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How do you grow an accounting firm? Seven moves for a small UK practice

Growth is not only more clients. A small practice grows by earning more from each client, keeping the ones it has, making room for the work, and then adding new clients at a pace it can serve. Here is the order to do it in.

Published 10 October 2026

The short answer

An accounting firm grows in four ways: it charges more for the work it does, it does more work for each client, it keeps its clients for longer, and it adds new ones. Most owners go straight to the fourth. The first three are quicker and cheaper, and they decide whether new clients make the firm more profitable or only busier.

The seven moves below are in the order a small UK practice should take them. Moves 1 to 4 get more from the firm you already have. Move 5 makes room. Moves 6 and 7 add clients, first one at a time and then, if it suits you, in a block.

1. Find out which clients pay for the firm

Start by working out what each client is worth to you per hour, because you cannot grow the right part of the firm until you know which part that is. For every client, take the fees billed in the last twelve months and divide by the hours the firm spent on them. Use timesheets if you keep them. If you do not, an honest estimate is enough to begin with.

Sort the list by that hourly figure. Three groups appear in almost every firm.

Clients who pay well for the time they take. Note what they have in common: sector, size, the services they buy, how they found you. This is the kind of client to look for in move 6.
Clients in the middle. Fine as they are, and the most likely to need a second service from you.
Clients who cost more than they pay. Usually an old fee, records that arrive late, or work that has grown without the fee following it. These are the subject of moves 2 and 4.

2. Put your fees right before you add clients

Reprice the underpaying clients before you spend anything on marketing. It is the only growth that needs no extra hours. Go down the bottom of your list from move 1 and set a fee for each client that reflects the work as it is today, not as it was when they joined.

How you make the change matters as much as the amount. ICAEW's helpsheet on fee information sets out what its Code of Ethics expects, and it is a sound standard for any firm to work to.

Put it in writing. The helpsheet quotes paragraph R330.5 of the ICAEW Code: a professional accountant shall provide fee quotes or details of the basis of fees in writing. This is normally done in the engagement letter.
Honour a fixed fee. The helpsheet says that if a firm sets a fixed fee, it will be expected to honour it. Change the fee from the next period, not half-way through one you have agreed.
Write down what the fee covers. The helpsheet says the extent of the work covered by a fixed fee should be documented, and any charge for work outside it made clear. This is what lets you bill fairly for the extra job in March.
Warn before you exceed an estimate. Where it becomes apparent that a quote or estimate will be exceeded, the helpsheet says the firm should inform the client in advance.

3. Do more for the clients you already have

Your existing clients are the easiest people to sell to, because they already trust you and you already hold their figures. Many of them buy a service elsewhere, or go without one, that you could provide. Look for the gaps client by client.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. HMRC's guidance on who must use it says sole traders and landlords with qualifying income of more than £50,000 must use it from 6 April 2026, those with more than £30,000 from 6 April 2027, and those with more than £20,000 from 6 April 2028. A client who sent you a bag of receipts once a year now needs digital records kept through the year. That is a new, recurring service for clients you already have.
Bookkeeping and payroll.If you prepare the year-end accounts, you are already tidying up someone else's books. Doing them monthly gives you cleaner records and the client one firm to deal with.
Management accounts. A short monthly or quarterly report with the three figures the owner should watch. Clients who are growing, borrowing or hiring will pay for it.
A planning meeting before the year end. Priced as its own service, not given away at the end of an accounts meeting.

Check two things before you offer anything new. First, that you are qualified, licensed and insured for it. AAT's licensing page, for example, says the title a licensed member may use depends on the types of service they have been approved to offer, and that professional indemnity insurance must cover the services provided. Second, that the new work and its fee are added to the client's engagement letter before you start.

4. Keep good clients and let the wrong ones go

Every client who leaves has to be replaced before the firm grows at all, so keeping clients comes before finding them. The causes you can control are simple ones: a client who did not hear from you, or a bill that came as a surprise.

Set a reply time and keep to it. One working day for an acknowledgement is a standard a small firm can meet.
Speak to every client at least once outside the deadline. A fifteen-minute call in the quiet months is where you hear about the new premises, the second business or the plan to sell.
Send deadlines before they are urgent. A reminder in October is a service. The same reminder on 28 January is a problem.
Ask why when someone leaves. Write the answer down. Three clients giving the same reason is something to fix.

Some clients should go. If a client is still at the bottom of your list after the fee review in move 2, or takes up staff time out of all proportion to the fee, give proper notice in line with your engagement letter and help them hand over. The hours you get back are the capacity for two better clients.

5. Make room before the work arrives

Growth stalls when the owner is the only person who can do the work, so build capacity before you market for more. Do it in this order, because each step is cheaper than the next.

Write the process down. One page for each recurring job: what comes in, what is checked, what goes out, and by when. Work that lives in your head cannot be handed to anyone.
Use one set of software. Every client on a different package or a different spreadsheet is time lost. Move clients on to the tools the firm knows best as they renew.
Hire for the routine work first. A bookkeeper or junior frees your hours for review, advice and client contact, which is the work clients pay most for.
Outsource the overflow. Useful in January, and a way to test demand before you commit to a salary. Check what your engagement letters and your professional body say before any client data leaves the firm.

Your compliance has to grow with the firm. HMRC's guidance on your responsibilities under the money laundering regulations says the controls a business needs depend on its size and complexity, and that they include training relevant employees on their anti-money laundering responsibilities and appointing a nominated officer for staff to report suspicious activity to. The same applies if a professional body supervises you instead of HMRC: tell it when the firm changes, and update your written procedures when the first employee joins.

6. Bring in new clients at a steady pace

Now look for new clients, and look for the kind at the top of your list from move 1. A steady two or three good clients a month is easier to serve, and worth more, than twenty in January. Three sources do most of the work for a small practice.

Referrals. Ask your best clients, by name, for an introduction to someone like them. Our guide to how accountants get clients has wording you can use and covers Google, partnerships and outreach as well.
Search. A Google Business Profile with recent reviews, and a page on your website for each service and each type of client you want.
Being seen every week. Most business owners do not change accountant often. Regular, useful posts on LinkedIn mean your firm is the one they remember when they do, and the one that looks active when a referral looks you up.

Example post

If you are a sole trader or landlord with income over £30,000, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies to you from 6 April 2027. That means digital records and quarterly updates to HMRC, not one return a year. Six months is enough time to get set up calmly. Message us if you would like to know what changes for you.

Posting is the part that stops first when the firm gets busy, which is exactly when a growing firm needs it. That is the job Pillr does for accountancy firms: it reads your website, drafts a month of posts in your firm's voice, and schedules them to LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram once you have approved each one. If you would rather plan the posts yourself, our weekly LinkedIn plan fits in about an hour a week. Paid adverts can speed things up once the basics are in place: see how to advertise accounting services.

7. Consider buying a block of fees

Buying a block of fees from a retiring practitioner or another firm is the quickest way to add clients, and the one with the most to get wrong. ICAEW's helpsheet on buying and selling fees is the best free starting point, whichever body you belong to. Its main points:

You are not buying the clients. The helpsheet says clients have the right to choose their accountants. Some will not move, so the deal has to allow for that.
Price depends on the two of you. Valuations usually start from the fees or profits the current services generate, and the helpsheet says there is no one correct multiple. It is for the buyer and seller to agree.
Use a clawback. This reduces the price if clients are lost or fees fall short. The helpsheet says a limit to the maximum clawback should be agreed.
Look before you pay.Check fee levels, the quality of the work and files, and profitability. A confidentiality and non-poaching agreement comes first, and the client's authority is usually needed before confidential information is disclosed.
Take each client on properly.The helpsheet says new engagement letters should be obtained. A buyer may rely on the seller's customer due diligence with the seller's written consent, but stays responsible for ongoing due diligence from then on.

Only do this after moves 1 to 5. A block of fees priced too low, landing on a firm with no spare capacity, makes every problem you already have bigger. Take legal advice on the agreement.

A plan for the next 90 days

You do not need to do all seven at once. This order gets the early gains in first and fits around client work.

Days 1 to 30. Build the client list from move 1. Write fee letters to the bottom group. Pick one extra service and list the clients who need it.
Days 31 to 60. Offer that service to those clients. Write down your three most common jobs as one-page processes. Decide what help you need and when.
Days 61 to 90. Ask five of your best clients for an introduction. Check your Google Business Profile and ask for reviews. Start posting two or three times a week and keep it going.

At the end of the 90 days, run the numbers from move 1 again. Fee per hour should have moved before client numbers do. If keeping the posts going is the part you know will slip, paste your firm's website address on the home page to see the posts Pillr drafts from it, or look at plans and pricing first.

This guide is general information, not advice on your own circumstances. Rules change, so check each linked page, and ask your professional body if you are unsure how its code applies to your firm.

Questions practice owners ask

What is the fastest way to grow an accounting practice?

Repricing the work you already do, because it needs no new clients and no new staff. Review every client whose fee has not changed in two years or whose work has grown since the fee was set. After that, the quickest gains come from offering existing clients a service they already need, such as quarterly updates under Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. Buying a block of fees is faster still, but it costs money and carries more risk.

Should a small firm grow by adding clients or by raising fees?

Fees first. Adding clients at prices that are too low fills the firm with work that does not pay for the staff needed to do it. Once each client is priced for the time they really take, every new client adds profit as well as turnover, and you can afford the help you need to serve them.

How do I tell a client their fee is going up?

In writing, before the new fee applies, with the reason and the new scope of work. ICAEW's fee information helpsheet says a firm that sets a fixed fee will be expected to honour it, so change the fee from the next period, not part-way through an agreed one. Where an estimate is going to be exceeded, the helpsheet says the firm should inform the client in advance.

When should a sole practitioner hire the first member of staff?

When you are turning down good work or missing your own turnaround times, and the fees are right. Hire for the routine work first, such as bookkeeping and data entry, so that your own hours move to review, advice and client contact. Write your processes down before the person starts, and update your anti-money laundering procedures: HMRC's guidance says controls include training relevant employees on their responsibilities.

Is buying a block of fees a good way to grow?

It can be, if the clients suit your firm and the price depends on them staying. ICAEW's helpsheet on buying and selling fees points out that clients have the right to choose their accountants, so you are buying an introduction, not a guarantee. It describes clawback terms that reduce the price if clients leave, and says new engagement letters should be obtained from the clients who move.