Now someone needs to replicate this for accountants specially CPAs. My CPA's bill always exceeds my expected number by 20% at least and I am clueless as to how he gets to that calculation. Am I crazy not to ask him for his timesheets ?
We're headed in that direction and consulting services as well.
Really all time-based billing suffers from an inherent conflict of interest. The supplier controls the inventory. They control the amount, price, and quality of inventory consumed while the buyer has little if any data.
For your own situation, when you ask your CPA for a budget follow up with a request for a fixed fee proposal. If the two numbers differ significantly, ask for an explanation of why costs might exceed budget. That at least gives you a starting point. You could ask for time sheets, but if it's a one-person show, there may not be any time sheets. Fixed fee is the answer.
If you want an hourly breakdown and your current service isn't providing one, you need to demand it, or simply find a new service.
Anyone billing hourly, one-man-shop or otherwise, ought to be able to provide an hourly breakdown.
(lawyers are used to billing in 6 minute increments, and while I think it's interesting to go over their bills, I'd pay them (at least my current firm) the amounts they ask too if they wouldn't provide me with a specified bill. I sometimes feel sorry for them, what kind of life is that, having to write down the time for every 2 minute email you write?)
If you don't trust your professional services suppliers enough to pay their bills without knowing what they did hour-by-hour, you need to find other people who work for you, because that's not a healthy relationship you have.
The number of IFA's is now dropping rapidly. They're moving into real estate and selling cars where they can continue to rip people off.