Calculating Fees to Outsource Accounts Receivables

[jones9764]

Please help me determine what I should charge a company to do their accounts receivables. My business is ready to run, but I cannot set a fee schedule. I want a monthly flat rate fee based on the number of customers my client has because the more customers, the more transactions I will have to deal with. Has anyone set up a fee schedule they would share with me? Please. I want to get going with my business. Would you think for a client with say 10 customers, a monthly fee of $300 is reasonable/too much/too little? So 20 customers would be $600? I want to have a simple scale. Thank you for whatever help you can give me!!!

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum jones9764.

Ultimately this is something you have to figure out and we can only help so much. We can't come up with what you should charge. It's something you have to do. That said we can help you figure out how to decide and try to point you in the right direction.

Don't feel bad that this is difficult. I think it's one of the more difficult decisions when starting a business. I know it was for me. It's often something you have to improve over the course of your business. Your prices can change for a variety of reasons.

One thing you can do is run some guestimated numbers. Think about what you imagine is your typical client. Think about your costs working for them. How many hours will you have to put in? How much does it cost in time and money to get the client? Think beyond the actual work and include how much time you might spend writing emails, talking over the phone, meeting in person. You're going to assume the work will take less time than it will so bump up the cost you estimate by some reasonable percentage. As you have more clients you'll be better at the cost estimates and can readjust.

You also want to include general expenses beyond a single client. Are you leasing office space? What bills will you have associated with the business? What equipment will you need to purchase? Don't forget random office supplies.

Think about how much you need to earn a living or whatever amount you think is what you want to earn. Once you have an estimate for all these numbers you can play around with how many clients at what price you'll need to earn what you want to earn each year. How much would you need to charge 10 clients? How about 15? 25? There's probably a sweet spot where the amount of clients seems reasonable and your prices seem reasonable too.

You can also search online for websites of similar businesses and see if they post rates. You probably want to look for businesses with similar experience to yours and probably in your general area. You can even call one or two pretending your a typical client of yours and seeing what they'd charge. If you do that, don't spend too much time on the phone as you aren't really thinking of hiring them. Don't waste too much of their time. You can also just ask. People like to talk about their businesses. Sometimes they'll be happy to tell you anything you want to know.

Hope that helps. I'm sure others will have more to offer.