%20-%20BF%2004_09_2025.png)
Simple or Complex?
A straightforward checklist to determine your pricing tier.
Built to Keep Scope Fair
Before diving into the checklist, here’s how I define scope — and why it matters.
Some businesses are simple. Others aren’t. That’s not a judgment — it’s just structure. This checklist is here to draw that line clearly, so scope stays fair and pricing stays honest. It’s not about hours or effort — it’s about how much the financial system has to hold. The more moving parts, the more logic and structure it takes to keep things clean. If your setup meets two or more of the criteria below, it's considered Complex. No surprises, no games — just a clear, consistent way to match the system’s structure to its reality.
If your company has more than one site or segment that I’ll be maintaining, each one is assessed and billed separately. This isn’t about how many locations you have on paper. It’s about how many parts I’m actually responsible for keeping structured.
If everything runs the same and doesn’t require separate tracking, I treat it as one unit. But if I’m maintaining structure in more than one place — with different logic, books, entries, tags, or reporting — then each one is reviewed on its own. That way, the scope reflects the actual setup, not just how it looks on the surface.
I’ve structured things this way because fairness matters. Just because a business has two sites doesn’t mean it should always be treated like two entities. If they’re small, run the same, and don’t need to be tracked or treated separately — even within entries, tagging, services, or reporting — I treat them as one. Because that’s what they are. Though, if I’m maintaining structure in more than one place — across different books, workflows, classifications, or reporting needs — then they’re scoped and billed separately, even if they sit under one company.
It protects you from overbilling and me from overwork. Simple, clear, and built to hold.
Checklist Pricing Tiers
-
Your price is determined by a clear checklist — not a judgment call.
-
Simple: 0–1 boxes checked of 10 → $3,000/month.
-
Complex: 2–5 boxes checked of 10 → $4,000/month.
-
Super Complex: 6-10 boxes checked of 10 → Custom Pricing based on your needed and structure.
-
Designed only for rare outliers that meet nearly all criteria.
-
-
The Complexity Checklist
Each billable site is reviewed against this checklist to determine whether it qualifies as: Simple, Complex or Super Complex.
Checkboxes
-
You have more than one site I’m actively supporting, based on the rules in the paragraphs above.
-
You have more than one business segment I’m actively supporting, based on the rules in the paragraphs above.
-
Revenue, expenses, or balances flow between multiple entities and require reconciliation or clearing each month.
-
You transact in multiple currencies — in any way, shape, or form.
-
You earn revenue from more than one business model, each with different recognition or tracking needs
-
Examples include:
-
Subscriptions + Implementation fees
-
Product sales + Subscriptions
-
Lodging + Events
-
Sales vs Membership
-
Etc.
-
-
-
You need internal reporting that breaks out profit and loss across class, projects, clients, or business/segment.
-
This means transactions must be tagged — as I have to review those tags each month, since I'm the one reporting on the results.
-
-
Basic department-level groupings from the chart of accounts don’t count.
-
You rely on specialized accounting areas that require structure I maintain — like revenue recognition, inventory costing, manufacturing workflows, lease accounting, or complex amortization schedules.
- This only applies if I’m responsible for applying or maintaining logic related to these areas.
-
Examples include:
-
Inventory costing
-
Manufacturing workflows
-
Lease accounting
-
Complex amortization logic
-
Etc.
-
-
-
You have customer contracts with different billing terms, milestones, or revenue logic — as I'll need to account for those differences each month.
- Examples include:
-
Contracts that include client-specific payment timing, revenue recognition rules, or billing conditions
-
Manual logic for when revenue starts, how much gets billed, or how to interpret each deal
-
Each contract requires review, tracking, or exception handling to stay aligned month-to-month
-
Terms or conditions that affect close structure — like performance phases, billing caps, or unique deal flow timing
-
-
Your company operates in a space with evolving or non-traditional financial models — such as AI, robotics, biotech, or hard tech — that create added accounting complexity each month.
-
This isn’t about industry labels. It applies when your revenue or cost structure makes the close more complex, like:
-
SaaS + hardware bundled pricing (e.g., Robotics-as-a-Service)
-
AI tools with usage-based billing + subscriptions
-
Capitalized software or engineering labor
-
Significant R&D spending or capitalized labor
-
Deferred revenue tied to future product releases
-
Biotech or life sciences with milestone-based revenue
-
Space tech, manufacturing-as-a-service, or layered platform + device ecosystems
-
Grant-funded or investor-triggered development milestones
-
Etc.
-
-
Applies when the organization operates through chapters, affiliates, or branches in a bottom-up model, where activity is initiated locally and must be rolled up at the national level. Even with strong central oversight, this setup creates structural complexity, since financial data from multiple sources requires standardization and consolidation before reporting.
If you're not sure where you land, I’ll confirm during onboarding. Most scaling companies are considered "Complex" — and that’s perfectly normal. It simply means your business has more moving parts, and the financial structure needs to rise to meet that reality.
When Complexity Changes
If your business model evolves and you consistently meet — or no longer meet — the complexity threshold for two straight months, your pricing will update in month three. No surprises, no backdating. It’s a clear and fair way to ensure your pricing always reflects the real scope of work.
