Ask three bookkeepers what they charge and you’ll get three pricing models: hourly, flat monthly, and a per-transaction rate that looks like neither. The ranges below are drawn from published 2026 rate guides and Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, and they’re wide because the work is not standard. A business with 60 transactions a month and clean bank feeds is a two-hour job. A business with 600 transactions, three bank accounts, and a shoebox of receipts is a different service entirely. This guide lays out what each option costs, what drives the price, and how to decide which mix makes sense for you.
Key Takeaways
- Most small businesses pay between $300 and $1,500 a month for outsourced bookkeeping in 2026, with the price set mainly by transaction volume and how messy the books are.
- Freelance bookkeepers usually charge $25 to $60 an hour. Firms charge more per hour but often bundle the work into a flat monthly fee.
- A full-time in-house bookkeeper costs roughly $50,000 to $65,000 a year once payroll taxes and benefits are added to a median salary near $49,000.
- What you are buying is time and accuracy. The cheapest way to lower the bill is to hand over clean records, because bookkeepers price cleanup by the hour.
- Many owners do the daily entry themselves with software and pay a bookkeeper only for month-end review, which is often the best value at under 200 transactions a month.
The short answer
For a typical small business in 2026, expect roughly:
- $300 to $800 a month for a freelance bookkeeper handling under 300 transactions a month.
- $400 to $1,500 a month for a bookkeeping or CPA firm at the same volume, with the higher end covering payroll coordination or more frequent reporting.
- $200 to $500 a month for an online bookkeeping service that pairs software with a remote team.
- $50,000 to $65,000 a year, all in, for a full-time employee.
The rest of this article explains where each number comes from and what moves it.
Hourly rates
Freelance bookkeepers in the United States commonly quote $25 to $60 an hour. The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median wage for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks at about $49,000 a year in its most recent report, which works out to roughly $24 an hour for an employee. A freelancer adds self-employment tax, software, insurance, and unbilled time on top of that, which is why their rate lands well above the wage figure.
Firms bill higher, often $60 to $100 an hour or more, because you’re paying for a supervised process and someone to call when the person doing your books is on vacation. Hourly billing is most common for one-off work: cleanup projects, catch-up bookkeeping after months of neglect, or preparing records for a loan application.
Monthly packages
Most ongoing bookkeeping is now sold as a flat monthly fee, and the fee is set by volume. A representative scale from 2026 pricing guides looks like this:
| Monthly transactions | Freelance bookkeeper | Bookkeeping or CPA firm |
|---|---|---|
| Under 100 | $300 to $500 | $400 to $700 |
| 100 to 300 | $500 to $800 | $700 to $1,100 |
| 300 to 700 | $800 to $1,500 | $1,100 to $2,000 |
| Over 700 | Custom quote | $2,000 and up |
Scroll sideways to see all columns.
A transaction, for pricing purposes, is any line that has to be categorized: a bank deposit, a card charge, an invoice, a bill. Multiple bank and credit card accounts push the count up quickly, which is why a business that feels small can land in the middle tier.
Online bookkeeping services
Services that combine their own software with a remote bookkeeping team typically charge $200 to $500 a month for cash-basis books at modest volume, with accrual accounting and add-ons priced higher. The appeal is a predictable bill. The tradeoff is that you’re usually locked into their platform, and the work is standardized, so businesses with inventory, job costing, or unusual revenue arrangements often outgrow them.
A full-time employee
Hiring a bookkeeper on staff starts with the median salary near $49,000 and rises with experience and location; job boards commonly show averages in the mid-$50,000s. Add employer payroll taxes, benefits, software, and equipment, and the realistic cost is $50,000 to $65,000 a year. That only makes sense when there is a full week of work, which usually means several entities, high volume, or a business that also needs someone on site for invoicing, collections, and vendor calls.
What is included, and what costs extra
A standard monthly package normally covers categorizing transactions, reconciling bank and credit card accounts, recording invoices and bills, and producing a monthly profit and loss and balance sheet. Things that are commonly priced separately:
- Catch-up or cleanup of prior months, billed hourly and often the largest line on the first invoice.
- Payroll processing and the related filings.
- Sales tax returns.
- Accounts receivable follow-up and collections.
- 1099 preparation each January.
- Tax return preparation, which is an accountant’s job and is quoted on its own.
The line between bookkeeping and accounting matters here. Bookkeeping records what happened. Accounting interprets it and handles tax. Paying accountant rates for bookkeeping work is the most common way small businesses overspend, and the bookkeeping vs accounting guide draws the line in more detail.
What drives the price up or down
Four things move a quote more than anything else.
Transaction volume
Every line takes time. Fewer accounts, fewer cards, and consolidated purchasing all lower the count.
The state of the records
Books that reconcile to the bank every month are cheap to maintain. Books that haven’t been reconciled in a year cost hundreds of dollars to repair before the monthly fee even starts. Bookkeepers price cleanup by the hour because they can’t tell how deep the hole goes until they’re in it.
Cash versus accrual
Accrual books track receivables, payables, and prepaid items, which is more entries and more judgment. Expect a higher tier for accrual.
How you deliver information
If the bookkeeper has to chase you for receipts and ask what a dozen deposits were, that time is billed. If bank feeds are connected, receipts are attached to transactions as they happen, and vendors and customers are already set up, the bookkeeper’s job is review rather than reconstruction.
Doing it yourself, in part or in full
The question underneath “how much does a bookkeeper cost” is usually “do I need one.” At low volume, many owners don’t, or need far less than a full package. Modern bookkeeping software connects to the bank, pulls transactions in automatically, and lets you categorize them in minutes a day. Receipts get photographed and attached at the point of purchase. Invoices and bills post to the ledger when they’re created. What remains is the judgment work: making sure the categorization is right, the accounts reconcile, and the reports mean what you think they mean.
A common and cost-effective split is to handle daily entry yourself and pay a bookkeeper for a monthly review and reconciliation, which often lands at $150 to $300 a month rather than $500 or more. It works because the expensive part of bookkeeping isn’t data entry. It’s fixing data entry that went wrong months ago.
GlassJar is built for that arrangement: bank feeds bring transactions in, receipts attach to expenses from a phone, bills and invoices post to the ledger, and a bookkeeper or accountant can be given their own login with the access they need to review. Whatever software you choose, the principle holds. Clean, current records are the single biggest lever on what a bookkeeper will charge you.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a bookkeeper cost per hour?
Freelancers typically charge $25 to $60 an hour in 2026. Firms charge $60 to $100 or more. Employees earn a median near $24 an hour before taxes and benefits.
How much does bookkeeping cost per month for a small business?
Most small businesses pay $300 to $1,500 a month depending on transaction volume, with under 100 transactions at the low end and several hundred at the high end.
What is included in bookkeeping services?
Categorizing transactions, reconciling bank and card accounts, recording invoices and bills, and monthly financial statements. Payroll, sales tax, collections, 1099s, and tax returns are usually extra.
Is it cheaper to do my own bookkeeping?
In dollars, yes, if you keep it current. The risk is errors that cost more to unwind later. The middle path of doing entry yourself with software and paying for a monthly review keeps both the cost and the risk low.
How much does a full-time bookkeeper cost?
About $50,000 to $65,000 a year including payroll taxes and benefits, based on a median salary near $49,000.
