How to Charge for Insight, Not Just Input
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
– Warren Buffett
For many accountants making the shift to advisory, one of the biggest internal roadblocks isn’t the service itself, it’s pricing that service appropriately.
This is because pricing in our sector has historically been quite simple, you charge a fixed hourly rate for work or meetings and call it a day.
But advisory doesn’t operate this way. Instead offering highly specific amounts of value, entirely dependent on the individual circumstances of each client.
Think of it this way:
How do you price a conversation that leads to decision making?
How do you charge for giving someone confidence in their future?
How do you put a fee on helping someone sleep better at night?
Compliance creates mappable value against clear deliverables. But in advisory, where the power lies in guidance and clarity instead of compliance, a fixed pricing structure only serves to hold you back.
When you charge for time, you trap yourself in a model where effort equals income. In advisory, where effort is not the true measure of value, a pricing model that accounts for this change will make every stage of the process easier.
To understand why, we must start by discussing how time-based billing puts a ceiling on advisory work.
Why Time-Based Billing Undervalues Advisory
The hourly model was built for compliance.
It’s linear. Predictable. You do X hours of work; you bill for X hours of time. It makes sense when your output is measurable, fixed, and reactive.
But as we already discussed, advisory isn’t like that.
Advisory is about insight, not inputs. It’s about decisions and forward momentum. The most valuable conversation might happen in 15 minutes; but does that mean it’s worth less?
When you sell time, clients see you as a cost to manage.
When you sell outcomes, they see you as an investment to protect.
Why Accountants Struggle to Price Advisory
Pricing advisory is hard, not because it’s vague, but because it challenges how we’ve been taught to think about the very concept of value in our industry.
1. There’s No Industry Standard
Most accountants were taught how to comply, not how to commercialise. Time-based billing emerged as a clear, predictable winner in compliance, and it stuck. Value pricing, on the other hand, feels abstract, until you learn how to properly frame what you’re already doing.
That’s why the training, frameworks and structured tools matter. Because the ability to see your value is what helps you charge for it.
2. You’ve Been Trained to Be Fair, Not Flexible
Accountants are hardwired for fairness. Charging two clients different fees for what seems like the same time investment feels inconsistent.
But pricing for value means being fair to the outcome, not just the hours. Different clients face different pressures, risks and opportunities, and your service should meet them where they are.
True fairness isn’t about sameness. It’s about relevance. And relevance requires flexibility.
3. You Think You Need to Guarantee the Result
You’re not selling miracles. You’re guiding smarter decisions, reducing risk, and adding strategic clarity.
Value pricing doesn’t mean guaranteeing results. It means backing the process you’ve built and delivering it with confidence.
That’s what gets priced: Not the outcome, but the advantage.
Reframing What You’re Really Selling
When you charge for time, you’re paid to show up. When you charge for value, you’re paid to make a difference.
Your clients aren’t buying hours, they’re buying:
- The loan that gets approved because you advised on how to restructure cashflow
- The opportunity seized because you spotted a pattern in their numbers
- The stress avoided because they had a clear plan to move forward
They’re not paying for 3.5 hours. They’re paying for transformation.
What Value-Based Advisory Looks Like in Real Life
Let’s make this even more tangible with two examples:
Example 1: Cashflow Advisory
Old model:
You meet bi-monthly to review reports and explain what’s already happened. It’s reactive, focused on historic figures, and charged by the hour.
New model:
You give strategic guidance using a structured framework and support a client in anticipating and navigating upcoming cashflow pressure and business challenges early. You help them make forward-looking decisions, reduce uncertainty, and avoid stress before it hits.
Example 2: Strategic Planning Session
Old model:
You host a half-day session, do some prep, and bill for the time. It feels like “a big meeting” rather than a transformational moment befitting the shift it enables.
New model:
You lead the session as a strategic reset. Backed by a clear framework that aligns financial strategy with the client’s goals, clarifies their priorities, and maps out their next moves.
Now it’s not just time spent, it’s direction gained.
A Simple Framework to Start Pricing for Value
You don’t need to overhaul your entire pricing model overnight. You just need to start exploring what your advisory offering needs to be to allow you to price it for value:
- Identify the Problem You’re Solving
What’s are the actual pain point of your clients? Is it cashflow? Decision fatigue? Growth uncertainty? - Articulate the Desired Outcome
What will the client do or achieve after working with you? How does an advisory session with you build to this outcome? - Estimate the Financial or Strategic Impact
Can you attach a dollar value to the results you’ll be providing? Or can you articulate a clear cost of inaction? - Anchor Your Price to That Value
Your fee should reflect a fraction of the results, not the hours involved. - Incorporate Emotional Benefits
How will your client feel after working with you? Relieved? Confident? In control? Connect the result to not just the numbers, but the peace of mind you’re creating. - Package It Clearly
Give it a name, a format, and incorporate the desired outcome and impacts into a packaged product, even if it’s flexible in delivery.
This creates trust, positions you as a guide, and shifts the conversation from “how long will this take?” to “what will we get from this?”
Give Yourself the Confidence to Charge What Your Advice is Worth
Pricing is as much a confidence game as it is a commercial one.
The tools and techniques matter, but none of it works without mindset. Value pricing asks you to back yourself and stand behind the idea that your insight, judgment, and strategic guidance create real change.
Because they do.
You help clients make better, faster, smarter decisions with fewer regrets. That’s worth something. Often, it’s worth a lot more than the client realises until they experience it.
When you evidence that impact and price based on it, your firm stops running on volume and starts running on value.
