Take advantage of pay-per-client, month-to-month subscriptions that support your needs.
• Utilize our project management system and client portals to streamline financial tasks, communicate seamlessly with your team and your clients, and maintain a positive client relationship.
• Integrate with bookkeeping/accounting software like Quickbooks Online, Xero, and other tools through Zapier.
• Easily upload and manage receipts digitally.
• Request, update, and export 1099s.
• Generate custom management reports quickly and easily.
• Get the support you need to run your practice more efficiently.

Discover how Keeper can streamline your CAS and support your accounting firm. Book a demo today.

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Client reception and engagement

After REI Bookkeepers introduced Keeper to their clients, the feedback and reception was overwhelmingly positive. “We had 90% of our clients using Keeper’s Client Portal within the first week,” said Greg. Compared to previous portal interfaces which required yet another set of login credentials, Keeper’s use of one-click Google Magic Links proved attractive to their less tech-savvy accounting clients. With enthusiastic support from those clients as well as the bookkeepers who were using the app, Dave was ready to take the leap. “I started to love Keeper, and we decided to go all in.”

Steering clients away from email and onto Keeper has been REI Bookkeepers’ number one priority.  Greg found Keeper’s Client Portal easy and straightforward to use – and his clients agreed. The bookkeeping team also loves the option to set up automated reminders for clients, which get sent twice a week until the client responds to the questions in their portal. Today, all of REI Bookkeepers’ clients are up and running on the new communication system.

“We’ve seen higher response rates across the board, and no one misses the old system of using Google Sheets and sorting through email inboxes.”

Leveraging Keeper as a whole

Keeper has quickly become the single source of truth for Greg and the team. Beyond the overall benefit that the Client Portal provides from a communication standpoint, Greg’s team also relies on the many review tools that Keeper offers.

One of the favorites amongst the team is the uncategorized transaction report. Greg and his bookkeepers no longer have to go through the effort of downloading uncategorized transactions into Excel, tidying up the file, and sending the questions one-by-one via email. Keeper’s two-way integration with QuickBooks gives Greg’s team the ability to mark and edit transactions in the app, and add any questions or comments straight to the Client Portal for his clients to review and respond to.

“Keeper makes it easy for me to do my work where I review my work,” said Greg.

“I would not be able to manage this workload as well as I do without it. Paying to have Keeper on our team is a no-brainer.”

What the future holds for REI Bookkeepers

After buying REI Bookkeepers and assuming the role of CEO, Greg admits that his team has only scratched the surface with Keeper. Their next undertaking is to explore the management reporting packages that Keeper offers. “We still send manual reports out of QuickBooks to do reviews. I am well aware that using Keeper will make our reporting that much more valuable to our clients.”

The post REI Bookkeepers gets 1.5k client questions answered per month using Keeper’s Client Portal appeared first on Keeper.

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And talking about raising them? That can be downright scary — if you don’t have a solid process that keeps you prepared and your clients informed when it comes to pricing conversations. 

The Danger of Increasing Prices Without a Plan

Apprehension over raising prices is common. Money is a sensitive topic, with lots of baggage and anxiety attached. 

If you’re like most people, that little voice inside is probably whispering: "But what if the client decides to walk away!?"

It’s a valid concern.

Yet, in my years of navigating price increases with hundreds of clients, only a handful have ever left. And those who did either weren’t the right fit anymore or were a result of my negligence in not following the defined process I’ve developed for handling this very thing. 

It only took me a few instances to learn that raising prices willy-nilly is a surefire way to lose a client’s trust — and sometimes their business. 

In fact, it once nearly cost me and my firm our largest client. 

The Whale That Almost Left: A Cautionary Tale

Numbers in order? Check. 

Standard pricing clause in the contract? Yep. 

The foundation was all there for a price raise. But the way I communicated about it nearly wiped out a client relationship that accounted for 15% of my firm’s gross profit. 

Instead of the usual multi-month notice I provide when it comes to raising prices, I veered off script, deviating from my standard framework and external communication plan. 

I hit the client with a price increase out of left field — a rookie move. 

Without much forethought, I fired off an email letting them know we needed to raise prices based on the change in scope and their impressive growth.

Understandably, they weren’t thrilled in the meeting that followed. But after hashing it out, luckily, this loyal client chose to stick around. 

It was an experience that taught me a valuable lesson: Most clients do understand the need for a price increase. It’s poor communication and a lack of notice that can send a whale swimming. 

The Not-So-Obvious Benefit of Raising Your Prices 

Most firms don’t spend enough time, if any, actually thinking about pricing.

The very obvious benefit of increasing prices is growing your bottom line. However, there’s more under the surface.

Taking a moment to consider your prices gives you an opportunity to reassess the scope of your services, how you contribute to your clients’ profitability, and how your fees align with the value you provide. 

Once you’re able to communicate the value you add, you’ll be able to close the compensation gap. 

How to Set Yourself Up For Success When Raising Prices

By carefully planning, flexing your soft skill muscles, and taking few cover-you-a** precautions, you should be well on your way to building a price-raising program that pays off every time.

Build a Line of Communication with Room for Personalization

For those familiar with my course on increasing client prices, you know that a strategy, framework, and an external communication plan are essential.

At Bookkeeping For Painters, our team relies on an external communication plan for smooth price increases that don’t compromise customer satisfaction.

Because of our upfront and proactive communication, I save approximately $25,000 a year in meeting time. The extra time saved is also impactful for our clients who do not need an unnecessary meeting on something they are already aware of. But that does not mean I remove the personal touch or shut down the opportunity.

If my clients want to meet, I’m more than happy to speak with them in person or on a call. Last year I sent out 100 price-raising emails, and only four people wanted a meeting as a result. I always give people the option, but most are aware and okay with the email and price increase because of the diligence that my team does ahead of time. 

Give Plenty of Warning

Raising prices is not unusual. What is unusual is surprising your clients with a sudden price hike after radio silence.

All of our clients receive at minimum a month's notice, if not multiple months, to digest any price increases. Email notices go out around October, but the planning and evaluation starts well in advance. 

What planning? That’s next. 

Base Increases on Demonstrable Data

I look at the numbers for each of our clients (revenue and gross profit) and track them against my staff’s production hours. 

Knowing your own service line profitability and, equally crucial, understanding your clients' financials is an added layer of support when implementing a price increase.

When you can articulate not just the “what” but the “why” behind a price adjustment — backed by concrete data — you create a narrative of shared growth. This clarity not only reinforces your confidence but also empowers you to rationalize price increases as a strategic move aligned with the evolving value you bring to your clients. 

Lean on Your Contract

We’re careful to include a price adjustment clause in all client contracts. And, as part of our commitment to clear communication, we also set the expectation from our initial engagement that price adjustments are part of our contract. 

Always Be Straightforward 

Directness and transparency pays off. I don't dance around the topic. I'm upfront about our approach to and communication around raising prices, and our clients appreciate it!

To this day, I still personally send every price increase email. If questions pop up, I prefer to address them myself. This helps keep my account managers focused on building relationships and removes any awkwardness caused by money discussions.

Ultimately, I want my account managers to be the "good cops" who are focused on building trust. I have no problem playing the "bad cop" part in order to make that work.

How Often to Reassess Pricing

At minimum, I encourage firms to re-evaluate prices at least once a year. Currently, we  re-evaluate prices twice a year for most clients. For certain clients, we do so even more frequently.

Once you start regularly reviewing pricing, scope of work, and the level of value you’re adding, you’ll be able to find the stride that works best for you. If you're adding new client accounting services, for example, that's a great time to reassess pricing.

One Final Tip for Bookkeepers and Accountants: Niche Down

I’m a strong believer in finding a niche and offering the best possible services or products to the customer in that particular field.

At Bookkeeping For Painters, it’s this very niching that has given my whole team strong expertise in the painting space, which makes it that much easier to raise prices and align with the high-value services we offer to our clients. 

Ready to Build Your Bookkeeping Business?

At the end of the day, growing your business is all about providing a deeply valuable service that aligns with your target market, knowing the hard numbers around your value, and being able to effectively and proactively communicate about that value when it comes to setting and raising prices. 

This is how our team was able to achieve over $2M a year in revenue and provide bookkeeping, advisory, tax, and sales automation to 165 (and growing!) clients. 

See how we serve our niche at the Bookkeeping For Painters website. And join my course on increasing client prices and walk away with not only strategy and confidence — but a handful of valuable engagement letter and email templates that will help you level up your business. 

The post How & Why to Raise Prices (From a $2M Bookkeeping Business) appeared first on Keeper.