How to price spend management services

With nearly three out of four (72%) SMBs looking for a proactive approach to expense management, adding spend management advisory services to your firm’s offerings is a great way to attract new clients as well as create more business from existing clients.

But how much should you charge for spend and expense management, including advisory services?

Different pricing models

BILL Spend & Expense is 100% free to use for both you and your clients, which means you don’t have to factor a software subscription fee into your pricing strategy. This allows you the flexibility to evaluate and charge value pricing for your spend management offering.

Some pricing models include:

• ‍Onboarding/set up fee. Some firms charge a onetime setup or onboarding fee when starting their clients on BILL Spend & Expense. This covers the time they spend along with the BILL Spend & Expense team setting up the new account including assigning users, creating budgets, and entering expense codes.
• ‍Fixed fee. Many firms offer spend management as a fixed weekly or monthly fee. This can include basic expense management reconciliation or include a CAS component, depending on your service offerings. This could be based off a percentage of a client’s annual revenue or maybe an employee count.
• ‍Package pricing. Other firms offer spend and expense management as part of their larger packages. Basic packages include basic expense management while more advanced CAS packages include a spend management consulting and advisory component.

You can mix and match these models to fit your service offering and firm’s overall pricing strategy. To learn more about how different firms price their spend management services, check out our Guide to Success with BILL Spend & Expense.

What to charge

What firms charge for spend and expense management can vary based on where the firm is located, the location of their clients, as well as the industries they serve. The important thing is to price the service in line with the value you provide.

In the 2023 report “From Expense Tracking to Spend Management: The Next Client Advisory Services Opportunity for Accounting Firms,” from CPA.com, 47% of surveyed firms report charging between $1000 and $5000 for their spend and expense management services and the majority charge either a flat monthly fee or a standard subscription fee.

This amount can vary depending on the service line offered (basic expense management vs spend management advisory).

For more information on how to create a spend management offering for your firm, check out our Guide to Success with BILL Spend & Expense.

To learn more about BILL Spend & Expense and pricing spend management advisory services, reach out to your partner success manager or visit our BILL for Accountants page to sign up as a Spend & Expense partner.