Recommend fee

[ILLMAS]

Should shoebox client fee for organizing their books be higher then the preparation fee?  I am noticing I make less money with them and they come in at the worst time, I would like to hear from other how they handle these clients and your aggravation fees?

[Yardley CPA]

I absolutely charge more for a shoe box than a well sorted/prepared set of information.  No question about that and I make the client aware of that beforehand.  If they choose to bring me a shoe box, they will be charged more.  Fortunately, I don't have many of those. 

[North Idaho Rich]

I don't allow shoe boxes. They can at least add their medical and everything else and write the total for me.

No time for the extra work. Plus I hate trying to figure out if the medical is actually paid, an initial bill or what.

[rfassett]

I have a full time person that does all of that for me.  But I make the client understand up front that I charge her out at $55 per hour and that fee will be added to the tax prep fee. I actually like shoe box clients.  That is a profit center for me.

If I did not have a person like that the client would understand that I would charge $90 per hour to do that kind of work. They could either pay me to do it or take it home and bring it back summarized.

[Lion EA]

I charge my hourly fee during tax season.  If off-season, I usually charge less per hour than for tax prep.  And, I have a very, very part-time assistant who I pay to organize/run adding machine tapes/etc., and then I add that cost (including any of my time to direct her) to the client's bill.  Some stuffed boxes/bags get sent home anyway, to total themselves or go on extension until I can get my assistant in.

I put the Bookkeeping fee right on their invoice, so they can see how much it costs them.

[Lee B]

From time to time, I will take a shoebox client, giving them detailed instructions of how to organize and what to add up.

Then have them bring the organized box back.

I don't do shoeboxes myself anymore.

In my experience , the returns are usually pretty straightforward.

[ILLMAS]

Right now I have two corporate returns that needs the books done before attacking the tax return, one is a returning client and it takes me 4 to 6 hours to create the P&L and B&S, this year I realized charging $200 to $400 of extra work is not worth it for me.  

[RitaB]

On ‎2‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 9:34 AM, ILLMAS said:

Should shoebox client fee for organizing their books be higher then the preparation fee?

The guy who had his unemployed, degree holding wife drop off an accordion file on Oct 10 paid about twice as much for the bookkeeping.  They returned from vacation on Oct 17.  I feel pretty good about it.

[MDEA]

I do not do any shoe box clients. If you can not produce a spread sheet  or at least a a sheet with totals they must go elsewhere.