Bookkeeping services pricing calculator
- Monthly fee that scope implies at the quoted rate
- $495
- Hours of bookkeeping the scope takes each month (rounded)
- 11
- Over a year
- $5,940
- Cost per transaction handled
- $1.98
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.
These figures are a worked example ($495) for one small business; type your own counts and the quote-side arithmetic follows.
Download the Bookkeeping services pricing calculator worked example (CSV)
This is the sheet the rest of the site hangs off. Put in the monthly transaction count from your bank statements, the accounts you hold, the invoices you raise and the bills you pay, and the minutes each of those takes a bookkeeper, and it works out the hours the scope takes each month. Put in the hourly rate you have been quoted and it prints the monthly fee those hours imply, the annual cost, and the cost per transaction, so a flat-rate package and an hourly proposal can be compared on one line. The minutes are a worked example and every one of them is an input, because there is no published national price for bookkeeping and this sheet does not pretend there is.
What an owner comparing bookkeeping quotes asks about the Bookkeeping services pricing calculator
Where do the minutes per transaction come from?
They are a worked example, not a published figure, and they are inputs. A bookkeeper's proposal usually implies a rate; divide the fee by the hours the sheet gives and you have it, then change the minutes to match what they say the work takes.
Why is the fee different from the quote I was given?
Because the quote is a package and the sheet is the hours at a rate. If the quote is lower, the provider expects to spend fewer minutes than you have entered or is pricing to win; if higher, the package includes work the sheet does not, or is priced for a bigger business.
Does the fee include catch-up work?
No. Catch-up months are priced separately, usually as a one-off at the same rate for the hours the backlog takes. Run the sheet once per backlog month and add the results for an estimate.