FEES · TWO REAL ENGAGEMENTS

What does an accounting firm cost?

Two real engagements, over one completed financial year: CHF 1'000 and CHF 4'000 excluding VAT. These are not fixed quotes. They are two invoices as they came out, and we open them line by line below.

Get in touch What makes up the cost
01

The two engagements

Engagement A
No VAT, no payroll
CHF 1'000
excluding VAT · one financial year
  • Bookkeeping, around 150 entries
  • Year-end closing
  • Annual accounts
  • Tax return
  • Minutes of the general meeting

That list is closed.

Engagement B
VAT-registered, one salary
CHF 4'000
excluding VAT · one financial year
  • Bookkeeping, around 1'500 entries
  • VAT returns
  • Payroll
  • Year-end closing
  • Annual accounts
  • Tax return
  • Minutes of the general meeting

That list is closed.

Excluding VAT, not inclusive: our clients are companies that recover it, and net of tax is the convention between businesses.

Both lists end there. What is not on them is not included — that is what an invoice as it came out means, rather than a quote announced in advance.

02

Ten times the volume is not ten times the fee

What people assume Engagement B has VAT and a salary. That is where the gap comes from.
What actually happens A payslip weighs almost nothing. Nor does a VAT return, as long as there is only one rate to allocate.
What people assume Ten times the entries, so ten times the fee.
What actually happens What goes up is the number of distinct suppliers and customers, the number of VAT rates to allocate, and the time spent chasing missing documents.

That leaves the review, and the review is what tracks volume. The system proposes the posting, a person checks it — every entry, not a sample. That is how we work, and it is the one item that genuinely grows with the number of lines.

03

What makes up the cost

What varies by quantity.

Bookkeeping

Ongoing, volume dominates. On deadline, it is the distinct suppliers and customers, and the number of VAT rates.

VAT

Several rates on one invoice are allocated by hand, and posting errors are more frequent there.

Payroll

Staff turnover, variable hours and collective labour agreements (CCT) push the fee up. A stable headcount on fixed salaries stays light.

What varies by complexity.

Year-end closing

The number of items to verify: receivables, depreciation, fixed assets, accruals, payroll, VAT.

Annual accounts

Follows the closing: more detail in the accounts and in the notes, more time.

Tax return

Same logic as the annual accounts: it follows their level of detail.

Minutes of the general meeting

The number of resolutions to record sets the fee.

04

Two ways of working

Ongoing bookkeeping
Driven by the flow of transactions
  • Receivables and payables tracked
  • Interim figures available
  • You are inside Odoo
Deadline-driven accounting
Driven by the deadline that falls due
  • The financial position when the accounts are drawn up
  • No interim figures
  • You never see Odoo

What actually changes: on deadline, you find out where you stand when the accounts are drawn up — and more often than not it confirms what you already suspected. Ongoing, you follow it, and you can still act on it.

A director who does not want interim figures has no reason to take the ongoing option. These are two choices, not a good one and a lesser one.

05

What automation changes

It is a bet: the base costs less, and what you save pays for what you would not previously allow yourself. Interim figures were always possible — they came last, for want of budget.

Want to know what it comes to in your case?

Describe your situation and we will tell you what it involves and what it costs.

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