Meeting Minutes June 2, 2016

• The meeting this month was held at Kevin Minkoff’s office on the east side of Portland.
• Annual dues are $60 per year and meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month.
• Meetings are usually rotated between the east side and west side of Portland.
• Kevin recently purchased a building so the meeting site on the east side will change in the near future.
• Diana Chung facilitated the meeting. Diana’s topic for discussion was “How does each of us set our pricing so that it is fair in the marketplace?”.  Many in our group were using both fixed pricing and hourly rates to price their services.  Some found that they were billing lower than the rest of the group with their hourly bookkeeping rates.
• Current board members: President Kim Boaz, Vice President Melissa Barton, Treasurer Linda Lagraff, Membership coordinator Renee Trump, Secretary Diana Chung and Website coordinator Kevin Minkoff.
• We need a speaker coordinator and event coordinator. If anyone is interested, please contact Kim Boaz.
• Our website is allstaraccountingprofessionals.com.
• The next All Star Accounting Professional meeting will be held on June 7, 2016 at Tim Hess’s office located at 9600 SW Oak Street, Suite 505 on the west side of Portland. Megan Johnson will facilitate the meeting and discuss the new overtime laws.

FULL TEXT:

The meeting this month was held at Kevin Minkoff’s office on the eastside of Portland.  Kim opened the meeting.   She mentioned that our group has dues of $60 per year and meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month.  Meetings are usually rotated between the eastside and west side of Portland. Kevin recently purchased a building so the meeting site on the eastside will change in the near future.  Diana Chung facilitated the meeting.  Diana’s topic for discussion was “How does each of us set our pricing so that it is fair in the marketplace?”  Our pricing of our services speaks volumes about your value proposition more than any other component of a company’s marketing.  In referencing an article called “Pricing on Purpose: The Eight Steps to Implementing Value Pricing in Your Firm” written by Ron Baker, a study by McKinsey & Co. in Cleveland, Ohio found that a 1% increase in price, at a constant sales volume would produce an 11% average increase in profitability – far greater than decreasing fixed costs, increasing volume or reducing variable costs by 1%.  Many in our group were using both fixed pricing and hourly rates to price their services.  Some found that they were billing lower than the rest of the group with their hourly bookkeeping rates.  A question arose as to whether some were billing training at a different rate than regular bookkeeping and some agreed that they were.  Diana mentioned that best practices for billing should include communication with the client for change orders if the scope of the job changes from that originally expected.  Not bringing this up with the client can result in not realizing the extra time spent on a project or a surprised or unhappy client.  It is also a good idea to have a signed and dated engagement letter to document the services to be performed.

Kim introduced the board members who are as follows:  President Kim Boaz, Vice President Melissa Barton, Treasurer Linda Lagraff, Membership coordinator Renee Trump, Secretary Diana Chung and Website coordinator Kevin Minkoff.  We are in need of filling the speaker coordinator and event coordinator positions.  If anyone is interested, please contact Kim Boaz.