Re-pricing client engagements in 2026/27

Re-pricing client engagements in 2026/27
Webinar summary — 24 June 2026

Every fixed-fee firm has clients they've been undercharging for years. The challenge is knowing which ones, by how much, and having the confidence to act on it. That's what this session covered.

Reuben opened by framing pricing in the context of practice performance. Pricing is the number one cause of write-offs — ahead of process and people. It's also one of the few variables that sits almost entirely with the partner or director. Everything else in the practice — productivity, workflow, write-off conversations — can be pushed to managers and team members. Pricing can't.

Three methods firms use to reprice

The most common approach is to do nothing — no process, no frequency, no method. The second is a flat CPI or inflation adjustment applied across all clients. Both have their problems. The session focused on a third approach: a regular, data-driven repricing process using the eight fields every repricing decision requires — opening WIP, time added, disbursements, invoice value, write-ups and write-offs, closing WIP, total time, and average recovered rate.

Identifying underpriced clients

Rather than sorting a client list by invoice value, sort by average recovered rate — what you actually received for an hour of your team's available capacity. In Australia, the average is $209. The bottom 16% of practices recover below $147. In New Zealand, the average is $177, with the bottom 16% below $136. These numbers, drawn from 7.7 million WIP entries across 157 Australian practices and 3.3 million from 98 in New Zealand, give you a data-backed threshold to work from.

Before treating a low recovered rate as a pricing problem, two caveats apply. First, always consider the current WIP balance — unrecovered WIP will worsen the rate further, and high WIP balances can distort the picture in both directions. Second, drill into the write-off detail. Not every write-off is a pricing issue. Some relate to people, process, or a one-off situation. Understanding the reasons before the client conversation protects your credibility and ensures the conversation is about the right thing.

Having the conversation

Once the data is clear and the people-related causes have been ruled out, the conversation becomes straightforward. Lead with the word "because" — it creates causation and sounds natural. Make the outcome a certainty, not a negotiation. Either the client accepts the new fee, or they move on — and both outcomes are good. A client who leaves frees up capacity your team can redirect to better-priced work.

Brand new clients

Without a history to work from, use the benchmark average as your floor. Estimate the hours required and multiply by the average recovered rate for your market. Don't go below it.

What's coming next

Will closed with a preview of budget reconciliation — a feature that will allow firms to compare allocated time and rates against job budgets before work begins, making planned write-offs visible before a single timesheet is entered.