Dewey, Over, Billum & Howe Innovates the Accounting Profession

For Immediate Release — Dewey, Over, Billum & Howe, a mid-sized CPA firm, is proud to announce our latest innovative practice - the 54-minute billable hour.In keeping with the long standing tradition of billing by the hour, the DOB&H executive team at their latest company retreat brain-stormed on the idea of how they could increase their billable hours while maintaining their current costing and pricing structure, thus was born the 54-minute hour.Under the leadership of consultant to the profession, Atsaway Veedonit, the team kicked around several ideas for innovating the CPA profession. "We considered our alternatives, including value pricing and the old standby of just raising rates, but in the end we opted for this new innovative approach," Veedonit said.Taking a cue from Hellman's Mayonnaise, who recently redefined the quart as 30 ounces instead of 32, the approach is simple. Hours are now 54 minutes long instead of 60. Echoing Unilever, Bill Billum, said, "At DOB&H we have always taken great pride in offering the highest quality services at reasonable and fair prices. Recently, inflationary pressures have brought about by the increased costs of our people. Rather than raise our prices, we chose to slightly reduce the size of the hour.""The AICPA has been using 50 minutes equals an hour for years when it comes to continuing professional education credits. We are just following their example. In fact, our hours are 8% longer than theirs are," added Richard Over, DBO&H managing partner."Screw you, Verasage Institute! Who said CPAs are not innovative?" added Ida Noe Howe, DOB&H's 93-year-old senior partner and chair of their innovation committee.