OUR TRANSPARENT APPROACH
You can’t stand unexpected fees or hidden costs
And you’ll never get them from us
Accounting – transparently
We specialise in accounting services for startups and fast growing SMEs, which means our whole approach suits your needs.
We know you want affordable services that are open and transparent, so you know exactly what things will cost and what you’ll get. How else are you supposed to focus on growing your business?
There’s nothing worse than being whacked with an unexpected bill (except maybe being locked into a contract for months on end). So you won’t get either of those with us.
We’ve set fair rates that reflect the effort involved in doing our work. We don’t build the cost of chasing outstanding accounts into our prices, because we use automated monthly and pay-on-completion billing. We also don’t offer discounts or credit terms. We know this is different from traditional accounting firms but that’s the point. We’re not traditional and neither are our clients.
You can read more about our transparent charging approach for specific services below. We trust that you understand our rationale but if you do have any queries, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at transparency@standardledger.co
Oh, and being transparent also means that we tell you that this philosophy is reflected in our Terms & Conditions.
We appreciate your time in reading this,
— Remco and the Standard Ledger team
moorabbinbinhire.com.au
We recognise that this is different from traditional accountants but that’s the point.
We use automated billing. Here’s how it works:
- Our bookkeeping, accounting and virtual CFO services are automatically charged each month with no lock-ins (we hate that stuff as much as you do). If you want to cancel at any time you can, with one month’s notice for bookkeeping and accounting and two month’s for our CFO services
- All our other services (tax, R&D tax incentive claims and more) are automatically billed on completion. Don’t worry, you’ll know how much it will cost when you accept our proposal beforehand
We are able to do automatic fixed-price billing because we don’t need to build the cost of chasing outstanding debts into our prices, like traditional accountants do.
We use Practice Ignition to make it all happen. When you digitally sign our proposal, you’ll be asked to provide your credit card or bank account details for payment. If you need to change your billing details or if there are any errors in processing, please email practice@standardledger.co. If we make an error, refunds will be processed within 14 days.
We recognise that from time to time, your account or credit card might have insufficient funds when the automatic payment is due. We will retry processing and get in touch if it doesn’t go through. If we can’t make contact or resolve matters, we’ll let you know and discontinue our service, including any Xero services.
Our aim is to be as open and transparent with you as possible. If you like the sound of that, read more about the accounting services we offer.
Fair Use Pricing Policy
We know you like fixed monthly pricing and in order to make that work, we have a Fair Use Pricing Policy.
It’s based on keeping things fair for you and us, because sometimes the level of service we’re providing might change so the pricing should too.
You can find out more about the policy here, but to summarise: It's based on reviewing the service we're providing you each quarter and then talking to you if it needs to be adjusted. We won't change pricing without talking to you first and usually any adjustments apply moving forward, not retrospectively.
We think this is all pretty fair. If you do too, learn more about the accounting services we offer.
Tax return preparation services
Our tax services all have fixed prices, so you know what you’ll be paying. We charge the fee automatically, once we’ve completed the work. This happens when we send you the final tax return for electronic signing (before lodgement).
Some clients choose to delay preparing tax returns until later in the year, in order to hold off on paying expected tax until closer to its due date. We usually advise preparing the tax return earlier than the actual lodgement date, so you can understand what your tax obligations are likely to be and make tax-effective decisions. We can then agree on actual lodgement timing later in the year, when due.
We ♥ tax. If you don’t (and we hope you don’t!), find out more about the tax services we offer.
R&D tax incentive claims
As with all our services, our R&D tax incentive service has fixed prices so you know what you’ll be paying.
We charge the fee automatically, once we submit the claim to AusIndustry for approval. This service works on a ‘no success no fee’ basis, so if AusIndustry rejects your claim (which is rare), we’ll refund your fees within 14 days.
During our kick off calls occasionally our advice is not to go ahead. If this is the case, you won’t be charged.
It’s also worth noting that you can only receive an R&D refund if your tax return includes an R&D schedule, and preparing a company tax return involves its own fees. If we’re doing your tax return, our normal tax return fees apply. If we need to do any additional accounting work to prepare your financials before doing your tax return, our adhoc rates will apply. We’ll always discuss this with you beforehand.
The R&D tax incentive is a major source of funding for many Australian businesses. Learn more about how we can help you access it.
Advisory & consulting services
These services include financial modelling, capital raising support, tax structuring and other advisory and consulting services.
For these, we will agree on a price with you and charge:
- 25% deposit (upfront)
- The balance automatically, when we complete the work
We also offer adhoc phone consultations with our principals, Remco (on accounting, operations, R&D and CFO matters) and Mike (on tax, structuring, international and CFO matters).
Our pricing philosophy is all about standardised services and fees to make them affordable and scalable (hence the Standard in our name). Having said that, there are some times when we need to charge by the hour because a project can’t be properly scoped beforehand (yep, sometimes we get thrown and run with a bunch of catch up work).
If this is the case, we will always aim to provide you with a time estimate in advance, if we can.
If adhoc priced work continues for a while (over a month or so) we’ll charge you along the way to avoid bill shock. Don’t worry, we’ll let you know in advance #nosurprises.
Note that sometimes adhoc rates might vary for different tasks even if they’re completed by the same person, as we price based on the type of work.
Our aim is always to keep our pricing as open and transparent as possible. If you like the sound of this, learn more about the accounting services we offer.