Most firms make you book a call to find out. We publish the whole fee schedule, show you the math on three real engagements, and let you get your own number in about four taps.
Small business bookkeeping generally runs $250 to $1,500 per month. Where you land inside that depends mostly on how many transactions you run each month, then on your industry and how many accounts have to be reconciled.
That entry price is a real one, not a teaser. It covers a service business under 50 transactions a month with two accounts: categorized transactions, reconciliations, a monthly close, financial statements, and your dashboard.
A busier book costs more, and the table below shows exactly how much more and why. Nothing here is hidden behind a call.
Your monthly fee is a base rate set by transaction volume, adjusted for industry, plus any add-ons you need. That is the whole formula.
| Transactions per month | Base rate |
|---|---|
| Under 50 | $250 |
| 50 to 150 | $400 |
| 150 to 400 | $600 |
| 400 to 800 | $900 |
| 800 or more | $1,300 |
A transaction is any line that has to be reviewed and categorized: a card swipe, a deposit, a bill, a transfer. Most owners underestimate their own count, which is why the estimator asks for a range rather than an exact number.
| Industry | Adjustment | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Professional / service | 1.00x | Straightforward revenue and expenses |
| Nonprofit | 1.10x | Restricted funds and grant tracking |
| Trades / construction | 1.20x | Job costing, retainage, progress billing |
| E-commerce | 1.25x | Platform payouts, fees, inventory |
| Property management | 1.35x | Trust accounting, owner statements, per-property books |
| Retail / restaurant | 1.40x | Daily sales, tips, inventory, sales tax |
This is not a surcharge for the sake of it. A property management or restaurant book genuinely takes more work per transaction than a consulting book does, and pretending otherwise just means one client subsidizes another.
| Add-on | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bank and credit card accounts | First 2 free, then $35 each | Per account, per month |
| Payroll, up to 5 employees | $120 / mo | Runs, filings, and year-end |
| Payroll, 6 to 15 employees | $250 / mo | |
| Payroll, 16 or more | $450 / mo | |
| Bill payments | $150 / mo | We manage and pay your vendor bills |
| Sales tax filing | $90 / mo | Preparation and filing |
| Catch-up / cleanup | ~80% of monthly, per month behind | One time, then normal monthly |
| Subscription | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Keep your own QuickBooks or Xero | $0 | Stays entirely out of our fee |
| QuickBooks Online Simple Start, through us | $38 / mo | Passed through at cost |
| QuickBooks Payroll, through us | $50 + $6.50 per employee | Passed through at cost |
We do not mark up software. If you would rather have one bill instead of three, we can carry the subscriptions. If you already pay Intuit directly, keep doing that and your fee is lower by exactly that amount.
Included in every plan at no extra cost: categorized transactions, reconciled accounts, a monthly close on a set schedule, monthly financial statements, 1099 filing at year end, and a live client dashboard with your key numbers. There is no paid reporting tier.
These use the exact same formula the estimator runs. Nothing is rounded in our favor.
Your own number takes about four taps and no email address. Run the estimator.
If you have been shopping around, you have probably seen hourly rates. Independent bookkeepers commonly quote $30 to $75 an hour, and firms often quote $75 to $150 an hour. Those numbers are real, and on a quiet month they can look cheaper than a flat fee.
The problem shows up on the months that are not quiet. An hourly bill goes up exactly when your business is hardest to run. The month you took on a big job, hired two people, or fell behind on receipts is the month the invoice jumps, and you find out after the work is already done.
It also puts the incentives in a strange place. Under an hourly model, a messy set of books is worth more to the bookkeeper than a clean one, and the person paying for the inefficiency is you.
A flat monthly fee makes the cost a known line in your budget and moves the pressure to work efficiently onto us, which is where it belongs. If your business genuinely grows into a higher band, we tell you before we change anything, not after.
A full-time bookkeeper in South Carolina generally costs somewhere around $45,000 to $60,000 a year, before payroll taxes, benefits, software, and the cost of covering vacations. That is a reasonable choice at real scale. Below that, a flat monthly engagement gives you the same function, reviewed by a firm rather than resting on one person, for a fraction of the number.
If a quote from anyone surprises you, it is almost always one of these.
The single largest factor. Every transaction has to be reviewed, categorized, and tied to a real document. Two businesses with identical revenue can differ by hundreds of dollars a month if one runs everything through a card and the other writes ten checks.
Some books are structurally harder. Property management needs trust accounting and per-owner statements. Restaurants need daily sales, tips, and sales tax. Construction needs job costing. That work is real and it gets priced.
Every bank account, credit card, loan, and merchant account is a separate reconciliation each month. Two are included. Each one after that is $35 a month, which is roughly what it actually costs to do.
These are separate disciplines with their own filing deadlines and their own penalties for getting them wrong. They are priced separately so a business that does not need them is not quietly paying for them.
If you have not closed the books in a year, that year has to be built before anyone can maintain it. It is a one-time fee of about 80 percent of your monthly rate for each month behind, and it is discounted because closed periods are more predictable than live ones.
Your revenue. We price the work, not a percentage of what you make. A high-revenue business with clean, simple books pays less than a low-revenue business with a mess, and that is the correct answer.
Most businesses need the first one. The other two exist for when the numbers need to drive decisions, not just be correct.
Controller and Advisory are not priced by a formula because the work is genuinely different for every business. Putting a fake number on them would only set an anchor we would have to walk back. If you run a trades or construction business, the job costing page goes into more detail.
For a small business, monthly bookkeeping typically runs between $250 and $1,500 per month depending on transaction volume, industry, and how many accounts have to be reconciled.
Our pricing starts at $250 per month for a service business under 50 transactions with two accounts. A typical trades or construction client with payroll lands around $900 to $1,000 per month. The full fee schedule and three worked examples are above.
Both models exist. Independent bookkeepers commonly bill $30 to $75 per hour, and firms often bill $75 to $150 per hour.
We bill a flat monthly fee instead. An hourly bill means a messy month costs you more than a clean one, so the invoice is least predictable exactly when your business is under the most pressure. A flat fee makes the cost a known line in your budget and puts the incentive to work efficiently on us rather than on you.
Five things move the price: monthly transaction volume, your industry, the number of bank and credit card accounts to reconcile, whether you add payroll, bill payments, or sales tax filing, and whether you are behind and need catch-up work.
Transaction volume is the largest single factor. Industry matters because a property management or restaurant book takes meaningfully more work per transaction than a professional services book.
Catch-up is a one-time fee of roughly 80 percent of your normal monthly rate for each month you are behind. A business at $400 per month that is six months behind pays about $1,925 once to get current, then the normal monthly fee going forward.
It is discounted against the monthly rate because catching up on a closed period is more predictable work than staying on top of a live month.
You choose. If you already pay for QuickBooks Online or Xero, keep it and your subscription stays out of our fee entirely.
If you would rather have one bill, we can carry the subscription and pass it through at cost, currently $38 per month for QuickBooks Online Simple Start and $50 per month plus $6.50 per employee for QuickBooks Payroll. There is no markup on software either way.
No. The estimator gives you a real number after four questions, with no email, no signup, and no sales call. You only give us contact details if you decide you want a quote.
Every plan includes categorized transactions, reconciled bank and credit card accounts, a monthly close on a schedule, monthly financial statements, 1099 filing at year end, and access to a live client dashboard with your key numbers.
Payroll, bill payments, and sales tax filing are priced separately because not every business needs them.
Fractional means you get a dedicated professional handling your books for a fraction of the cost of employing someone. A full-time bookkeeper in South Carolina costs roughly $45,000 to $60,000 per year plus payroll taxes and benefits.
A flat monthly engagement gives you the same function, plus review by a firm rather than reliance on a single person, at a fraction of that number.
Only if your business genuinely moves into a different band, for example your transaction volume grows or you add payroll. We tell you before anything changes, not after, and we show you which input moved.
The one thing that will never happen is a surprise line on an invoice for a month that took longer than expected. That is the entire point of a flat fee.
Answer four questions about your business and the price appears instantly. No email, no signup, no sales call.
See your priceTell us a little about your business and we will send you a real quote, usually within one business day.
