A small Bangkok accounting firm goes digital, Part 4: define service tiers from real data
Once the intake list has gathered a few months of real data, the firm can finally see how much monthly transaction volume each client actually has. Design service tiers by monthly transaction volume, with overage charges beyond the tier limit — pricing becomes transparent, quotes become consistent, and clients understand that their usage decides their price. Tiers come from data, not from a first-phase feature wishlist.
Last chapter, the firm turned intake into a trackable list. This chapter lets the accumulated data talk: how the service is priced finally has a basis.
In the past, pricing was a private judgment
Quotes were based on experience and feel: charge a bigger business a little more, a loyal client a little less. Clients did not know what level they had bought, and the firm could not itself explain why it charged what it did.
The problem: without data there is no standard. How many invoices a month, how many transactions, how many bank statements — the numbers were always there; nobody had counted them. Once the intake list was live and a few months of real submissions had accumulated, the firm could finally answer: “How many items does this client submit each month on average, how many at peak, how many off-peak?”
Tiers by transaction volume
With that data, shape the service into a few tiers, graded by monthly transaction volume:
- Essentials: clients with low monthly volume — bookkeeping and filings, all included, lowest price;
- Standard: mid-volume clients, covering most small businesses, the workhorse tier;
- Growth: clients with clearly higher volume, priced accordingly.
The key rule is overage charges: when a client’s monthly transaction volume exceeds the current tier limit, charge for the excess. This delivers:
- transparent pricing: clients see their volume tier and how overage is calculated;
- consistent quotes: new clients are quoted from the tiers instead of private judgment;
- informed clients: “my usage decides my price” — want to save, control the transaction count.
Tiers come from data, not a feature list
State it plainly: the tiers are designed from real submission data, not from a “should be three levels” feature wishlist. The tier limits come from how much each client actually submits each month — the boundaries fall where the data naturally clusters, not at numbers invented out of thin air.
This step also defines a few things clearly:
- Upgrade: when a client’s usage is steadily above the limit, move up a tier with the fee adjusted;
- Downgrade: when usage stays low for a long time, move down per agreement;
- One-month overflow: when only a single month spikes, charge the overage instead of forcing a whole-month upgrade;
- Notification: when, by whom, and in what form the client is told about a tier change.
The result is easy to verify: are quotes easier to produce, do clients ask less “where does this price come from”, and is anyone actually paying the overage? Once stable, put these tiers where clients can see them.
Boundaries matter: service-tier and pricing management is an independent system project, not part of the standard website package. This phase turns real data into a clear tier structure — it does not involve a complex quoting engine or billing system.