Business bookkeeping
- Whole monthly scope, in hours (rounded)
- 13
- Coding and matching transactions (minutes a month)
- 300
- Reconciling every account (minutes a month)
- 90
The record-keeping periods these pages cite are the IRS's published figures; every fee, hour and rate is arithmetic on the numbers you typed, and no figure on this site is a published national price for bookkeeping, because there is none.
Business bookkeeping is the record of every dollar that moved through the business, coded to an account and reconciled to the bank, so that the profit and loss at the end of the month is a statement of fact rather than a guess. For an owner deciding whether to keep doing it or send it out, the question is not whether the work matters but how many hours it takes and what those hours are worth against everything else the owner could do with them. The scope sheet on this site puts a number on the hours.
Open the What does a bookkeeper do each month: the scope sheet Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Separate the business from the person
One business bank account and one card, used for nothing else, is the single change that makes bookkeeping cheap to outsource, because every line on the statement is then a business transaction and none has to be argued over. Mixed accounts double the coding time and the questions.
Decide the rhythm
Weekly coding with a monthly reconciliation is the shape most small businesses settle on. The reconciliation is the control: if the books agree with the bank at month end, the month is closed, and if they do not, something is missing or duplicated and it is found while the paperwork is still to hand.
Keep what the IRS will ask for
Bank statements, sales records, purchase invoices, receipts and the payroll summaries, filed by month, are the evidence behind every return. The bookkeeper keeps the books; the business owns the archive, and the record-keeping periods are the IRS's, not the bookkeeper's.
A quote the Business bookkeeping does not explain?
Tell us which figure on a quote does not add up and we will tell you how the sheet arrives at it.
What an owner comparing bookkeeping quotes asks about the Business bookkeeping
What is the difference between bookkeeping and accounting?
Bookkeeping records and reconciles what happened; accounting interprets it, prepares returns and advises. A business needs both, but not necessarily from the same person, and the bookkeeping is the part most often outsourced first.
How many hours a month does business bookkeeping take?
It depends on transaction counts, accounts, invoices and bills, which is why the scope sheet on this site asks for exactly those and gives an hour figure rather than a rule of thumb.
Can I do business bookkeeping myself?
Yes, and many owners do. The decision to stop is usually made on hours: when the monthly reconciliation is eating evenings, the hiring sheet on this site shows what an outsourced fee costs against those hours at what your time is worth.