Why we created Fee Builder

When talking with firms across the UK, it is evident that the more profitable practices are delivering a significant level of advisory or advisory-led compliance services. This marks a shift from pure compliance as firms seek to establish that they are much more than bean-counters.

Recognising this trend, we created Fee Builder to provide basic resources to support this transformation.

The client facing marketing material we write for Fee Builder seeks to promote advisory cross-selling opportunities, the enhancement of compliance services to include an advisory element and using the same approaches to convince prospects that you provide much more than their present advisers.

For example

The Fee Builder marketing pack we published for June 2022 considers the corporation tax (CT) planning opportunity created by the increase in rates from 19% to 25% from 1 April 2023.

More particularly, it focuses on the opportunity to restructure associated company relationships to avoid any reduction in the £50,000 and £250,000, marginal relief boundaries.

For example, if a client has one company with taxable profits of £40,000 and an associated company with taxable profits of £5,000, the company with the taxable profits of £40,000 will not benefit from the small profits rate as the profits are above the lower limit of £25,000 that applies to a company with one associate. Merging the companies will mean that there is only one company and the combined profits of £45,000 will be charged at the small profits rate of 19%.

The key benefit for affected clients is an ongoing CT saving from 1 April 2023.

What is in each marketing pack?

Each pack is uploaded to a secure subscriber dashboard, either monthly or quarterly depending on the subscription option chosen. Documents are provided in Word format to facilitate rebranding (and editing if required).

Packs aim to include:

• A scope and application file with a description of the strategy adopted and ideas to help you implement that strategy.
• Draft emails that can be used to distribute information on the service offered to targeted clients or prospects.
• Easy to read updates (typically no more than 1,000 words) that can be sent to clients or prospects to underline the need for, and value of, the advice offered.
• An update that can be distributed to partners and staff to ensure relevant fee earners are kept in the loop.

What are the basic Fee Builder subscription plans?

The Quarterly Plan – £75 plus VAT per quarter

Smaller firms, who may not have the time or internal resources to administer numerous marketing campaigns, may find a quarterly subscription (a new campaign pack every three months) a better option.

If required, we can offer implementation support ranging from a quarterly phone or Zoom call to a site visit. The cost of this support would be agreed prior to implementation and would be an additional cost to the quoted subscription.

The Monthly Plan – £55 plus VAT per month

The monthly option – delivering new packs on the 1st of each month – will suit firms who have internal resources (or outsourced arrangements) to administer numerous marketing campaigns, but are always on the lookout for new ideas and resources. Marketeers generally have the skills to administer campaigns but no technical expertise and rely on partners or qualified staff to feed them these ideas.

Fee Builder content is far more cost-effective than losing partner-level chargeable time developing content in-house.

BONUS item – client alerts

When we first launched Fee Builder we included the distribution of draft client alerts – updates that can be sent to clients on topical issues. For example, in May 2022 we published alerts covering: change of accounting date, avoiding CT increases, P11D issues, cost of living support measures announced, pressures on smaller businesses.

The copy can be sent to clients by email, integrated into present newsletter resources or added to websites and promoted by social media.

We still include this copy to monthly and quarterly subscribers. We aim to provide approximately one alert per week but this will depend on current, newsworthy issues to report.