What should an accounting firm business plan include?

The services and niche you will focus on, the market and competition, how you will price, the capacity and team you need, your tech stack, how you will win clients, financial projections, the main risks, and milestones with dates. This template covers each one, with formulas for the financials.

How do I price services in a new accounting firm?

Choose a method before you choose numbers: fixed fees per service, monthly packages or value pricing are the common ones. Build each price from the hours the work takes at your cost rate plus a margin, then test it against the value to the client and the market. Set your own fees from your own costs and capacity.

Why does this template have no figures?

Because the useful numbers are yours: your costs, your market, your clients. Benchmarks from elsewhere get copied into plans as if they were facts. The formulas show how each line is calculated, so you can fill them in from your own assumptions and see which assumption was wrong when results come in.

Do I need a business plan to start an accounting practice?

A lender or an investor will usually ask for one. Even without that, writing down your niche, pricing method and capacity before the first client stops you taking on work that does not fit, which is the hardest habit to break later.

How often should I update my firm’s business plan?

Review it every quarter against what actually happened, and rewrite it once a year. The milestones and the financial assumptions are the parts that change most; the niche should change rarely.

Free template

Business plan template for an accounting firm

Most accounting firm business plans are written for a bank and then never opened again. This one is written to run the practice: a niche you can say in one sentence, a pricing method rather than a price, capacity worked out in hours, and financials built from formulas you update each quarter. Use it to start a firm or to reset one you already run.

Updated 2 October 2026 · Editable Word document (.docx) · Free

How to use it

How to use this template

Write section 2 before anything else

Who you serve and what you do for them drives every other section. If you cannot say it in one sentence, the marketing and the pricing will not work either.
Use your own numbers in the formulas

The financial section gives formulas, not figures. Fill them from your own costs, your own market research and the clients you can realistically win. Nobody else’s benchmark is your plan.
Keep it to ten pages

A plan you can read in twenty minutes is a plan you will review. Put the detail (client lists, cost workings) in appendices.
Review it every quarter

Compare the milestones and the formulas with what actually happened, update the assumptions, and change one thing. Put the four review dates in the calendar now.

The template

[Firm name] business plan, [year]

Replace everything in [square brackets].

Plan details

Item	Detail
Firm	[Firm name, structure, location]
Owners	[Names, roles, ownership]
Plan period	[e.g. three years from date]
Prepared by and date	[Name, date]
Next review	[Date, quarterly]

1. Summary

Write this last, in half a page: who you serve, what you do for them, how you charge, how many clients and people you plan to have at the end of the plan period, and the three milestones that matter most.

2. Services and niche

Question	Your answer
Who we serve (industry, size, stage, location)	[e.g. trades businesses with five to fifty staff in one region]
The problem we solve for them	[In their words, not ours]
Core services	[Compliance, bookkeeping, payroll, advisory, CFO, tax planning]
Services we will not offer	[And why]
Why us rather than another firm	[Expertise, speed, specialism, location, technology]
Our one-sentence positioning	[We help ... to ... by ...]

3. Market

How many businesses or households in our niche we can reach, and where that estimate comes from (government business counts, industry associations, census data).
Who else serves them, and what those firms do well and badly.
What the niche buys now, and what it complains about.
Changes coming that create demand: new regulation, software changes, succession in the client base.
Where our first clients will come from, by name if possible.

4. Pricing method

Record how you will set prices, not the prices themselves. Set fees from your own costs, capacity, market and the value of the work to the client.

Decision	Our approach
Pricing model	[Fixed fee per service / monthly subscription / packages or tiers / value pricing / time-based for some work]
How we build a price	[e.g. estimated hours at our cost rate, plus target margin, checked against the value to the client]
What scales the price	[Transaction volume, entities, payroll headcount, complexity, deadlines]
Scope boundaries	[What is included; how out-of-scope work is quoted]
Minimum engagement	[The smallest client we will take on, described by work, not by a figure here]
Annual price review	[When, and how much notice clients get]
How we present it	[Proposal software, options, payment terms]

5. Capacity and team

Measure	Formula
Available hours per person	Working days in the year, minus leave and public holidays, multiplied by hours per day
Chargeable capacity	Available hours multiplied by target utilisation (the share of time spent on client work)
Clients one person can carry	Chargeable capacity divided by average hours per client per year
People needed	Planned clients multiplied by average hours per client, divided by chargeable capacity per person

Role	Now	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Hire, outsource or automate?
[Partner / owner]	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank
[Senior accountant]	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank
[Bookkeeper]	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank
[Client manager or admin]	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank

6. Tech stack

Job	Tool	Why this one	Owner
Ledger	[e.g. Xero, QuickBooks Online, MYOB, Sage]	Blank	Blank
Practice management and workflow	[e.g. FYI, Xero Practice Manager, TaxDome, Engager, Karbon]	Blank	Blank
Proposals and engagement	[Your tool]	Blank	Blank
Document capture	[e.g. Dext]	Blank	Blank
Client portal and e-signature	[Your tool]	Blank	Blank
Tax software	[Your tool]	Blank	Blank
AI tools	[Approved under your AI policy]	Blank	Blank
Security	[Password manager, MFA, backups, device management]	Blank	Blank

Pick one tool per job, set it up properly, and write down why. Two tools doing the same job is a cost and a data risk.

7. Marketing and client acquisition

Channel	What we will do	Measure	Owner
Referrals from clients	[How we ask, and when]	[Referrals per quarter]	Blank
Referral partners (banks, lawyers, brokers, software vendors)	[Who, and what we offer them]	[Introductions]	Blank
Website and search	[Niche pages, reviews, local listings]	[Enquiries from the site]	Blank
Content and social	[One channel done well]	[Enquiries mentioning it]	Blank
Events and associations in the niche	[Which]	[Conversations, enquiries]	Blank

Track every enquiry to its source from day one, so the next version of this plan is built on what actually worked.

8. Financials: formulas, not figures

Build these in a spreadsheet from your own assumptions. Write each assumption down next to the formula, so you can see which one was wrong when the quarter comes in.

Line	Formula	Assumptions to record
Revenue	Number of clients in each service tier multiplied by the annual fee for that tier, summed across tiers	Clients won per month, client losses, fee per tier
Direct staff cost	Salaries and on-costs of people doing client work	Headcount plan from section 5, salary levels, on-cost rate
Gross margin	(Revenue minus direct staff cost) divided by revenue	Target margin
Overheads	Software, premises, insurance, marketing, professional fees, owner costs not in direct staff cost	Each line, with the quote or invoice behind it
Net profit	Revenue minus direct staff cost minus overheads	Blank
Break-even clients	Fixed costs divided by (average fee per client minus variable cost per client)	Which costs are fixed
Revenue per person	Revenue divided by full-time equivalent staff	Blank
Lock-up days	(Work in progress plus debtors) divided by annual revenue, multiplied by 365	Billing in advance or arrears
Cash runway	Cash available divided by average monthly net cash outflow	Start-up costs, owner drawings, timing of tax payments

Show three cases (cautious, expected, strong) by changing only the client-won and fee assumptions. If the cautious case runs out of cash, change the plan, not the assumption.

9. Risks

Risk	Likelihood (L/M/H)	Impact (L/M/H)	What we will do about it
Clients slower to win than planned	Blank	Blank	Blank
Losing a key person, or a key client	Blank	Blank	Blank
Capacity crunch at peak season	Blank	Blank	Blank
A data breach or cyber incident	Blank	Blank	[Security controls, insurance, incident plan]
Regulatory change (for example AML obligations, tax agent rules)	Blank	Blank	Blank
Software price or product changes	Blank	Blank	Blank
Professional indemnity claim	Blank	Blank	[Engagement letters, review process, cover]

10. Milestones

Milestone	Target date	Measure of done	Owner	Status
[Registrations, insurance and professional body requirements in place]	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank
[Tech stack set up and documented]	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank
[First [n] clients signed]	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank
[First hire]	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank
[Break-even month]	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank
[Niche positioning live on the website]	Blank	Blank	Blank	Blank

This template is a starting point, not legal advice. Your obligations depend on where you practise, your professional body and your clients; take advice on anything you are unsure of.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

What should an accounting firm business plan include?: The services and niche you will focus on, the market and competition, how you will price, the capacity and team you need, your tech stack, how you will win clients, financial projections, the main risks, and milestones with dates. This template covers each one, with formulas for the financials.
How do I price services in a new accounting firm?: Choose a method before you choose numbers: fixed fees per service, monthly packages or value pricing are the common ones. Build each price from the hours the work takes at your cost rate plus a margin, then test it against the value to the client and the market. Set your own fees from your own costs and capacity.
Why does this template have no figures?: Because the useful numbers are yours: your costs, your market, your clients. Benchmarks from elsewhere get copied into plans as if they were facts. The formulas show how each line is calculated, so you can fill them in from your own assumptions and see which assumption was wrong when results come in.
Do I need a business plan to start an accounting practice?: A lender or an investor will usually ask for one. Even without that, writing down your niche, pricing method and capacity before the first client stops you taking on work that does not fit, which is the hardest habit to break later.
How often should I update my firm’s business plan?: Review it every quarter against what actually happened, and rewrite it once a year. The milestones and the financial assumptions are the parts that change most; the niche should change rarely.

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