Setting Next Year's Prices With Your Accountant
Most small business owners set prices alone, late at night, with a gut feeling and last year's price list. Your accountant already sees your costs, margins and tax position, yet many owners only call them in March about a tax return. A focused pricing session in December turns that relationship into one of your best planning tools. This guide shows you how to prepare, what to cover and how to leave the meeting with prices you can defend.
Key takeaways
- Book a pricing session with your accountant in December, before the new year rush and the tax deadline season.
- Bring product or service level data: costs, sales volumes, discounts and time spent, not just your annual totals.
- Ask your accountant to check true costs, margins, break-even and the tax effects of pricing choices.
- You still make the final call. Your accountant brings the numbers; you bring customers, competitors and your brand.
Pricing is one of the most powerful levers in a small business, and one of the most avoided. Owners worry about losing customers, about competitors, about sounding greedy. So prices drift for years while rent, wages, materials and software creep upward. By the time the margin squeeze shows up in the accounts, a whole year has gone by.
Your accountant is well placed to stop that drift. They can see which products quietly lose money, which clients take far more time than they pay for, and how your costs have moved compared with your prices. What they usually lack is your view of the market and a clear question to answer. Give them both, and a single meeting can reshape your year.
This article is general information about pricing and working with an accountant, not financial, tax or legal advice. Every business is different, so use it as a starting point for your own conversation.
Why December is the right time
Timing matters. In January many accountants are busy with year-end work and tax deadlines, including the US Q4 estimated tax payment due 18 January 2028 and UK Self Assessment returns due 31 January. A December meeting catches them before that rush and gives you time to act on the results.
December is also when you have most of the year's numbers in hand. You can see how the busy season went, which products sold, and where costs rose. New prices can then go live in January or early February, which is a natural moment for customers to expect changes. If you already raised prices this year, the session is still useful: it checks whether the increase was enough and where the next review should focus.
Pro tip
Ask whether your accountant offers advisory or planning sessions as a separate service, and agree the scope and fee in writing before the meeting. A clear brief such as "review margins on our top 15 products and test three price scenarios" keeps the session focused and the cost predictable.
What to bring to the pricing meeting
The quality of the advice depends on the quality of the data. Annual totals alone will not tell you which prices are wrong. Spend a couple of hours before the meeting pulling these together.
- Sales by product or service. Units sold and revenue for each item or service line over the last 12 months. Your point-of-sale or invoicing system can usually export this.
- Current price list. Including any standard discounts, bundles and trade or wholesale prices.
- Direct costs per item. Materials, stock, packaging, shipping, card and platform fees, and subcontractor costs.
- Time data for services. Hours spent per client or project if you sell time. Time tracking tools such as Toggl Track, Harvest or Clockify make this easy to export.
- Known cost changes. Supplier price letters, rent reviews, planned hires, pay rises and new software subscriptions for next year.
- Discount history. How often you discounted, by how much and for whom.
- Market notes. What competitors charge, what customers say about your prices and any lost deals where price was the reason.
Common mistake
Arriving with a vague request like "should we put prices up?" Without product-level data and a clear question, the meeting turns into a general chat and you leave with no decisions. Send your data and questions a week ahead so your accountant can prepare.
The numbers to review together
Once your accountant has the data, work through these areas in order. Each builds on the one before.
True cost per product or service
Start with direct costs, then ask your accountant to help you share overheads such as rent, admin time and software across your products in a sensible way. Many owners discover that a popular item, once its share of overheads and staff time is included, earns far less than they thought. For services, convert hours into cost using a loaded hourly rate that includes wages, payroll costs and overheads.
Margin by line
Next, compare price with cost for each line. Sort the list from lowest margin to highest. The bottom of the list is where to focus: items that sell well but barely cover their costs, clients whose fees have not kept up with the work, and bundles where the discount has eaten the profit.
Fixed costs and break-even for next year
Fixed costs stay the same as sales change, such as rent and salaries. Variable costs rise with each sale, such as materials, card fees and shipping. Ask your accountant to estimate next year's fixed costs, including planned changes, and to show how much you need to sell at proposed prices to cover them. For a single product, break-even in units is fixed costs divided by (price minus variable cost per unit). For a mixed business, your accountant can work with average margins instead.
Tax and compliance effects
Pricing touches tax in ways owners sometimes miss. Ask whether prices should be shown including or excluding VAT or sales tax for your customers, whether a change in turnover could affect registration thresholds or your accounting method, and how price changes could affect estimated tax payments. Your accountant can flag what to check; the official tax authority guidance is the final word.
Running the meeting step by step
A pricing session works best with a simple agenda. Aim for about 90 minutes and keep notes of every decision.
- Agree the goal. For example: protect margin after cost increases, simplify the price list, or fund a planned hire.
- Review the margin list. Walk through the lowest-margin lines first and decide which need action.
- Test scenarios. Ask your accountant to model two or three options, such as a small rise across the board, bigger rises on low-margin lines only, or dropping certain products.
- Stress-test volume. For each scenario, ask what happens to profit if sales volume falls a little, stays flat or grows. This shows how much risk each option carries.
- Check cash timing. Discuss how the change affects monthly cash flow, deposits and payment terms.
- Decide and assign. Choose a scenario, set a go-live date and agree who updates the price list, website, invoices and contracts.
A simple pricing review template
Use this table to structure the meeting. Add one row per product, service or client type. All amounts are made-up examples.
| Line | Current price (example) | Direct cost (example) | Share of overheads (example) | Current margin | Proposed price (example) | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Signature candle | $28 | $9 | $6 | 46% | $32 | Raise in January |
| Gift wrap service | $4 | $2 | $2 | 0% | $6 | Raise or bundle |
| Monthly retainer client | $1,200 | $700 | $300 | 17% | $1,400 | Review at renewal |
The "Decision" column is the most important one. It turns analysis into action and gives you something to follow up on in your next quarterly check-in.
Hypothetical example
Imagine Rosa, who runs a small bakery with a catering side. She assumed catering was her most profitable work. Her accountant shared staff time and delivery costs across her lines and found that catering orders under a certain size barely broke even once preparation and driving time were counted. Together they set a minimum order value and a delivery fee for small orders, and nudged up two popular pastries whose ingredient costs had risen. Rosa kept her headline prices for bread steady, which mattered to her regulars. The details are made up for illustration.
What stays your decision
Your accountant can tell you what a price does to your margin. They cannot tell you how your customers will feel about it. That part is yours: your sense of what your market will bear, how your brand is positioned, what competitors charge and which customers you most want to keep.
Use the numbers as guardrails, not instructions. If the analysis says a product should cost more than customers will pay, you have other options: change the recipe or materials, change the size, bundle it with something more profitable, or retire it. When you do raise prices, give customers reasonable notice, explain briefly and focus on value. Contracts and subscriptions may have their own notice terms, so check them before changing anything.
Pro tip
Book a short follow-up for three months after the new prices go live. Compare sales volumes and margins with the scenario you chose. If something surprised you, adjust early instead of waiting for next December.
Your pricing meeting checklist
- Book a December session and agree scope and fee in writing
- Export sales, units and revenue by product or service for 12 months
- List direct costs, time data and known cost changes for next year
- Send data and your key questions a week ahead
- Review true cost, margin by line and next year's break-even
- Model two or three price scenarios with volume stress tests
- Check VAT or sales tax display and any tax effects
- Choose a scenario, set a go-live date and assign updates
- Schedule a three-month follow-up
Frequently asked questions
Is a pricing review part of my normal accounting fee?
Often not. Many accountants treat planning and advisory work as a separate service. Ask what is included in your current arrangement and agree any extra work and fees before the meeting.
What if I do not have an accountant?
You can still run the same review yourself using your bookkeeping software and the template above. For tax questions, consider booking a one-off session with a qualified accountant or bookkeeper who works with businesses like yours.
How often should I review prices with my accountant?
A full review once a year works for many small businesses, with a lighter check each quarter. Review sooner if a major cost changes suddenly, such as a big supplier increase or a new lease.
Related reading
The bottom line
Setting next year's prices with your accountant turns pricing from a guess into a plan. Bring product-level data, ask clear questions, review true costs and margins, and test a few scenarios before you decide. Your accountant guards the numbers, and you guard the customer relationship.
Send that meeting request this week. A focused 90 minutes in December can protect your margins for the whole of next year.
