Audited Financial Statements - Cost As a Function Of X

[Bryan Hancock]

For the tax wizards on the forum...

For the moment suspend any sense of rationality and assume that there is a gov-mint mandate on startups that require them to do audited financial statements.  They really don't have much to audit so the standard mid-size firm requirements that drive costs to $25k+ aren't really accurate any more.  

Next assume that the startup is a real estate company that either buys and sells property, notes, or other things that people on BP generally do. The firm would be structured as a series LLC and each series would do an activity like this; buy/sell/issue notes, do a fix/flip, etc.

Assuming all of this what would you base your pricing on if you had to assume you'd have many competitors for your services and the client would be able to send you a steady stream of work (hundreds of projects potentially and many new clients) for years to come?  Would it be on things like this:

• Journal entries
• Individual series within the LLC (e.g. 1 series, 5 series, X series)
• Projects done

or on something else?  

I know the answers here are probably going to vary, but the goal would be to establish fair pricing for value delivered and to pay based on the project rather than on the hour.  Bounding rates based on X journal entries with Y entities would seem rational because it would be a good way to specify the amount of effort required.

Any thoughts?  How would you base your billing for a situation like this?