Collect the facts that change the work. Price the work that solves the concern.
A practical collection plan for Babylon’s team, ten founder packages and a working estimate mechanism. These prices are deliberately constructed pilot estimates, not approved Babylon fees or statistically established market averages.
Open the live Beth demoTen packages built around founder outcomes
Baseline: one entity, one location, clean records, standard activity and the stated allowances. Professional fees in PHP. Setup, monthly, annual and remedial work have separate billing periods.
| Founder package | Pilot budget | What it delivers | Team and boundaries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch readyI want to start trading with a clear registration route | ₱15,000–₱24,500One setup project | Registration coordination, books/invoice setup and first-year obligations mapOne sole proprietor, one city, standard manual books and invoices | Registration liaison + accountant + CPA reviewerSeparate: Government charges, printing, premises inspections, regulated licences and bespoke legal drafting |
| Everyday business careI am too busy to keep records and agreed filings current | ₱10,000–₱14,500Per month | Monthly reconciled records, scheduled return preparation and evidence, one owner summaryOne entity, up to 100 entries/month, two accounts, clean records; one agreed quarterly return in each of three families | Bookkeeper + tax accountant + CPA reviewerSeparate: Annual close and annual ITR, payroll, inventory valuation, historical cleanup and independent audit |
| Tax position clarityI need to understand my tax position and what to change | ₱10,500–₱15,500One review project | Reviewed options, applicability questions and written action planOne entity, one activity, one current-year tax position | Tax CPA + accountantSeparate: Registration-change execution, returns, penalties and guaranteed tax savings |
| Online seller carePlatform payouts and deductions do not match my sales | ₱11,500–₱17,000Per month | One coherent set of books, agreed filings, platform payout and withholding reconciliationEveryday care allowance plus one marketplace and two payment accounts | Bookkeeper + tax accountant + CPA reviewer; systems expert if neededSeparate: Inventory costing, extra platforms, electronic invoice implementation and historical cleanup |
| First team payrollI am hiring and need reliable pay and submission records | ₱4,500–₱6,000Per month | Payroll register, payslips, contribution schedules and agreed submission evidenceUp to five employees, two payroll runs/month, existing employer accounts | Payroll specialist + CPA reviewerSeparate: Employer registration, employment disputes, recruitment, annual employee tax packs and contributions themselves |
| Company annual readinessI need company statements, annual tax and corporate reporting | ₱35,000–₱63,000Per financial year | Financial statements preparation, annual tax reconciliation/return and applicable corporate submissionsOne small corporation, one year, reconciled books and standard ownership chain | Accountant + CPA reviewer + corporate compliance specialistSeparate: Independent audit, historical reconstruction, permit renewal, tax liabilities and disputed ownership |
| Catch-up recoveryI have missing records or filings and need a recovery plan | ₱50,500–₱84,000One recovery project | Gap map, reconstructed periods, agreed corrective returns and completion evidenceOne entity, three historical months with up to 100 entries/month, three missing return instances | Senior bookkeeper + tax accountant + senior tax CPASeparate: Tax liabilities, penalties, formal representation, litigation and additional months/returns |
| Foreign founder entry planI want to establish a Philippine business with foreign ownership | ₱18,500–₱30,000One feasibility project | Counsel and tax review of entry options, constraints, documents and implementation planOne proposed activity, one ownership structure and one operating model | Philippine counsel + international tax CPASeparate: Registration execution, immigration, capital requirements, bank opening and regulated licences |
| Close with a clear trailI stopped trading and want the registrations closed properly | ₱21,000–₱36,500One closure project | Agency-by-agency plan, coordination and a record of completed or pending clearancesOne entity and one city; existing books current and no unresolved dispute | Registration liaison + senior tax CPA; counsel for corporate actionsSeparate: Outstanding taxes and penalties, catch-up returns, liquidation proceedings and court work |
| Growth and cash controlSales are growing but I cannot see where the cash goes | ₱17,000–₱26,500Per month | Reconciled books and agreed filings with a useful cash forecast and owner decision reviewEveryday care allowance plus one cash forecast and one monthly management review | Bookkeeper + tax accountant + CPA reviewer + management accountant/CFOSeparate: Loan approvals, investment guarantees, fundraising, audit and historical cleanup |
Try a provisional estimate
This calculator uses the same pilot work-unit model as Beth’s chat. Change the facts to see the scope and price change. Counts inferred from broad bands are stated explicitly.
Registration steps already completed
Launch budgets credit completed steps. Evidence is checked later. Ongoing work assumes existing registrations unless stated otherwise.What Babylon needs from its team
Collect these records once, with an owner and a review date. They enable Beth to ask useful questions and assemble a defensible scope. Credentials, contracts and confidential job records belong in controlled staff systems; founders should not supply identity documents during initial profiling.
From each specialist
| Record | What to collect | How Beth uses it | When / proposed owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity and public listing | Name, specialist ID, firm, directory profile URL | Exact profile link and assignment identityWho can do this work? | Before listingProposed: Roster manager |
| Credentials and authority | Licence/accreditation type, issuer, expiry, verification URL, permitted scope, supervising reviewer | Eligibility gate before ranking; credentials stored separately from public claimsDoes this work need a qualified reviewer? | Before assignmentProposed: Credential reviewer |
| Actual specialties | Canonical work-unit IDs, industries, entity types, tax regimes, systems and languages | Capabilities map to services, not a generic accountant labelWhat does the business do? | Before pricingProposed: Practice lead |
| Coverage | Remote/in-person, cities, agencies/RDO experience, travel radius and costs | Location affects actual visits and expensesWhich city and how many locations? | Before matchingProposed: Operations manager |
| Unit definitions | What one entry, return, pay run, account, branch and review includes | Common workload units and published allowanceAbout how many entries each month? | Before pricingProposed: Service owner |
| Normal effort | Delivery, review and admin hours; median and upper range by unit; include setup and rework separately | Replace assumed hours with evidenceAre records organised or missing? | Pilot calibrationProposed: Practice lead |
| Commercial terms | Requested payout per hour/unit, minimum job fee, retainer capacity, tax treatment, travel/software exclusions | Calculate cost and protect partner payoutDo you need ongoing help or a single job? | Before live saleProposed: Pricing manager |
| Document readiness | Minimum inputs, acceptable alternatives, secure collection stage, blockers | Easy readiness questions first; documentary checklist laterCan you find last month’s sales and statements? | Before workProposed: Service owner |
| Quality and output | Redacted sample deliverables, completion evidence, error/rework reasons, review checkpoints | Scope includes a useful output and named reviewWhat would make this help useful to you? | Before live saleProposed: Quality lead |
| Capacity and service times | Available slots, weekly capacity, client load, lead time, backup, handoff acceptance rules | Promise appointments and start dates only when acceptedWhen do you need help to start? | Before assignmentProposed: Operations manager |
| Conflicts and independence | Client conflicts, prohibited combinations, auditor/preparer relationships, declaration and review date | Separate independent audit from bookkeeping engagementDo you already have an auditor or accountant? | Before assignmentProposed: Practice lead |
From the managers
| Record | What to collect | How Beth uses it | When / proposed owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Package ownership | One accountable owner; scope, outcomes, minimum facts, alternatives, exclusions, credits and dependencies | Founder gets one coordinated scopeWhich concern matters first? | Before pricingProposed: Commercial lead |
| Price metadata | PHP or other currency, one-off/month/run/year, fee tax treatment, inclusions and volume tiers for each source code | Resolve supplied catalogue ambiguity before using it as an approved rate cardWhich period or frequency is involved? | Before live saleProposed: Catalogue owner |
| Cost and margin policy | Overhead allocation, platform allowance, target contribution margin, minimum margin, minimum price and rounding | Use a transparent cost floor; avoid double overheadNo founder question; internal commercial policy | Before live saleProposed: Finance manager |
| Discount and credit rules | Allowed savings, already-completed work, prepaid scope, partner minimum, override authority | Credit shared work instead of charging full overlapping packagesWhat is already handled by your accountant? | Before price approvalProposed: Commercial lead |
| Change and urgency rules | Volume bands, rush capacity, written approval, changed scope, renewal repricing and complaint process | Predictable changes and consent before extra workHas the team, volume or deadline changed? | Before live saleProposed: Operations manager |
| Delivery accountability | Task owner, reviewer, coordinator, handoff checks, blockers, backups and escalation times | Several specialties become one accountable serviceIs there a formal notice or stated deadline? | Before assignmentProposed: Operations manager |
| Outcome data | Quoted/accepted price, actual costs/hours, overruns, errors, satisfaction, cancellations and repeat use | Calibrate prices from completed jobs, not conversion aloneWas the scope and result useful? | After each jobProposed: Finance and quality leads |
From tax, accounting and legal experts
| Record | What to collect | How Beth uses it | When / proposed owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Applicability rules | Decision table by entity/activity/ownership/tax type/location/year; exemptions and exceptions; exact primary-source references | Ask questions that change the recommended workWhich registrations and tax types do you actually have? | Before guidance releaseProposed: Tax or legal expert |
| Plain-language probes | Founder wording, common misunderstandings, accepted rough answers, follow-up and not-sure route | Founder can volunteer useful answers without knowing jargonAre platform deductions your only tax evidence? | Before profilingProposed: Practice lead |
| Service dependencies | Prerequisites, order, incompatible engagements, independence checks and agency/client waiting time | Do work in the right sequence; avoid invalid bundlesAre the books ready for year end? | Before packagingProposed: Practice lead |
| Citations and refresh | Document, clause/page, authority, effective dates, superseded rules, last checked, approver and next review | Beth distinguishes cited guidance from approved adviceNo founder question; knowledge governance | Before guidance releaseProposed: Knowledge owner |
| Boundary and escalation | What Beth may say, urgent notices, regulated sectors, legal opinions, missing facts and minimum qualified review | Estimate bounded work while escalating decisionsHave you received a formal notice? | Before guidance releaseProposed: Tax or legal expert |
| Testing cases | Redacted simple/complex/out-of-scope scenarios, expected questions, service scope and price drivers | Test real founder language and overlooked needsUse sample cases; no live identity documents | Before release and after changesProposed: Quality lead |
Easy founder answers, useful work decisions
Start with the concern and ask only the next missing fact. A single paragraph may answer several questions. “Not sure” is an accepted answer: state the estimate assumption and widen the range rather than inventing registration or tax status.
| Ask in plain language | Easy answer | What it changes | Documents later |
|---|---|---|---|
| What happened, or what would you like help with? | Free text | Select journey; answer question before sale | No document |
| Is this a sole proprietor, corporation/OPC, or still an idea? | Best guess / not sure | Registration route, reviewer and corporate work | Registration certificate later |
| What does the business sell or do? | Short description | Industry complexity, inventory and regulated activity | No document |
| Which city, and how many operating locations? | City; rough count | LGU scope, visits and extra site units | Premises papers later |
| Which are actually registered: DTI/SEC, BIR, local permits and employer accounts? | Yes / no / not sure for each | Do not infer one registration from another | Certificates later |
| Roughly how many sales, purchases and expense entries each month? | 0–100 / 101–300 / 301–1,000 / >1,000 / not sure | Bookkeeping workload; distinguish entries from revenue | Sample month later |
| Are records up to date, patchy or several months behind? | Simple description; rough months | Separate monthly work from one-time cleanup | Sample records later |
| How many bank/payment accounts and sales platforms do you use? | Rough count | Reconciliation units; extra platforms | Statements and reports later |
| How many people are on payroll, and how often do you pay them? | Rough count and pay frequency | Pay runs, employee increments and contributions | Employee/attendance data later |
| Do you know whether the registration says VAT or non-VAT? | VAT / non-VAT / not sure | Tax preparation complexity; not an eligibility decision | Registration evidence later |
| Any official notice, stated deadline or missing filing evidence? | Yes / no / not sure; date if known | Priority and bounded notice-review phase | Redacted notice via secure admin later |
| Which tasks are already done by your accountant or staff? | Short description | Credit completed work and avoid duplicate services | Accepted deliverables later |
| What result would be most useful first? | Launch / recover / stay current / hire / understand cash | Confirm package outcome and optional modules | No document |
Specialists define work and effort; managers set costs and package policy; experts supply founder probes, applicability and review rules. Review gaps and preview the package impact before activating draft prices.
Open the team interviewA pricing mechanism Babylon can improve
Start the Q&A team workshop · Explore the jobs-in-progress portal
Use entry, account, employee, pay run, return instance, entity, site, historical month and advice session. Never equate revenue with workload.
Service owner · A service dictionary with boundariesSum delivery hours × delivery cost + review hours × reviewer cost + admin hours × admin cost. Count each canonical service/entity/period once.
Pricing manager · Traceable direct cost per scoped jobAllocate overhead once as 15% of direct cost plus PHP600 per package period or project. Pilot assumptions, not audited costs.
Finance manager · Loaded costDivide loaded cost by (1 − 35% target contribution margin). Round upwards to PHP500. Use low/high effort and a stated additional allowance for uncertain facts.
Commercial lead · A provisional range with caps and assumptionsCheck same currency, period, volume, outcomes, reviewer, fees and exclusions. Published starting prices are sanity checks, not a national norm or partner cost.
Pricing manager · Explain differences; avoid false comparisonsKnown recurring work, one-time cleanup and optional specialist work remain separate. Urgent notice means a priced initial review, not an invented dispute outcome.
Practice lead · Founder sees which phase the budget buysCapture hours by work unit and role, realised cost, scope changes and quality. Review after 20–30 completed comparable jobs; widen the range while sample is small.
Finance and quality leads · Median and upper effort by segment; evidence-labelled parametersPublish version/date/approver. Managers approve overrides and savings; experts approve applicability; specialists accept capacity and the engagement.
Commercial and practice leads · Auditable rate-card updates; no automatic unapproved price changeInternal assumptions and collection priorities
Cost is distinct from price: specialist payout/internal productive-hour cost is not the published directory selling rate. The pilot assumptions are Admin PHP220/hour, Bookkeeper PHP350, Accountant/Payroll PHP500, CPA review PHP900, Tax CPA PHP1,200, Counsel PHP2,000, Auditor PHP1,600, CFO PHP1,400, Systems PHP800 and Corporate PHP850. These are invented planning costs.
Cost formula: delivery + review + admin; add 15% operating overhead and PHP600 per engagement period. Divide by 0.65 for a 35% contribution margin after the modelled operating allocation. This is not net profit. Round to PHP500. Low/high work hours create the range; uncertain scope adds 20% to the upper bound. Quantified workload changes affect their work units only.
Collect first: approve 36 work-unit definitions and catalogue mappings; obtain actual specialist costs and measured effort; approve package caps and a reviewer; resolve currency, period, tax treatment and zero-price meanings in the supplied catalogue. Its old Core/Silver/Gold figures cannot be automatically treated as this rate card.
Collection route: manager-led service workshops → specialist service cards and redacted job examples → expert question/rule review → measured pilot jobs → versioned price approval. Roster IDs link specialists to services; questions link facts to rules; rules select package components; price versions resolve cost; job records feed recalibration.
How packages form complete founder journeys
- New solo founder: Launch ready once, then Everyday business care monthly. Add employer setup and First team payroll when hiring. Add tax review only when there is a distinct unresolved tax decision.
- Online seller: Online seller care replaces Everyday business care. Add a one-time invoice readiness review only if needed; add historical cleanup only for actual gaps. Both packages use the same core books.
- Growing company: Growth and cash control replaces Everyday business care. Add First team payroll and Company annual readiness on their own periods. A required audit is a separately accepted independent engagement.
- Foreign founder: Foreign founder entry plan first, then the quoted implementation phase after counsel approves the route, then ongoing books/payroll/annual modules. No automatic promise of eligibility, capital adequacy or agency approval.
- Distressed or closing founder: A priced notice review first if a notice exists; then bounded Catch-up recovery. Close with a clear trail only when the known prerequisites are addressed, or transition to ongoing care.
Deduplication: identify every scope by business + canonical work unit + actual covered period + site/channel where applicable. Two packages referencing the same completed work receive one charge or a credit. Different periods are distinct work. Several return forms are distinct return instances. One monthly base is selected; extra workload is incremental. Shared collection/review is charged once when the same task is genuinely reused.
Examples of combinations: a Launch ready project plus three months of Everyday care is a three-month onboarding budget, not a monthly price. A company’s annual budget is 12 monthly care fees + annual readiness + a separate audit if applicable + actual payroll/setup modules. The calculator deliberately keeps different billing periods separate.
Evidence and limits
Professional fee estimates only. Government fees, taxes, penalties, contributions, notarial/courier/travel costs, software and other third-party expenses are separate. Fee-tax treatment must be confirmed before a binding offer. These package prices are invented model outputs. Market pages below are comparators, not evidence that Babylon can deliver at these costs. Quotes must carry version, expiry, facts, caps, exclusions, optional work, tax treatment and any approved override.
- Supplied Babylon service catalogueCandidate service codes only. Original amounts retain unresolved currency, period and allowance metadata.
- BGB advertised feesScope-dependent published ranges; reviewed 2 Oct 2026. Different scope from these pilot packages.
- Comply.ph pricingExisting-company support from PHP8,000/month; new-company setup from PHP100,000. Starting prices with scope differences.
- Accounting Tax Service pricingBasic from PHP1,500/month; standard from PHP5,000/month. Starting rates and different allowances.