Calculating the cost of pre-accounting: time, rate and licence

How do you calculate what processing a document costs?

You calculate the cost per document by multiplying the average processing time by the fully loaded hourly cost of the person doing the work. Measure the time from receipt to reconciled booking, not just data entry. Chasing missing documents, sending and processing client questions, corrections and reconciling the bank all count.

Then add your software licence costs and divide the total by the number of bookings per month. That gives you the cost per booking, a figure you can compare across ways of working and suppliers. A simple way to measure it is to record, for two weeks and per team member, how many documents were processed and how many hours were spent on them.

1. 1Count the number of documents and bookings per month, per administration.
2. 2Measure the processing time per document, including client questions, corrections and reconciliation.
3. 3Determine the fully loaded hourly cost of the people who do the processing.
4. 4Multiply the processing hours by the hourly cost.
5. 5Add the licence costs of your software.
6. 6Divide the total by the number of bookings to get the cost per booking.

How do you determine the fully loaded hourly cost?

The fully loaded hourly cost is the total annual cost of a team member including overhead, divided by the number of productive hours. Costs include gross salary, employer contributions and pension, plus a share of overhead such as office space, software, training and management time. Productive hours are the hours actually spent on client work, excluding holidays, sick leave, meetings and internal tasks.

A worked example with fictitious figures: a team member costs € 60,000 a year including employer contributions, the allocated overhead is € 12,000 and there are 1,300 productive hours. The fully loaded cost is then € 72,000 / 1,300 = roughly € 55 per hour. If processing one document takes 6 minutes on average, that is € 5.50 per document. At 800 documents a month, that adds up to 80 hours and € 4,400 of processing time, before any licence.

Which licence models for pre-accounting software exist?

Pre-accounting software is broadly priced in four ways: per administration, per document, per user or as a fixed fee with a bundle of bookings. Many suppliers combine models, for example an amount per administration plus an amount per document. So always look at the total for your numbers, not at a single rate.

Each model responds differently to growth. With a price per administration, costs rise with every new client, even one with few documents. With a price per user, they rise with your team, even if volume stays the same. With a price per document or a bundle, costs follow the work that is actually done. Also check what falls outside the licence, such as a client portal, extra integrations or separate modules.

• Per administration: a fixed amount per client per month. Predictable, but expensive with many small administrations.
• Per document: you pay per processed invoice or receipt. Costs follow volume, but peaks around quarter ends show up directly.
• Per user: an amount per team member. Favourable for a small team with high volume, more expensive if more people need access.
• Fixed fee with a bundle: a monthly amount with a number of included bookings and a rate above that. Simple, and costs only grow above the bundle.

How do you compare licence models for 20, 50 and 150 administrations?

You compare licence models by calculating the monthly amount for each model using your own numbers of administrations, documents and users. The example below uses fictitious rates that do not belong to any existing supplier: € 10 per administration, € 0.30 per document, € 60 per user, and a fixed fee of € 150 with 1,000 documents included and € 0.15 per extra document. Assumption: an average of 40 documents per administration per month and 2, 4 and 10 users.

The example shows that the cheapest licence depends on the ratio between administrations, volume and team. It also shows that the licence is small compared with processing time. At 50 administrations and 2,000 documents, 6 minutes per document at € 55 per hour costs € 11,000 a month. If automation brings that down to, say, 2 minutes, it is about € 3,670: a difference far larger than the difference between licences. All amounts are per month and are for illustration only:

• 20 administrations, 800 documents, 2 users: per administration € 200, per document € 240, per user € 120, fixed with bundle € 150.
• 50 administrations, 2,000 documents, 4 users: per administration € 500, per document € 600, per user € 240, fixed with bundle € 300.
• 150 administrations, 6,000 documents, 10 users: per administration € 1,500, per document € 1,800, per user € 600, fixed with bundle € 900.
• Processing time at 6 minutes per document and € 55 per hour: € 4,400, € 11,000 and € 33,000 per month.

What does Autoboeker cost and how do you work it out for your firm?

On the Firm plan, Autoboeker costs € 50 per month for the whole firm, including 200 bookings, and then € 0.20 per extra booking, excluding VAT. A booking is one processed invoice or receipt that is posted definitively to the connected accounting software. Administrations, users and the client portal with app are unlimited, so the price only follows the number of bookings. The plan can be cancelled monthly and includes free onboarding and check-ins and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Using the same numbers as above: at 800 bookings Autoboeker costs € 50 + 600 x € 0.20 = € 170 per month, at 2,000 bookings € 410 and at 6,000 bookings € 1,210. For firms with 25 FTE or more there is the Large firm plan, which includes Atlas, unlimited bookings at a custom rate and a dedicated point of contact. Work out your own situation in the price comparison at /prijsvergelijking, and use the ROI calculator at /roi to see how much capacity automation frees up for your firm.