Practitioner Profit Calculator
By Forrest Baumhover, CFP®, EA · Last verified September 28, 2026
See what reclaiming your research hours is worth to your practice.
The Practitioner Profit Calculator puts a dollar figure on the hours a practitioner spends researching tax questions instead of billing clients. It is a business-economics calculator, not a tax-position tool — it carries no IRC or IRM citation because it answers a staffing-and-pricing question, not a tax question.
What it actually compares
Enter an hourly billing rate, typical hours per client, client count, and weekly hours spent on tax research. The calculator multiplies research hours by the billing rate to show what that time is worth if billed instead, then compares that figure to a subscription price. It also models a modest rate increase, showing the revenue gain from raising rates without adding hours.
Worked example
A practitioner bills $250 an hour, spends 3 hours per client across 40 clients a year, and puts in 5 hours a week researching tax questions. Annualized, that research time costs $65,000 in billable hours foregone — against a $179 annual FTD subscription. A $25 rate increase alone adds $3,000 in annual revenue on the same client load, with no additional hours worked.
Why the comparison matters
Research time is real cost even when no invoice reflects it. A practitioner who treats research hours as free is underpricing every hour actually billed to a client, since that same hour could have gone toward revenue instead. The calculator makes that tradeoff visible in dollar terms rather than leaving it as a vague sense that research "takes too long."
Common Questions
Why does this tool have no IRC or IRM citation?
It doesn't answer a tax question. It compares the cost of research time against a subscription price and a rate-increase scenario — a staffing and pricing calculation with no governing tax authority to cite.
What does the research-cost figure actually represent?
The billable revenue given up by spending time on research instead of client work. It is an opportunity cost, not a cash expense — the dollars were never paid out, but the hours were never billed either.
Does raising rates always make sense based on this calculator alone?
It shows the revenue math for a given increase at a fixed client load; it says nothing about whether clients will accept the new rate or the practice will keep the same client count at it.
More from the Desk
More practitioner writing from Forrest Baumhover, CFP®, EA at The Federal Tax Desk on Substack.
Read The Federal Tax Desk: every Deep Dive and Cheat Sheet, with primary-source citations →