How to price a white label accounting subscription in AED

The software is simply part of your bookkeeping package. A client paying AED 1,500 monthly for bookkeeping and VAT now pays AED 1,600 and gets the platform included. There is no separate software line on the invoice.

This is our preferred model for most firms. It keeps the conversation on outcomes, makes the platform feel like part of your service and avoids clients benchmarking a software line against retail subscription prices.

Here the platform sits in packages that differ by volume and service. A typical UAE ladder might run like this.

• Starter, AED 650 monthly: platform access, receipt capture, quarterly review, VAT threshold watch.
• Core, AED 1,400 monthly: monthly reconciliation, VAT 201 preparation, management P&L.
• Growth, AED 2,900 monthly: multi-currency, AR follow-up, corporate tax support, monthly call.

Some clients only want software and will do their own bookkeeping. For them, a stand-alone fee makes sense, typically priced so the client feels they are paying a fair rate for a supported product rather than a bare tool.

Be careful with this model. Self-service clients generate support questions, and your firm answers them because your name is on the screen. Price in that time or limit support to email.

Take 50 clients. Assume your licence and per-client costs total a figure L for the year. Under model one, an uplift of AED 100 monthly per client adds AED 60,000 a year. If L is below that, the software pays for itself before counting any time saved.

Time saved is usually larger. If AI capture and bank matching cut each client’s monthly bookkeeping by 90 minutes, at an internal cost of AED 110 an hour, you save AED 165 per client per month, or AED 99,000 a year across 50 clients. Add both and the platform contributes roughly AED 159,000 a year in uplift and capacity.

Discounting the software to win a client sets a low anchor that is hard to raise. If you want to discount, discount the first three months of the whole package instead.

Charging per user frustrates owners who want their PA and sales manager to raise invoices. Price on the business, not seats. HelloBooks’ licence includes unlimited firm staff, which helps you avoid passing seat costs on.

Forgetting VAT on your own fee. Your accounting fee is a taxable supply if your firm is VAT registered, so quote AED prices clearly as excluding or including 5%.

The hardest pricing moment is not the new client; it is the long-standing client paying a fee set in 2019. Moving them onto a branded platform is a natural point to reset the fee, but only if they can see what has improved. Show them the change: receipts captured by phone instead of envelopes of paper, a dashboard showing what customers owe, and VAT figures ready earlier in the month.

A practical approach is to give twelve weeks’ notice, hold the old fee for one quarter after migration and then move to the new package. A client paying AED 1,100 who moves to AED 1,300 is far more likely to accept the rise when they have already used the platform for three months than when it arrives with the announcement.

Model your top 20 clients under each option in a spreadsheet. Look at what each client would pay, what it costs you to serve them and how the new price compares with what they pay today. Then talk to five of them before you send a general announcement.

If you want help modelling the licence against your client base, the HelloBooks partner team will run the numbers with you on a call booked at /book-a-demo.