Ask "how much does a bookkeeper cost?" and you will get the least useful answer in professional services: it depends.
It does depend. But "it depends" has numbers, and almost nobody in this industry will put theirs in writing. Vague pricing benefits sellers — it lets the quote expand to fit whatever you seem able to pay. So here are the real 2026 ranges, what moves you inside them, and — because we think you should demand this from anyone you talk to — our own prices, in this article.
The market, in four models
Hourly bookkeeper (freelance or firm). The 2026 US market runs roughly $25–$60 per hour for freelance bookkeepers, with certified or industry-specialized professionals charging $75 or more. A typical small business buying 8–10 hours a month lands around $250–$500. Hourly is flexible and fine for simple books — its weakness is that you pay for slowness, and you find out the total after the work.
Flat monthly service (local or online). Basic packages run $200–$600 per month; businesses with payroll, inventory, or volume run $600–$1,500. Two fine-print items matter more than the headline price: whether the books are cash-basis or accrual (cash-basis is fine for many service businesses but will not survive investor diligence), and who owns your data — some platforms keep your ledger in proprietary software you cannot export if you leave.
In-house hire. The national median bookkeeper wage is about $23–$25 per hour — roughly $47,000–$50,000 a year — before the 25–30% you add in payroll taxes and benefits. A full-charge bookkeeper as a service runs $3,200–$5,800 per month. In-house makes sense when there is genuinely a full week of finance work, every week — which for most businesses under 50 people, there is not. You are otherwise paying full-time money for part-time work.
Do it yourself. The software is cheap — QuickBooks Online runs $30–$90 per month for most small businesses. The bookkeeping is not. That cost just moves to a line no one tracks: your evenings. More on that below, because it is the most mispriced option of the four.
What actually moves your price
Every quote you get is some function of five drivers: transaction volume, payroll (adds filings, deadlines, and liability), inventory (adds real accounting complexity), industry rules (construction, medical, legal, and nonprofit books cost more for a reason), and the state of your books today.
The cleanup tax. If your books are months behind or years messy, expect a one-time catch-up project before any monthly price applies — often quoted separately, frequently in the four figures. This is not a shakedown; reconstructing history genuinely costs more than recording it once. It is also the strongest argument for never falling behind again: clean books are cheaper to keep than to fix.
The hidden line: your hours
Here is the calculation almost no DIY owner runs. Suppose the books take you eight hours a month — a conservative figure once you count invoicing, chasing receipts, categorizing, reconciling, and the quarterly panic before tax deadlines. If your time is worth $100 an hour to your business — and if you are the person who sells, delivers, and decides, it is worth more — you are paying $800 a month for bookkeeping, plus software. That is the most expensive option on this page, and it buys the least expertise.
The honest counterargument: in the first year of a very small business, doing your own books teaches you your numbers. That education has real value. The mistake is still running your own books in year three because "it's free."
How to buy it well
Whoever you talk to — including us — ask these before you sign: What exactly is included, and what costs extra? (Payroll, 1099s, and tax filing are the classic surprise add-ons.) Cash or accrual, and can you change later? Who owns the software file, and what do you get if you leave? What happens when volume grows — does the price change by formula or by renegotiation?
Red flags: prices that only exist after a "discovery call," reluctance to put scope in writing, and any provider who never asks about your transaction volume — they are either guessing or planning to re-quote you later.
Our numbers, since we asked you to demand them
EZ's managed back office runs on published fixed tiers: Launch at $95/month (new businesses — free for your first three months if you registered in the last 12), Essentials at $295/month, Growth at $995/month, and Full at $2,495/month for a complete outsourced back office. The quote is the price; scope is written; your data is yours. Details and what each tier includes are on the Back-Office page. If your situation fits a $200 local bookkeeper or a year of well-organized DIY better — that is a fine answer too, and the section above tells you how to buy it.