One of the most common questions partners ask is: what do other firms actually charge for advisory packages? The honest answer is that pricing varies massively by region, sector and partner confidence - but there is a recognisable structure across UK firms that have productised their advisory offering successfully. This list walks through eight realistic packages, ordered by monthly fee, with scope, deliverables and the type of client that typically buys each one.
Use these as reference points, not as a price list to copy. Your specific market, client base and delivery cost will inform the exact numbers. The structure - what is inside each package and which client it targets - is more transferable than the price tag.
1. Compliance Plus - £500/month
Target client: micro business with £150k-£400k turnover, 1-3 directors, looking for a step up from pure DIY bookkeeping. Scope includes monthly bookkeeping review, quarterly VAT return preparation, annual accounts, corporation tax, confirmation statement, and one 30-minute quarterly check-in call.
The £500 tier is the gateway product - it should be priced to be an easy yes for a growing micro-business owner. Margin is thin (typically 50-55%) but volume is achievable. Deliver this efficiently using standardised workflows or it becomes unprofitable fast. This package is also the natural upsell path: clients who outgrow it move to the next tier within 18-24 months.
2. Growth Insights - £950/month
Target client: established SME at £500k-£1.2m turnover with 3-12 employees and ambition to scale. Includes everything in Compliance Plus, plus monthly management accounts with commentary, a quarterly 60-minute strategic review meeting, and basic 12-month cash-flow forecasting.
This is the package most growth-stage SMEs land on after outgrowing pure compliance. The monthly management accounts are the headline deliverable - they justify the price tag and create the rhythm of monthly touchpoints. Margin should run 60-65% if scope is held; the quarterly review is where scope creep tends to start.
3. R&D Tax Advisory - £1,200/month (with success fee)
Target client: technology or engineering business with active R&D activity, typically £750k-£3m turnover. Monthly fee covers ongoing project tracking, technical narrative drafting, and claim coordination. Plus a success fee of 8-12% of the tax credit secured.
This is a specialist package and not every firm should offer it. If you do, the monthly retainer keeps the work disciplined throughout the year rather than collapsing into a six-week sprint before the corporation tax deadline. The success fee aligns incentives and captures the genuine value delivered. Compliance for R&D claims has tightened materially with HMRC additional information requirements, so the package needs to budget for proper technical documentation.
4. Quarterly Clarity (Cash & Forecast) - £1,500/month
Target client: SME at £1m-£3m turnover with seasonal cash-flow pressure or planned investment activity. Quarterly deep-dive on cash position, 13-week rolling cash forecast, scenario modelling for major decisions (hiring, capex, debt), and monthly cash-snapshot updates.
The buyers here are owners who have been burned by cash crunches and want forward visibility. The 13-week rolling forecast is the central deliverable - it should be updated monthly with actuals and re-projected. Delivery cost is moderate (8-12 senior hours/month) once the model is set up properly. This package often serves as a stepping stone to a full VFD engagement.
5. Property Portfolio Specialist - £1,800/month
Target client: property investor or developer with 8-30 properties, often a mix of personal-name and SPV structures. Includes structuring advice, mortgage interest optimisation, capital gains planning, property-specific bookkeeping coordination, and quarterly portfolio reviews.
Property clients have niche needs (Section 24, incorporation relief, SDLT 3% surcharge planning, ATED) that justify a specialist package. The fee reflects the technical depth, not the volume of bookkeeping. Margin can be excellent (70%+) because the partner-level time is concentrated into structured quarterly reviews rather than constant ad-hoc queries.
6. Virtual Finance Director Lite - £2,500/month
Target client: ambitious SME at £2m-£5m turnover with no in-house finance leadership. Includes monthly management accounts, monthly board pack, monthly 90-minute board-prep meeting, quarterly strategic planning session, KPI dashboard, and unlimited email/Teams access during business hours.
This is where genuine fractional FD work begins. The monthly board pack and meeting cadence create real strategic value - the firm becomes an embedded part of the client leadership team. Margin runs 55-65% because senior partner time is high, but client lifetime value is exceptional. These clients rarely churn and frequently refer.
7. Group & International Structuring - £3,500/month
Target client: multi-entity group with 3-8 trading subsidiaries, possibly including overseas presence (typically UAE, US or EU). Includes group consolidation oversight, intercompany pricing review, ongoing tax-structure optimisation, regulatory monitoring across jurisdictions, and quarterly group strategy meetings.
The complexity of group structures justifies the price. Multi-jurisdictional clients particularly benefit when the firm has UK-UAE capability, given how many UK SMEs are now establishing UAE freezone entities for international trade. Delivery requires a senior partner plus specialist support, but the technical depth makes it very hard for the client to switch providers.
8. Full Virtual Finance Director - £5,000/month
Target client: scaling business at £5m-£15m turnover preparing for institutional investment, acquisition activity, or exit within 3-5 years. Includes everything in VFD Lite, plus weekly partner availability, investor-ready management reporting, capital-raise support, due-diligence readiness, and exit-planning advisory.
The £5k tier sits at the edge of what most SMEs will pay before they hire an in-house Finance Director. The package only works if the firm has a partner with genuine corporate-finance experience. Margin is lower in percentage terms (45-55%) because senior time is heavy, but in absolute terms these engagements are the most profitable per partner-hour in the firm.
How to use this menu in practice
No firm should offer all eight packages on day one. Pick the three most relevant to your client base, productise them properly with delivery playbooks, and add specialist packages over 18-24 months as capability builds. The realisation data you capture against each package - hours delivered versus hours budgeted, captured cleanly in your practice-management layer - tells you which packages are profitable and which need a price or scope adjustment at the next quarterly review. Pricing decisions and invoicing happen at the partner level via Xero, Sage or your billing platform of choice; the analytics give you the evidence to make those decisions confidently.
Closing
Advisory pricing is a confidence game underpinned by real data. Use these eight tiers as a calibration reference, then build the two or three that fit your firm. Track realisation by package, hold scope discipline through clear inclusion lists, and review prices annually. Within two years a typical 10-person firm running a productised advisory menu can see advisory revenue grow from a confused 15% of the book to a deliberate 40-50% - at materially better margins than the compliance work it sits alongside.