How Much Should I Charge for Bookkeeping Services? Averages & More

Many individual entrepreneurs also hire virtual bookkeepers to help them stay on top of their cash flow and prepare quarterly income tax payments. Some bookkeepers earn $100 per hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Tim worked as a tax professional for BKD, LLP before returning to school and receiving his Ph.D. from Penn State. He then taught tax and accounting to undergraduate and graduate students as an assistant professor at both the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Mississippi State University. Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor for both the Online and Desktop products, as well as a CPA with 25 years of experience. He most recently spent two years as the accountant at a commercial roofing company utilizing QuickBooks Desktop to compile financials, job cost, and run payroll.

With more online, real-time compensation data than any other website, Salary.com helps you determine your exact pay target. A bookkeeper does not necessarily need a degree in accounting, but should have formal college-level coursework, experience and a detailed-oriented attitude. Accountants maintain a wide range of skill sets that include managing spending and budgets, taxes, and analysis of financial statements. To be exceptional at these tasks, accountants must complete years of training and earn special certifications, which is reflected in their salaries.

Average $59,148 per year

Compare salaries for individual cities or states with the national average. The darker areas on the map show where bookkeepers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

New York pays Bookkeepers the most in the United States, with an average salary of $48,148 per year, or $23.15 per hour. If you’re in need of a bookkeeping solution but aren’t sure the best route for your business, consider speaking with an expert at ScaleFactor to discuss online bookkeeping software and to schedule a demo. The next step in estimating how long you’d need bookkeeper services for? Making the decision on hiring a bookkeeper on a per-project basis or hiring one on an ongoing basis can affect how much it will cost you to hire a bookkeeper. The average salary for a bookkeeper is $20.41 per hour in the United States. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts.

QuickBooks Support

You must have a minimum of 150 postsecondary education hours, or what amounts to a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and an additional 30 hours of graduate work. If either part-time or in-house bookkeeping is not the ideal solution, switching to outsourced bookkeeping or accounting could be your best option. Many businesses are concerned about switching over to outsourcing, not understanding how the pieces fit together with this model. But with today’s advancements in technology, outsourcing has never been easier. Outsourcing can provide advanced and less costly bookkeeping service than a typical in-house bookkeeper.

• Look for a bookkeeping service whose business model relies on the success of others.
• Part of the reason for this decline is attributed to technological advancements.
• A Bachelor’s Degree gets its holder an average salary of 3,370 EUR per month, 50% more than someone with a Certificate or Diploma.
• Such nuances can make the division of labor and trust a real strain on the employer and their company.
• The people who get the highest bonuses are usually somehow involved in the revenue generation cycle.
• Udemy is an online educational platform that offers thousands of courses on hundreds of subjects, including bookkeeping.

For one-time clients, you may decide to charge more since you know they may not return and have last-minute requests and needs. Partnering with Patriot earned this accountant a 50% cost savings from his previous provider, decreased his time running payroll, and more! When setting your bookkeeping services prices, consider creating different tiers for the size of the client. Bookkeepers use their phone for business, talking to clients, booking appointments, and so on. Most likely you’ll be using your regular cell phone as your business phone, so it’s used half the time for business, and half the time for personal matters. The most expensive thing I could think of that bookkeepers need to spend is on QuickBooks software, which is a cornerstone of your bookkeeping business. You can charge your client for their subscription, but I personally like to add it into their bookkeeping plan with me.

Where can I find work from home bookkeeping jobs?

The free course is taught by Ben Robinson, CPA, founder of bookkeepers.com. In a lot of ways, “bookkeeping” is exactly what it sounds like it would be. It is the act of “keeping books” — or keeping track of financial transactions for a business, individual or organization. In addition to getting certified through the AIPB or NACPB, we also 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. More financially complex business models may require a business to pay more for a bookkeeper who has more experience and skill.

Lastly, employees with more than twenty years of professional experience get a salary of 3,420 EUR per month, 9% more than people with fifteen to twenty years of experience. A bookkeeper may seek to supplement their education and work experience by attaining national certifications. About CostHelper CostHelper is based in Silicon Valley and provides consumers with unbiased price information about thousands of goods and services.

Frequency of Service

Understanding your options for bookkeeping services and their costs will help you tremendously in ensuring the long-term growth of your company. The BLS notes that job prospects for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks are expected to decline by 6 percent between 2019 and 2029.

• In most cases, employers want to hire someone with a bachelor’s degree, and a master’s degree may help boost your earnings.
• Generally, a bookkeeper’s formal education will be less than a four-year college degree.
• At some point, your business will cross a threshold and you’ll begin to place more emphasis on the need for timely, accurate financial reports and intelligence.
• In general, good cloud-based software makes accounting easier and reduces the hours, allowing you to charge more per hour.
• The experience level is the most important factor in determining the salary.
• You already have your home, so you’re not paying for the office each month directly.

With bookkeepers, there are a lot of minutiae involved, and keen attention to detail is paramount. Accountants, on the other hand, tend to use bookkeeping for small business the bookkeeper’s inputs to create financial statements and periodically review and analyze the financial information recorded by bookkeepers.

What is a good starting salary for a Bookkeeper?

Ask how long they’ve been in business, and whether they have accountants on staff to help with the bigger questions. How you pay your bookkeeper depends on whether they are in-house (full-time or part-time employees), freelance, or an online bookkeeping service. This is why accounting & bookkeeping service firms are so useful to businesses worldwide.