“How much does a bookkeeper cost?” is usually the first question owners ask, and the honest answer is that it depends on your volume and complexity, not your revenue. Two businesses with the same sales can need very different amounts of work. This guide gives you the numbers we can stand behind: our own published fees, what an employed bookkeeper costs according to federal wage data, what drives a quote up or down, and how to tell whether you are overpaying or underserved.
The short answer
Most small businesses pay a bookkeeper a fixed monthly fee set by transaction volume, number of accounts, payroll and sales tax, or an hourly rate for one-off work. Our own published fees start at $150 a month for clean monthly books, $350 with payroll and tax, and $650 with inventory and CFO support.
- Starter
- $150/month
- One main sales channel, books simply right
- Growth
- $350/month
- Adds payroll, sales tax filing and tax preparation
- Scale
- $650/month
- Adds inventory, several channels and CFO support
“From” is the fixed monthly fee for a typical business in that tier. The exact fee is confirmed after a short look at your books. If your volume grows a lot, we talk first; any change is agreed with you in advance and is usually small. Every tier side by side is on our pricing page.
There is no official survey of what outsourced bookkeeping firms charge, so be wary of precise-sounding market averages. The numbers you can check are below: published fixed fees like ours, and federal wage data for employed bookkeepers.
Bookkeeping cost per month
A monthly fee buys a routine: every account reconciled, transactions categorized, reports produced, and someone who answers your questions. What moves the fee is how much of that routine there is, and how many extra jobs ride on top of it.
| Example business | What the month involves | Usually lands at |
|---|---|---|
| A consultant with one bank account and one card | Reconciliation, categorizing, monthly profit and loss and balance sheet | Starter, from $150 |
| A café with staff on payroll and sales tax to file | All of that, plus payroll runs and filings, sales tax returns and the tax return | Growth, from $350 |
| An online store on Shopify and Amazon, with inventory | All of that, plus inventory and cost of goods, payouts from several channels and cash-flow reporting | Scale, from $650 |
Made-up profiles, for illustration. Where a real business lands depends on its volume and complexity, which is why we confirm the exact fixed fee after a short look at the books.
A monthly fee covers the routine going forward. Getting behind books current, or fixing books that are wrong, is a separate one-off project, covered further down.
Bookkeeping cost per hour, and why fixed fees win
Federal wage data gives you the floor. The median wage for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks was $24.36 an hour ($50,670 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned under $36,000 a year and the highest-paid tenth over $74,550.
That is what employees are paid, not what a freelancer or a firm bills. A billing rate has to cover the bookkeeper’s own payroll taxes, software, insurance and the hours that cannot be billed, so it is always higher than the wage. There is no official survey of bookkeeping billing rates either, which is one more reason to compare quotes on the total monthly cost rather than the hourly figure.
Hourly billing sounds cheap but punishes you for asking questions and makes budgeting hard. A fixed monthly fee, scoped to your volume and complexity, works the other way: you know the number in advance, any change is agreed with you first, and the bookkeeper is rewarded for working efficiently rather than running the clock. Hourly still has a place for a one-off job whose size nobody can know yet, or a few hours of advice.
What drives the price
Almost all of the cost comes down to a handful of factors. More of any of these means more work each month:
- Transaction volume
- How many bank, card and processor lines run through the books.
- Number of accounts
- Every bank account, credit card and payment processor is another account to reconcile.
- Sales channels
- One Shopify store is simpler than Shopify, Amazon, Stripe and wholesale together.
- Inventory
- Cost of goods sold and stock tracking add real work.
- Payroll
- Number of employees, pay runs and states. See our payroll pricing and what it covers.
- Sales tax
- How many states you collect and file in.
- The state of the file
- Years of miscategorized history slow every month down until it is cleaned up.
- Backlog
- Catch-up bookkeeping for months or years of missing books is a one-off project on top of the monthly fee.
What should be included
At a genuine monthly bookkeeping level, expect all of the following. If any are missing, the price isn’t really lower; the scope is.
- Bank and credit card reconciliation for every account, every month.
- Categorized transactions, reviewed rather than auto-accepted.
- A monthly profit and loss and balance sheet on a set schedule.
- A real point of contact who knows your file.
- A month-end close: someone checking that the numbers tie before the reports go out.
Payroll, sales tax filing, tax preparation and fractional CFO reporting sit above that as additional scope, which is why they move the price.
In-house bookkeeper cost: salary plus overhead
Hiring your own bookkeeper costs more than the salary. In June 2026, wages and salaries were 68.5% of what private employers spent on full-time workers; the other 31.5% went on benefits, from paid leave and insurance to legally required payroll taxes (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation).
A part-time hire costs less, but you still manage them, cover their absences and check their work. For most small businesses an outsourced service covers the same monthly close for a fraction of that. The full comparison, including when hiring in-house is the better call, is in our guide to in-house bookkeeper cost against a remote team.
Comparing a bookkeeper with an accountant instead? They do different jobs and charge for different things: see bookkeeper vs accountant.
Catch-up and cleanup costs
Bringing behind books up to date, or fixing books that are wrong, is a one-off project on top of any monthly fee. A good provider quotes it as a fixed price after looking at the file, not as an open-ended hourly job. We quote catch-up and cleanup as a fixed price, in writing, before any work starts.
What moves the size of that project:
- How many months or years are missing.
- How many accounts there are, and whether statements exist for all of them.
- How many transactions fall in the missing period.
- Payroll, sales tax or 1099 filings that also need catching up.
- Whether the existing file has to be fixed before new work can sit on it.
For timelines and what drives a quote, see our guide to catch-up bookkeeping cost. If the books exist but cannot be trusted, the project is a bookkeeping cleanup instead.
Signs you’re overpaying, or underserved
- You’re billed hourly and dread every email.
- Your books are only touched at year-end, then rushed for tax.
- You pay a low monthly fee but reconciliation and reporting aren’t actually included.
- Reports arrive weeks late, or only when you ask for them.
- Nobody has ever asked you a question about a transaction.
- No one can tell you your gross margin or whether a product is profitable.
Common questions
How much should you pay someone to do your bookkeeping?
Pay for the scope you need, as a fixed monthly fee if the work is ongoing. A business with one account and one card needs far less than one with payroll, inventory and sales tax in several states. As a reference point, our published fees start at $150, $350 and $650 a month, depending on what is included.
How much does a bookkeeper cost per hour?
Employed bookkeepers earned a median of $24.36 an hour in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Freelancers and firms bill more than that, because the rate also covers their own taxes, software and unbilled time. For ongoing work, compare the total monthly cost rather than the hourly rate.
Is a fixed monthly fee better than hourly bookkeeping?
For ongoing work, usually yes. A fixed fee makes the cost predictable and puts the incentive on the bookkeeper to be efficient. Hourly billing suits one-off projects where the scope is genuinely unknown.
What should monthly bookkeeping include?
Reconciliation of every bank and card account, categorized transactions, a monthly profit and loss and balance sheet, and someone to answer questions. Payroll, sales tax filing and tax preparation are usually add-ons or higher tiers.
Why do bookkeeping quotes vary so much?
Because providers price different scopes. One quote may include reconciliation, reports and a named contact; another may only categorize the bank feed. Ask each one what happens every month, what costs extra, and when the reports arrive.
What does a low monthly bookkeeping fee usually leave out?
Usually reconciliation, review or reporting. A very low fee often means the bank feed is categorized automatically and nobody checks it against the statements. Ask whether every account is reconciled monthly, and who reviews the work.
Wondering whether your current books are worth what you pay? A free books review tells you. Add us as your accountant, and within about 48 hours you get a written list of what is misclassified or unreconciled. It is free, yours to keep, and nothing in your books changes.