How much does a bookkeeper cost? Our monthly engagements run from $600 a month to $1,500 and up, and the honest reason the spread is that wide is that no two sets of books take the same amount of work. One bank account and a hundred transactions a month is one job. Several accounts, a thousand transactions, and loans to track is another job entirely, even when both businesses call it bookkeeping.
What follows is what moves the number, and what a low quote usually leaves out.
How much does a bookkeeper cost: the four things that set the price
- Transaction volume. Every transaction is categorized and reconciled, so volume is the largest driver. A business whose crew carries cards for fuel and supplies can put five hundred lines a month through one account; a consultant might put forty through the same kind of account. Same account type, very different hours.
- Accounts to reconcile. Each bank account, credit card, loan, and payment processor is a statement to match, every month. Four accounts is a routine. Twelve is a project.
- What is happening beneath the transactions. Equipment bought and added to the books, loans with interest to split out, money moving between the owners and the business, transfers between accounts. None of it shows in a transaction count, and all of it takes time to get right.
- What is added on. Payroll oversight, reporting by location, schedules by owner and by loan. Each is real work, and each is priced with the monthly service rather than billed by the hour.
What a low quote usually leaves out
When someone asks how much does a bookkeeper cost and hears a figure well under this range, it is often for a different product: books brought up to date quarterly or at year end, for the tax return, by whoever at the firm has time. Nothing is wrong with that if a tax-ready file once a year is all you want. It is not the same as reconciled books every month with a report you can act on, and the difference shows up in April, when the low-priced version arrives as a clean-up bill on top of the monthly fee.
The other tell is a number given before anyone has looked at the books. A quote made without seeing the file is a guess, and a guess tends to get revised once the file is open. Ours comes after a review, which is why we do not quote from a phone call.
How to compare two quotes
Ask both the same three questions. When will I see a profit and loss statement? Who reconciles the accounts, and how often? Has anyone looked at my books before naming this number? The answers sort the quotes faster than the prices do. Two answers to how much does a bookkeeper cost can differ by half and both be fair, as long as the scopes differ too.
Then ask what happens when months are missing. Catch-up work is scoped and priced apart from the monthly service, so a monthly quote that quietly includes six months of clean-up is either too high for the ongoing work or too low for the catch-up. Neither is a bargain.
The right price is the one attached to a scope you can read. Everything else is a number.
If you want a number that comes after a look at your books rather than before, we would be glad to review them. Get in touch.