Why our first thirty minutes is free.

Technically reviewed 8 October 2026 · General information only, not personal advice. Read our disclaimer.

The accounting industry has two postures on the discovery call. Some firms gate it behind a fee to signal seriousness. Others give the whole engagement away in pursuit of the work. We do neither.

The first thirty minutes with Altiora is free. That isn’t a marketing line and it isn’t loss-leading. It’s a statement about what we think is for sale and what isn’t. Time on the phone isn’t the product. The work is. There’s a non-negotiable rule sitting behind the whole position. I’ll come to it at the end. It’s the part that makes this hold up.

What the first thirty minutes actually is

It’s a fit conversation, not a billable one.

Caring about your situation, picking up the phone when you ring, being available. That’s not billable work. That’s the relationship. Charging for it would be charging you for being polite. It is still a professional conversation: what you tell us is confidential from the first minute, we check for conflicts before we go further, and we won’t hand you a position to rely on until we have the facts and an agreed scope. The first call is where I find out whether you’re someone we can do good work for, and where you find out whether we’re a firm you’d actually want to do work with. Neither side learns anything if there’s a meter running.

This is the part of the industry I think gets the framing wrong. Some firms paywall the discovery call as a status signal. “We charge from minute one, that’s how serious we are.” Other firms give away everything, including the position-taking, hoping the prospect feels obligated to engage. Both are confused about what’s being sold. The former is charging for politeness. The latter is giving away the work.

We don’t do either. We answer the phone. We listen. We tell you what we’d actually do for you. None of that costs you a cent, because none of it is the product.

Where free ends and paid begins

The line isn’t time. It’s the kind of thinking the conversation is asking for.

When a fit call shifts into “here’s the position you should take on your trust distributions this year”, that’s work. When it shifts into “let me look at how Div 7A applies to that loan you described”, that’s work. When it shifts into a structuring opinion that needs me to step away, look at the facts properly, and come back with a recommendation you can actually rely on, that’s work too. Including when I deliver the answer on the same call.

Free is the conversation. Paid is the position-taking, the research, the advice you’d put weight on.

The free part isn’t a discount. It’s a category.

It is easy for that line to blur: a free call slides into a vague paid arrangement where the scope is “we’re your accountants now” and the fee is whatever shows up on the bill. We don’t run the firm that way. The first call is for understanding the problem and deciding whether we are the right people to help. It is not where I give you a tax position before I have seen the facts. If the next step is paid work, you will know what it is and what it costs before we start. The line between the relationship and the work is one I draw out loud, in the conversation, while you’re still on the phone.

The non-negotiable: nothing gets billed by surprise

This is the rule the rest of the position rests on.

If our call shifts from a fit conversation into actual work, I will say so before the work happens. I’ll tell you what I’d be doing, what I think it’s worth, and what the fee looks like. You either say yes and I do it, or you say not yet and we park it. There is no third option where I quietly do the thinking and bill you for it later.

An invoice from us should never be the first time you hear a number.

That rule is what separates this position from the same pitch every other firm runs. Plenty of firms will tell you the discovery call is free. Far fewer will tell you, in writing, that the boundary between free and paid will be drawn out loud in the moment, and that no chargeable work gets done without you first agreeing to it. We will. That’s why this piece exists.

So ring us. Thirty minutes, no fee, no obligation, no soft-paywall at minute thirty-one. If the conversation turns into work, you’ll know in real time. If it doesn’t, we’ll have had a good chat and you’ll have a clearer sense of whether we’re the firm for you. Either outcome is a good day.

Raise higher.