Skip to content
Pricing
Bookkeeping pricing for small businesses
Most monthly bookkeeping engagements fall between $199 and $999 per month. Cleanup is quoted by how far back the work goes. Everything else is scoped to the business, and the fee is agreed before any work begins.
Monthly bookkeeping
$199–$999 per month
Reconciliation, categorization and a monthly close with financial statements, delivered as a recurring process. The same range covers outsourced and QuickBooks bookkeeping. What monthly bookkeeping includes
Cleanup & catch-up
About $3,000 per year of books
Quoted by how far back the work goes, after a diagnostic review of the file. A business two years behind is closer to a $6,000 engagement. How cleanup works
Fractional CFO
Scoped individually
Priced on review cadence, the number of entities and revenue streams, whether a forecast and budget already exist, and how much bookkeeping is in scope. The basis is agreed in writing before work begins. About fractional CFO services
Everything else
Quoted before work begins
QuickBooks setup, payroll support, sales tax and 1099 filing, executive reporting and AI financial operations are scoped to the business, usually alongside a monthly engagement. See all services
What sets the monthly fee
Three things decide where a business lands in the $199–$999 range:
- How many transactions run through each bank account and credit card in a month
- How many bank accounts and credit cards are in scope
- Whether payroll is included, and for how many people
Books that are behind are brought current first and quoted separately, so the monthly fee is for keeping the books accurate — not for rebuilding them.
What a bookkeeper costs: in-house or outsourced
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the 2025 median pay for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks at $50,670 a year, or $24.36 an hour. That is about $4,200 a month in wages alone, before payroll taxes, benefits, recruiting and training — and before anyone covers the work when that person is away.
An outsourced engagement replaces the hire with a defined monthly process. For most small businesses the books do not need a full-time person; they need reconciliation, a close and statements every month, done by someone accountable for them. How outsourced bookkeeping works.
Pricing questions
How much does a bookkeeper cost per month?
For an outsourced monthly engagement with Steingard, most businesses pay between $199 and $999 per month, depending on transaction volume, the number of accounts and cards, and whether payroll is included. An in-house bookkeeper at the 2025 national median wage costs about $4,200 a month before taxes and benefits.
Is payroll included in the monthly fee?
It can be. Whether payroll is included, and for how many people, is one of the three things that set the monthly fee. Fees charged by a payroll provider are separate from Steingard’s.
Why is cleanup priced separately from monthly bookkeeping?
Cleanup rebuilds periods that were never reconciled, and it is almost always urgent by the time it is requested, so the work is compressed to meet a deadline. A reliable quote needs a diagnostic review first, because the visible symptoms rarely show the full amount of work.
Is tax preparation included?
Only where the engagement says so explicitly. Tax preparation and advice are the work of a properly authorized professional; Steingard keeps the books ready for them and can work directly with your existing tax professional.
Can I get an exact price before we start?
Yes — the fee is agreed before any work begins. For monthly bookkeeping that usually follows a short conversation about accounts and volume; for cleanup it follows a diagnostic review of the file.