The invoice comes from the engagement letter.
Fixed fee, approved hours past the budget at the agreed rate, discounts. Computed, so it matches what the client signed.
Industries · Accounting and fractional CFO firms
Fixed fee. Every hour counted.
A fixed fee is sized in hours only you know. Ceed keeps the number and holds the hour that would cross it.
Sawtooth Logistics · JulyHeld
33.0 of 30 h
Tue 14 Jul · 3.0 h · Bank covenant model · Sam O.
Held for approval. 3.0 h over the client’s budget.
ApproveDecline
$7,500
the monthly fee
30 h
the hours behind it
$250
the hour past it
$7.50
Ceed, this month
Out of scope. On the record.
Most practices bill a fixed fee and watch for out-of-scope work. The watching is the job nobody has time for. Ceed does it the moment the hour is logged, so the third credit card, the vendor cleanup and the covenant model show up as a held hour, not as a thinner month.
Held. Not hidden.
The hour that would push a client over budget is saved, marked, and waits for a yes or no. Nothing is billed quietly. Nothing disappears.
- Logged
3.0 h · Sawtooth Logistics · Bank covenant model
- Held
Over the 30 h budget. Waiting for Dana.
- Approved
On the July invoice, at $250 an hour.
One set of hours. Everything follows.
Your own close. As clean as your clients’.
Invoices, statements and margin for the month are frozen as one record. Nothing in it changes after.
Documents for the ledger you already use.
Invoices and statements come out of Ceed for QuickBooks or Xero.
Invoice · Sawtooth Logistics · July 2026Computed
Fractional CFO retainer · 30 h$7,500.00
Approved hours past the budget · 3.0 h at $250.00$750.00
Total$8,250.00
Computed from the agreement dated 1 Mar 2026. Nothing typed.
From the field. In their words.
What accountants, bookkeepers and fractional CFOs say in public about fixed fees, scope creep and pricing. Linked and dated. Not our words.
Said on X.
Are there any good CPA firms that don’t bill hourly and make their employees track time?
Like I’m talking 40 hours a week, no hourly bill to the client, and no time tracking internally..
no, it’s good pricing information. i don’t care if we go “overbudget” but if something’s taking a lot longer than i thought then we should know.. doesn’t mean you need to track to the 0.1 hour interval, but knowing whether it took the staff 20 hours or 40 hours matters.
If we propose an audit for let’s say $7,500, and it takes 160 hours, instead of 80 hours, then it is a less profitable engagement than an audit that takes 80 hours.
There’s an opportunity cost associated with the extra time we take to complete a project.
We don’t bill explicitly by time but if employees didn’t track time there would be no metric to understand who might be struggling, who needs support, and who will be overwhelmed. I don’t believe the total vibe feel is scalable.
Said on YouTube.
Said elsewhere.
- YouTubeBookkeeping Pricing 2025: How Much Should You Really Charge?Zach Pasquariello · tiers against hours
- YouTubeThe Accounting Firm Unlimited Client HackJason Staats, Jason On Firms · capacity and client load
- RedditPricing: a guide(ish)r/Bookkeeping · 2025 · how bookkeepers size a monthly fee
- RedditBoundaries between accounting and bookkeeping workr/Bookkeeping · 2025 · where the engagement letter ends
- ArticleScope creep: the two root causesRyan Lazanis, Future Firm · September 2026 · hours of unpaid work a month, noticed late
- ArticleHow to bill for out-of-scope work and keep clients happyIgnition · June 2025 · the change order in an accounting firm
- ArticlePricing guesswork is costing firmsAccounting Today · November 2025 · pricing ranges before the proposal goes out
Of what you invoice. That is the pricing page.
Invoice $7,500 this month for Sawtooth Logistics and Ceed costs $7.50. A month you invoice nothing costs nothing. No seats, no tiers, no minimum.
Questions. Answers.
We bill fixed fees. Why track hours at all?
Because the fee was sized in hours. The client sees the fee. You see the hours, and whether the fee still fits the work.
Can the extra hours go on the invoice?
An approved hour lands on that month’s invoice at the rate in the agreement. A declined hour stays on the record and off the invoice.
Does Ceed read the engagement letter we signed elsewhere?
You enter the terms: fee, hours, rates, discounts.
When a client’s month closes, does ours?
Your month closes as one record: every client’s invoice, every statement, the margin. It does not reopen.
We invoice $35,000 a month across forty clients. Is Ceed really $35?
Yes. 0.1% of what you invoice, whatever the client count. No seats, no tiers, no minimum. The rate never moves.
From the blog: Held. Not hidden. The agreement said 40 hours. The month said 47. Other firms Ceed is for: Advisors · Fractional executives · Management consulting · all nineteen.