The retainer that has not changed since 2019

A client signs a monthly retainer for bookkeeping and one return. Two years later the practice is also handling a second registration, a payroll filing and the occasional notice. Each was added by a partner in a phone call, and none changed the invoice.

Why nobody notices

Because there is no single place where the engagement's scope lives. It exists in the original letter, which nobody reopens, and in the accumulated memory of whoever handles the client.

The practice's own staff often know the client is underpriced. They are not the ones who can change it, and raising it requires evidence they do not have.

The mechanism, not the intention

Every practice intends to review fees annually. The reason it does not happen is that the review requires assembling information that is scattered, at a time of year when everyone is busy.

If scope changes are recorded against the engagement as they occur, the review becomes reading a list rather than reconstructing two years.

What it is worth

In practices we have looked at, the underpricing is concentrated: most retainers are roughly right and a minority are substantially wrong. Finding those without a record means relying on a partner's discomfort, which is a poor instrument and an uncomfortable conversation to open without figures.