Bookkeeping pricing packages turn a variable job into a menu: a starter tier for a business with few transactions, a middle tier with more, and a top tier that adds payroll journals, invoicing or reporting. The menu is convenient and it hides the two things that decide what you pay: where the band boundaries are, and what each tier leaves out. This page explains how bookkeeping price packages are usually built, what is in and out at each level, and how to use the pricing calculator on this site to find the tier your counts actually put you in rather than the one the sales page suggests.
How the tiers are built
A provider works out the hours a typical business in each band takes, prices them at a rate, and rounds to a fee. Bands are set by monthly transactions or monthly expenses because those are easy to ask for. The fee in each band is priced for the middle of the band, so a business at the top of a band is a bargain and one at the bottom is subsidising it. Knowing which end you are at is worth more than knowing the fee.
What each tier usually includes and excludes
The starter tier is coding and reconciliation for a small number of accounts, with a monthly profit and loss. The middle tier raises the transaction band and adds accounts, sometimes invoicing or bill entry. The top tier adds payroll journals, sales-tax summaries, and a call with a named person. Catch-up months, sales channels that settle in batches, and inventory are extras at every tier in most packages. Read each tier for the six lines on the scope sheet on this site, and mark what is missing for your business.
Finding the tier you are really in
Take your transaction count from your bank statements and your account count, and find the band. Then look at what the tier excludes and add those as extras at the provider's rate. Put the whole scope into the pricing calculator at that rate and you have what the package really costs for your business, which may be a different tier from the one the count alone suggested. A business one transaction over a boundary should ask whether the boundary moves.
When a package is the wrong shape
A business with several sales channels, a nonprofit with restricted funds, a contractor with job costing, or anyone with a backlog is usually poorly served by a package, because the package priced a scope that is not theirs and the extras will dominate. For those businesses an hourly quote for a written scope is often cheaper and always clearer. The pricing calculator shows both on one line.
Questions people ask about bookkeeping pricing packages
Which bookkeeping package should I choose?
The one whose scope, plus the extras you need, costs least for your counts. That is rarely the one the transaction band alone points to. Price the whole scope with the calculator on this site.
Are package prices negotiable?
The band boundaries often are, especially for a business just over one. The extras rate rarely is. Ask about the boundary first.
What is usually not in any package?
Catch-up work, sales-channel settlement reconciliation, inventory and cost of sales, and payroll processing itself. If your business needs any of them, get the price before comparing tiers.
Is a package cheaper than an hourly bookkeeper?
For a business in the middle of a band with a simple scope, usually yes. For one at the bottom of a band or with extras, usually no. Turn both into hours with the calculator and the answer is on the sheet.