Our Ban The Ladder campaign, which we launched at Accountex this month, seems to have struck a chord with small and medium sized accountancy practices.
We launched the campaign to find out what effect ladder pricing is having on accountancy practices. Whilst BTCSoftware has always believed very strongly in clear transparent pricing, time after time we’ve seen many small but successful accountancy practices fall victim to strictly tiered pricing structures offered by our rivals.
As these practices grow and self-assessment or corporate tax return volumes increase, the ladder pricing kicks in. The result is major hikes in the cost of their software licenses. We felt this was wrong and contrary to the help that accountancy practices need to grow and build successful businesses. It would seem this view is also echoed by many practice owners.
9 out 10 practice owners who took part in our survey said software ladder pricing hinders the growth of their practice. Similar sentiments were echoed by the delegates at Accountex we spoke with.
Here are just some of the comments that came from our survey respondents:
- It is difficult to see a reason for “ladder pricing”. It means that the benefit of taking on an extra client is nullified when the step to the next higher charge is crossed.
- I used a ladder-pricing software provider for my practice for 9 years and after 6 years saw huge increases in my annual fees, not just because my client numbers had increased, but because the provider claimed they had “undercharged” me for several years. I ended up paying more annually than I did in my first year with the one-off initial fee as well! The big companies assume you’ll decide it is too much hassle to change software once all your clients are set up. There comes a point when the money you can save outweighs the time you’ll need to invest in year 1 as you get used to the new software and transfer all your clients across.
- We have found our software costs increasing considerably over the years. Certain software licence limits meant that we had to delete old client data before adding new clients, or pay a hefty additional client bundle in order to keep that old data.
At BTCSoftware, we are fundamentally against ladder pricing and instead offer a transparent, one-level software licence which doesn’t increase the more clients, returns or accounts you have. Our Ban The Ladder campaign sought to raise awareness to accountancy practices that they do have a choice when it comes to software pricing models. Big names may not, at the end of the day, help you build a profitable business for the long-term.
If you would like to join in the discussion around our Ban The Ladder campaign why not join our LinkedIn User Forum Group or contact us on tel. 0800 612 7650.
