While this option can save you money—you don’t need to hire someone else—bookkeeping takes up valuable time. Recent reports estimate that small- and mid-sized businesses spend roughly 5% of their time on administrative tasks like bookkeeping and accounting. That might not seem like much, but that’s over 100 working hours a year that could be better spent on your business. Your services agreement should include a list of which financial statements will be provided, and how often they will be delivered. Now that we have the basics out of the way, below you’ll find a few simple steps to follow when pricing accounting services and bookkeeping services at your firm in order to deliver your prices upfront. Many business owners underprice their services in an effort to compete on price.

In addition to getting certified through the AIPB or NACPB, we recommend that you get certified in QuickBooks. The QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification program is ideal for freelance bookkeepers because it allows you to get certified for free with no strings attached. It’s also arguably the most valuable bookkeeper certification, as the vast majority of small businesses in the US use QuickBooks. Danielle is a writer for the Finance division of Fit Small Business.

Value-based pricing

QuickBooks set the bar for small and mid-sized business accounting solutions. It provides a wide collection of helpful features for bookkeeping and other areas of small business accounting/financial management. With several plans and a bunch of helpful add-ons/integrations, you can customize the software to fit your exact needs. Odoo accounting makes for an ideal platform for business owners looking to scale their operations flexibly.

Below you’ll find a free bookkeeping pricing template to assist you in streamlining your bidding process. With a foundation of knowledge, skills and experience, take the next steps in setting up as a bookkeeper. You can read more on pricing strategies in our guide to starting a business. Next, think about how much time it will take you to complete the work.

How Much Does Bookkeeping Cost?

The big benefit of fixed-pricing is that you just need to quote once and use those costs each time a small businesses client requests a service. The implication is that this method is a lot faster to price your mandates and is, therefore, a lot more scalable. If you have a ton of sales inquiries, it may make more sense to implement this approach if your main goal is rapid growth and cash flow.

Others may expect a detailed report on their cash flow, and details on why the balance sheet looks the way it does. Beneath all of that, the client’s bookkeeping needs per month may require extra time before financial statements are delivered. The one big trick with fixed pricing and value pricing for a bookkeeping service is really all about defining your service offering in advance. You should not present a price without an adequate definition of the work that you’ll be providing per month.

• There is a larger pool of service providers competing for the same jobs.
• There are also a number of free options available, such as Wave Accounting.
• If you’re a small firm owner just starting, you may want to consider charging less than someone who has been in the business longer.
• You can keep a better track of your financial transactions and make sure that all the customers are getting their bills correctly and paying your tradesmen promptly.
• A hierarchy of packages plus customized add-ons gives clients the information they need to understand how you can best help them.
• So, you need to take your time when setting prices for your services.

Once you evaluate the average rate of pay for your geographic location, your level of education, and any certifications, you’ll have a better idea of what to expect in terms of an hourly rate. Your work experience is also key as are the types of bookkeeping services offered, your expertise with accounting software, and the frequency at which you’ll be providing services to your client. If you don’t have the budget to hire someone in-house but want bookkeeping experts with quality control, outsourced accounting firms can provide some—or all—of your needs. One of the main differences between firms and freelancers is that the outsourced firms have likely already checked into their employees, providing you with a level of quality assurance.

Why is Pricing Accounting Services Difficult?

It also may include details such as the level of communication, the ownership of the final work product, and handling any disputes. An explicit engagement agreement can help ensure that both parties understand their obligations and can help prevent misunderstandings or disputes from arising. It’s time to stop wasting money paying for multiple subscriptions to complete your daily bookkeeping and tax tasks. Take advantage of CoraCloud’s all-in-one accounting practice management capabilities to keep clients, documents, projects, eSignatures, and tasks in a single location. Are you ready to focus your energy on growing your business, not on keeping your books? We offer a refreshingly forward approach to the bookkeeping and accounting processes.

Just like any other freelancer, freelance bookkeepers work for themselves and provide bookkeeping services for clients. Freelance bookkeepers can be a good option if you understand bookkeeping in depth, and are able to be the second set of eyes for your books. When selecting a freelancer, it is important to review their work history and any certifications, degrees, or credentials they have when it comes to bookkeeping. However, freelancers with these types of credentials are often more expensive. Cheaper bookkeepers are often part time and work on the weekends or night, often making it difficult to communicate with them and train them. The freelance bookkeeper hourly rate in 2021 averages out to be about $20.17, but a business that is looking for a reputable and consistent freelancer may struggle to find someone at this price.

See why over 7,000 accountants and bookkeepers use Jetpack Workflow. The type of bookkeeping services you offer will also affect your pricing. Like so many aspects of accounting, bookkeeping involves a lot of repetition. Since you often do the same work for multiple clients, there’s no reason to start from scratch each time you calculate your pricing.

For example, if you spend some of your business expenses from personal accounts, and the deadline is so close, chances are your bookkeeper won’t ask you about them. Lastly, some bookkeepers may charge a percentage of sales—usually 1-2%. This pricing structure is most common with businesses that have high sales volume and low transaction volume—such as businesses that sell physical products. At Milestone, we offer a tiered approach, offering foundation and growth packages. At the bookkeeping level, this often means that for an individual transaction it may require more steps to record the transaction.

Bookkeeping Pricing Template

With my small clients, I do all the regular bookkeeping tasks, such as hooking their banks up to QuickBooks Online, categorizing all their transactions, and reconciling at the end of the month. However, for this client, I also do receipt management, which is probably the most time-consuming task I do for this preschool. Eight key factors will impact the hourly rate you’ll charge for your services. The total hours of service each month also depends upon the number of transactions processed and the size of the company and the services that are required. We offer the following to help you see if we might be a good fit for each other. We know there is great power and healing in financial work, and we make these offerings with integrity, intention, balance and transparency.

Ultimately, a what is an enrolled agent management system can save you time and money, making it an essential tool for any bookkeeping firm. A workflow management system is a great way to keep your bookkeeping firm organized and running efficiently. By automating tasks and keeping track of deadlines, you can be sure that nothing falls through the cracks and your clients are always getting the best possible service. While you may offer your services at a lower rate when you’re just starting out, your rates should increase as your calendar fills up.

Your business plan is vital to reality checking all those ideas you have. You’ll need some training and certification to become a professional bookkeeper. There are many models for charging clients but they essentially fall into three main categories.

They have a system outside of QuickBooks that is HIPPA compliant, which are the rules in the United States that you need to follow if you keep any medical information about your patients. The last task I do for the preschool is to categorize income, which doesn’t take all that long. Essentially, we get a lump sum of money, and we want to categorize it to see how much each class is making. This will show them which of the six classes is most profitable.

The top three states with the highest freelance bookkeeping rates are Massachusetts, Washington, and Maryland, with average hourly rates of $43.57, $40.18, and $39.09, respectively. Small clients often have simple bookkeeping needs and small revenue, so you may want to charge them less. For instance, you may charge an hourly rate of $40 to a large client that earns up to $2 million in revenue and around $30 for a very small client with an annual revenue of $300,000.

Bookkeeping package pricing can differ according to geographic location. In the US, for example, a typical bookkeeping service price list varies from state to state. This calls for gathering as much information as possible about the average monthly bookkeeping cost in the area you are located before knowing what prices to charge. You cut bookkeeping services rates when you hire from an external source; you pay the expert hourly, whereas hiring a full-time in-house bookkeeper would cost you around $45k to 450k per annum.