<aside> 📋 Frequency: Annually | Time: 90 min | Trigger: December, during annual planning

</aside>

Fees that don't get reviewed don't stay right — they drift. Operating costs rise, your capability deepens, and your client mix shifts, but the number on your proposal stays frozen at whatever you charged two years ago. This SOP forces an annual reckoning: are your fees still an accurate reflection of the value you deliver, and do they produce the margins your practice requires?

Prerequisites

• Complete billing records for the current year — fees collected, engagements closed, hours logged if tracked
• Current offer suite and fee schedule (all engagement types, retainer tiers, and project rates)
• Revenue target for the coming year — this SOP feeds directly into the Annual Planning Process
• Active client list with current fee structures and contract renewal dates

Procedure

1. Run the Pricing Review Analyzer skill with your current fee schedule, year's billing data, and revenue target as input. Review the output for realization rate by engagement type, fee-to-value alignment, and any offer types where current pricing is misaligned.
2. Review the analyzer output by offer type. Identify which fees are below your target margin, which engagement types are underpriced relative to your current capability, and which are priced correctly. Make decisions by offer type, not globally — not every fee needs to move.
3. Set new fee targets for the coming year and document the rationale for each change. You need to be able to explain it clearly in client conversations — "my rate increased" is not a rationale. Scope expansion, deeper capability, and market repositioning are.
4. For any fee increase affecting active clients, run the Fee Increase Announcement skill with the client's engagement context, current fee, new fee, and effective date as input. Use the output as the draft client communication — personalize it before sending.
5. Send fee increase notices with at least 60 days' lead time. Coordinate timing with upcoming retainer renewals where possible — a fee increase and a renewal are one conversation, not two. Separate notices for each signal a practice that isn't running on cadence.
6. Update your proposal templates, SOW defaults, and any published pricing with the new rates before the first proposal of the new year goes out.

Expected Outcome

You'll have a reviewed and updated fee schedule for the coming year, client communications drafted and scheduled for any increases, and all proposal templates updated with the new rates — completed before January so the year starts at the right number.

<aside> ⚠️ Common mistakes:

— Applying a flat percentage increase across all offers. Not every offer is underpriced by the same amount. Price by offer type and realization data, not by round number. A blanket increase is laziness dressed as a decision.

— Giving active clients less than 60 days' notice. Short notice frames a fee increase as a surprise rather than a planned practice adjustment. Lead time signals that you're running a professional operation, not reacting to cash flow.

</aside>