How much does a bookkeeper cost in 2026?
Real monthly price ranges for bookkeeping — what small businesses pay and what drives the number.
Updated August 25, 2026On this page
The short answer
Most small businesses pay $200–$400 per month for bookkeeping, with a typical retainer around $300. Very simple books cost less; high-volume or multi-entity work costs more. The market spread:
| Tier | Range | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| DIY software | $0–$50 | You do the work; software just organizes it. |
| Basic monthly bookkeeping | $95–$250 | Categorization, reconciliation, monthly reports for a simple business. |
| Full-service bookkeeper | $250–$450 | Higher transaction volume, AP/AR, payroll coordination, cleaner reporting. |
| Controller-level / multi-entity | $450–$800+ | Complex books, multiple accounts, near-CFO-lite oversight. |
What actually moves the price
Transaction volume. The single biggest driver. A consultant with 30 transactions a month costs a fraction of a busy e-commerce store with hundreds of orders, refunds, and payouts to reconcile. When you get a quote, expect to be asked about monthly volume and number of accounts.
Cleanup vs. maintenance. If your books are behind, most bookkeepers charge a one-time catch-up fee before the monthly rate kicks in. Ongoing maintenance is far cheaper than untangling a year of neglect, so the earlier you start, the less you pay overall.
Scope creep into accounting. Bookkeeping is recording and organizing; tax strategy and filing are a different service. Bundling payroll, AP/AR, or sales-tax filing raises the retainer. Know where bookkeeping ends and an accountant begins so you’re not paying accountant rates for data entry.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a bookkeeper cost for a small business? $95–$500 a month, with most small businesses landing between $150 and $350. The number tracks transaction volume far more than revenue — a consultant billing $300,000 across 30 transactions a month costs less to keep books for than a shop turning over $150,000 across 800.
Is a bookkeeper paid hourly or monthly? Both exist, but a monthly retainer is the norm and usually the better deal, because the work is recurring and predictable. Hourly ($25–$60) is common for catch-up work and clean-up, where nobody can scope the job until they are inside it.
Do I need a bookkeeper if I use QuickBooks? Software does the data entry, not the judgement. It records what you tell it and mis-categorises what you do not, and someone still has to reconcile the accounts, chase what does not match, and close the month. See QuickBooks vs spreadsheets for where software genuinely is enough on its own.
How much does catch-up bookkeeping cost? Usually billed hourly at $30–$60, and it is the line item that surprises people — a year of uncategorised transactions can cost more than a year of ongoing service. Almost every new engagement includes some. Ask for it to be quoted separately and capped.
What is the difference between a bookkeeper’s and an accountant’s cost? A bookkeeper is a monthly cost ($95–$500); an accountant is an hourly or per-filing cost ($80–$400 an hour). They are not alternatives — see bookkeeper vs accountant — and hiring the accountant first is the expensive order.
Is bookkeeping a licensed profession? No. Anyone may call themselves a bookkeeper, and no state board is checking the work. Certifications exist — QuickBooks ProAdvisor, or the certifications offered by bodies such as the NACPB — but references and a clear monthly process are your real vetting tools.
How this guide is priced
Figures are compiled from public rate listings and market data — see the source below and our data methodology. As the Mindhyv marketplace grows, these ranges will reflect real, anonymized engagement data from the platform.
Before you hire
Read the bookkeeper hiring guide for the questions that reveal whether a quote matches your volume. When it’s time to file, compare it against what an accountant costs. A monthly bookkeeping quote is really an hours estimate in disguise, so run the freelance rate calculator to check whether the number matches the work.