Then you multiply 40 by your old hourly rate of $40, and you decide to charge a flat $1,600/month. If you’re having trouble determining how much to charge a client, it’s perfectly fine to start out working with them at an hourly rate and moving to a fixed rate later on. At the beginning of your working relationship, there could be quite a bit of cleanup you have to do for the client’s books, and that can be time consuming. You’re also learning their business and don’t know exactly what tasks you will be doing. There can be multiple variants that play in the pricing factor.
Automate common bookkeeping tasks and grow your client base
As their bookkeeper, you’re not just offering them a service, you’re offering them peace of mind, and that’s a value they’re more than willing to pay for. Each pricing model should be crafted with care and consideration to reflect the unique services provided to small, medium, and large-sized clients alike. In addition to basic bookkeeping, they might require additional services like payroll processing, sales tax returns, and accounts payable and receivable management.
How to Increase Your Accounting Firm Valuation
For example, if you have the time to handle bookkeeping yourself, you might continue to do so to save money. On the other hand, if you’d like to use the time you spend bookkeeping focusing on other aspects of your business, then the cost of a bookkeeper may be worth it. Whether you opt for basic bookkeeping or full-service bookkeeping and what does ‘we are going to get one thing on the books’ imply accounting, either option can help you be better prepared come tax season. And now that you know the answer to the question “How much does a bookkeeper cost? ” you may wonder what exactly a bookkeeper does and the different types of bookkeeping services you can pay for.
Types of bookkeeping: Basic vs. full-service accounting
Even if you hire a part time bookkeeper, your management would still have to review their work. Offering custom services means tailoring your services to each client’s net sales defined needs. This is a good option if you want to offer a wider range of services. For custom pricing, you’ll need a general idea of how much you charge for each service and then consider if the total cost for all the services for the client is reasonable. With customized pricing, you can either charge a flat monthly fee or hourly. Businesses typically expect certain services to be part of bookkeeping, but providing additional offerings that add value to your clients’ businesses can justify charging a higher fee.
If the cost is similar to that of an actual bookkeeper for performing the same tasks, then it may be better just to pay someone to do the job. Bookkeeping services are necessary for businesses of all sizes. Whether you decide to outsource your bookkeeping or do it with an in house bookkeeper, you should be aware of the costs involved. As a small business owner, you want to make well-informed decisions about financing your bookkeeping expenses, and you want to do it correctly. The type of bookkeeping services you offer will also affect your pricing.
- Every client is unique, and their needs will vary greatly depending on the size and nature of their business.
- You may also consider throwing in other costs, like a fee for an initial consult, to your pricing structure.
- But remember, transparency, clarity, and value-based conversation are key.
How to Price Bookkeeping Services for Small, Medium, and Large Clients
Then we will compare this to the fixed-rate monthly pricing I charge for bookkeeping services along with the bookkeeping tasks I do for each one. My goal is to help you understand what these breakdowns look like for each client. In general, most bookkeepers charge an hourly rate or a flat fee per month. When you decide to switch away from your average hourly rates to a flat monthly fee, your instinct is to still base it on your time. You discover that it takes around 40 hours per month to complete your monthly bookkeeping tasks.
Since you often do the same work for multiple clients, there’s no reason to start from scratch each time you calculate your pricing. This article will look at the factors that should go into your pricing, how to market your services, the difference between margin and markup and mistakes to avoid when calculating your prices. Even if you switch to fixed fees or a value pricing structure for your main bookkeeping services, you may have additional services that command a premium. As you can tell, how much you should charge as a bookkeeper can vary based on a lot of factors. So, you need to take your time when setting prices for your services. One way you can determine how much to charge is to tie each task to a dollar amount.