Guide · Pricing
How to price bookkeeping services
Price each client from the hours it really takes and the margin you need, then check the result against what other firms charge. This guide walks through the method with a worked example, and shows how cutting avoidable admin raises your margin without raising your price.
What other firms charge
$250–$499
a month was the most common fee range for monthly bookkeeping and accounting, chosen by 29% of the 219 US firms in Ignition's 2025 pricing survey.
10% or fewer
of those firms charge hourly for the services the survey covered, except tax planning and advisory.
80%
of those firms planned to raise their prices in 2026, by an average of 5–10%.
Survey published by Ignition, a billing software vendor, of firms that use its software. Use it as a reference point, not a price list.
Price from hours and margin
Estimate the monthly hours for the client, all in.
Include the bookkeeping, plus chasing documents, answering questions, fixing errors and preparing reports.
Work out what an hour costs you.
Use the loaded cost of the people doing the work: pay plus taxes, benefits, software and a share of overhead.
Choose your target margin.
Decide what share of the fee should be left after the cost of the work.
Set the price.
Divide the monthly cost of the work by one minus your target margin. For example, with a margin of forty percent, divide the cost by six tenths.
Sense-check it.
Compare with what other firms charge for similar work, and with what the client would pay to do it in-house.
A worked example
HypotheticalA hypothetical client and firm, for illustration only. The hourly cost matches the example firm in the UpFirm sample report; the hours and margin are made up.
The client takes about 5 hours a month, including 1 hour of chasing and questions.
Cost of the work: 5 hours × $42 an hour = $210 a month
With a 40% target margin: $210 ÷ (1 − 0.40) = $350 a month
If clearer requests and reminders cut that hour of chasing, the work costs 4 × $42 = $168, and the margin at the same $350 price rises to 52%.
Hypothetical figures, not data from a real firm.
Package it so the price holds
Fixed monthly fee with a clear scope
Name what is included: the accounts, the transaction volume, the reports and how quickly you respond. A clear scope lets you price the extras instead of absorbing them.
Price catch-up work separately
Cleaning up months of untouched books is a project, not the monthly service. Quote it on its own so it doesn't distort the ongoing fee.
Tiers instead of custom quotes
A few packages based on volume and complexity make quoting faster and give clients an easy way to move up.
Review prices every year
Check each client's real hours once a year. Clients whose workload has grown should move to a higher tier.
Common mistakes
Pricing only the bookkeeping.
Chasing, questions and rework are real hours. If the price ignores them, the margin disappears.
Copying a competitor's price list.
Their costs, clients and service level aren't yours.
Never raising prices.
Costs rise every year. A planned, explained increase is easier for clients than a sudden one.
Scope creep without a change in fee.
Extra accounts, payroll or reports should move the client to a higher tier.
Questions
Should I charge hourly or a fixed monthly fee?
In the survey above, few firms charge hourly for recurring work. A fixed fee rewards you for working efficiently, while hourly billing rewards you for taking longer.
How do I raise prices without losing clients?
Give notice, explain what has changed and tie the new fee to the scope, so the increase reads as part of the service rather than a surprise.
How do I know a client's real hours?
Track time for a month or two, including emails and chasing, or estimate it from how often you have to follow up.
Find the hours that eat your margin.
The free Snapshot takes about 3 minutes and works from your own answers.