Chris Baysden

As accounting firms plan their business development initiatives and finance professionals in business develop their strategies for 2022, experts say they need to keep three letters in mind: ESG. Demand for action on environmental, social, and governance issues hasn't been as urgent in the United States compared with Europe and some other parts of the world. But increased interest from investors and regulators seems certain to cause the practice area to heat up in the coming year.

Debbi Warden, CPA, CGMA, still remembers exactly why her bookkeeping firm decided to—as she colorfully puts it—jump off a cliff. “It felt as if every other week we were putting dollar signs in front of our clients,” she said of her firm’s previous billing practices. “We are a relationship business. And we didn’t want dollar signs interfering with the relationship.” Warden, an accountant who runs a firm called The Business Manager near Denver, wondered if changing her billing model might help.

A growing number of industry pricing experts are urging CPA firms to jettison the billable hour and replace it with a fixed-pricing model, or even the more optimal model of “value pricing.” Few public accounting topics spark as much controversy as this one. Many firms have adopted value pricing in recent years, but others have been reluctant to do so.