How Much Does Bookkeeping Cost for a Small Business?

"How much does bookkeeping cost?" has a frustrating answer elsewhere: it depends. It does, but on a short list of things you can measure. Here is what drives the price, what typical ranges look like, and what we charge.

What drives the price

• Transaction volume. The number of lines on your bank and card statements each month. This is the biggest factor.
• Number of accounts. Each bank, card, loan and payment-processor account has to be reconciled.
• Condition of the books. Current, reconciled books cost far less to maintain than books that are months behind.
• Complexity. Inventory, multiple entities, payroll, class or location tracking, and marketplace sales add work.
• Reporting. A P&L and Balance Sheet is standard; budgets, cash-flow statements and investor packages add time.

How bookkeeping is usually priced

Monthly packages are the most common model for ongoing work: a fixed monthly fee for a defined volume of transactions and accounts. They make costs predictable.

Per-month-of-books pricing is common for cleanup and catch-up, because the size of the project depends on how many months need work.

Hourly billing still exists, but it makes costs hard to predict and rewards slow work.

What we charge

Our prices are published so you can check them before calling:

• Essential, up to 100 transactions a month and 3 accounts: from $290 a month.
• Growth, 101 to 300 transactions and up to 8 accounts, with payroll entries and a monthly summary: from $560 a month.
• Advanced, 301+ transactions, inventory or multiple entities: from $1,080 a month.
• Cleanup and catch-up: $120, $220, $340 per month of books, depending on activity and condition.
• QuickBooks setup: from $480.

Full details are on our bookkeeping pricing page, and the bookkeeping cost estimator gives you a range for your business in about two minutes.

Example

A design studio has about 120 transactions a month across a checking account, a savings account and two cards, and its books are four months behind. Monthly bookkeeping falls in the Growth band; catching up four months at the moderate rate is a one-time project. After that, the monthly fee is all that remains.

Cheap vs. right

The least expensive option is often software plus your own evenings. That works at low volume if you reconcile every month. The expensive option is books that look fine but aren't: missed deductions, a tax return built on wrong numbers, and a cleanup bill later. Whatever you choose, make sure someone reconciles every account every month.