a(n) __________ provides accounting services to individuals or firms on a fee basis.
A firm may provide services to an accountant for payment in either cash or on-time basis with a specified schedule or an agreed-to schedule.
Accountants often work for companies, so they need to have a firm to rely upon when working with clients. Often, accounting services are provided on a per-hour basis or a flat fee. Although some accountants offer a variety of services to their clients, the primary method of payment is usually the client’s or the firm’s checking account.
You might think that an accounting firm providing on-time services to a client would have an obligation to keep the client on the same schedule as the firm. In fact, you probably wouldn’t get paid if you didn’t keep to the agreed-on schedule. The point is that the client is usually paying for an accountant’s services, not the accounting firm. It’s the accounting firm that is obligated to keep the client’s business on the same schedule as the firm.
But there is a loophole. What if an accounting firm was providing services to a client on an hourly basis, but the client was paying the accounting firm on a regular basis? In that case the accounting firm would be paying them for the services of the accounting firm, not the client.
But for the most part, all accounting firms are paid on a fee basis. That means that the accounting firm is paying them for the services they provide. But the client is paying them for the accounting firm. It is not the accounting firm that is paying the accounting firm for the services they provide.
In some cases, accounting firms include on their payroll people who do not actually work in accounting, but provide services to clients. The client pays the accounting firm, which then employs them. The client is paying a portion of the fees and the percentage of the firm’s income is the fee.
We’re not going to worry too much about this. The two are not the same thing. Accounting firms are businesses, and the clients are paying the fees. The accounting firm is not in the business of providing accounting services.
I don’t want to leave out the accounting firm for a second, but it’s a different business altogether. As you might guess, accounting firms are businesses that provide accounting services, not accounting services. And unlike a contractor or supplier, who is paying out their invoices, the accounting firm is not paying out their invoices.
So, accounting firms like the ones I mentioned are actually in the business of providing accounting services, and their clients are the people who use them. However, their clients are not the accounting firms. They are the clients. The clients are paying the fees.
The thing I love about accounting is that it’s so easy to get into a business when you don’t have a lot of people around. Your account will be run by people who are just as good as you, and you want to give them a chance to learn how to take more and better care of your accounts.