FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
How much does a bookkeeper cost?
Run your own numbers.
Quotes for the same business can land anywhere from $200 to $2,500 a month, because the work underneath them is different. This estimator skips the averages. It runs on your transactions, your accounts, and your backlog, and it shows every step of its math.
No email required. Nothing you type leaves this page.
THE ESTIMATOR
Your books, your figures.
Answer four questions about your business. The estimate updates as you type, and the assumptions underneath it are yours to change.
HOW IT WORKS
An estimate with its math showing.
Most cost pages hand you an average and ask you to trust it. This one multiplies your inputs by the assumptions above, nothing else. Change the hourly rate to the quote a local firm gave you, or change the minutes per transaction to match how messy your records are, and the estimate follows.
Two honest limits. First, a real quote also weighs things a form cannot see: ecommerce payouts, inventory, job costing, and mixed personal spending all add time. Second, plenty of firms quote flat monthly packages instead of hours. Treat this result as the range a fair quote should land near, and a set of questions to ask when one lands far outside it.
THE PUBLISHED RANGES
What the guides say, and why they disagree.
Pull up three bookkeeping pricing guides and you will get three different answers, because each one is describing a different business. Across the 2026 guides we reviewed, monthly bookkeeping for a small business runs $200 to $2,500, with most businesses under $5M in revenue landing at $400 to $800. Hourly bookkeeping runs about $20 to $50 an hour freelance and $30 to $70 at many firms. Catch-up cleanup is its own one-time project: a few hundred dollars when you are a month or two behind, $3,000 to $5,000 or more for a full-year rebuild.
The drivers are consistent everywhere: transaction volume first, then accounts, payroll, backlog, and industry complexity. If a quote seems too good, it usually excludes something on that list. Ask what is included before you compare numbers.
One point in your favor: bookkeeping fees are generally treated as an ordinary and necessary business expense, so they are typically tax-deductible. Confirm your own situation with your tax professional.
We wrote the full answer, including the cost nobody puts in the quote, here: How much does a bookkeeper cost for a small business? (on the Business Hub OS blog).
STRAIGHT ANSWERS
Asked by owners,
answered up front.
How much does a bookkeeper cost per month?
Published 2026 pricing guides put it between $200 and $2,500 a month, with most small businesses landing at $400 to $800. Your number depends on transaction volume, accounts, payroll, and whether cleanup comes first. That is exactly what the estimator above calculates from your figures.
How is catch-up bookkeeping priced?
As a one-time project before monthly service starts, either as a flat fee after the bookkeeper reviews your accounts or as a rate per month of history behind. Every account has to be reconciled for every month in the backlog, which is why the months-behind count moves the price so much.
Why did two bookkeepers quote me such different prices?
Usually scope. One may include payroll, invoicing, and sales tax while the other covers reconciliation and statements only. Ask each for an itemized list of what is included, then compare. The drivers section above is a good checklist for that conversation.
Is it cheaper to do my own bookkeeping?
Software runs about $20 to $50 a month, but the hours are yours. Owners commonly spend five to ten hours a week on receipts, invoicing, and reconciliation once things get busy. The estimator shows the DIY line at your own hourly value so you can compare honestly.
Are bookkeeping fees tax-deductible?
Generally yes, as an ordinary and necessary business expense. Confirm your specific situation with your tax professional.
I am a bookkeeper. Where do I fit in?
This page is for your future clients. For your practice, see Business Hub OS for Bookkeepers: an AI assistant trained on your practice, a hub for every client, follow-up that runs itself, and leads matched through the Bookkeepers Growth Network, the free community we are partnered with.
NEXT STEP
Get a number you can trust.
Run the estimator, then bring the output to a short discovery call. We will sanity-check it against your actual books and tell you plainly what clean, current bookkeeping should cost a business like yours. No pressure and no invented benchmarks.
Bookkeepers: request your invitation to the free Bookkeepers Growth Network.