When you’re starting a bookkeeping business, figuring out how much to charge is only part of the pricing decision.
You also have to decide how you’re going to charge.
Should you bill clients by the hour?
Should you offer a flat monthly bookkeeping fee?
Should you create packages?
And what happens when a client needs something outside of their normal monthly services?
There isn’t one pricing model that’s right for every bookkeeper—or even every client.
In fact, you may find that using a combination of hourly, project, and monthly pricing works best for your bookkeeping business.
Let’s look at the differences.
What Is Hourly Bookkeeping Pricing?
Hourly pricing is exactly what it sounds like.
You track the amount of time you spend working for a client and multiply those hours by your hourly rate.
For example, if your rate is $75 per hour and you spend eight hours completing a client’s bookkeeping that month:
8 hours × $75 = $600
The client would receive a $600 invoice.
It’s simple, easy to understand, and can be particularly helpful when you’re just starting your bookkeeping business.
But it has some disadvantages, too.
The Pros of Charging Hourly
It’s Easier When You Don’t Know How Long the Work Will Take
One of the hardest things about pricing your first few bookkeeping clients is estimating how much time they’ll actually require.
Something that looks like five hours of work during a discovery call might turn into ten once you get into the books.
Hourly pricing provides some protection while you’re learning how long different types of engagements take.
You’re Paid When the Workload Increases
If a client suddenly requires four additional hours of work, you bill for four additional hours.
With fixed pricing, unexpected work can eat into your profit if the scope isn’t clearly defined.
It Works Well for Certain Projects
Hourly pricing can be especially useful for work with an unpredictable scope, including:
- Bookkeeping cleanups
- Catch-up bookkeeping
- QuickBooks troubleshooting
- Consulting
- Special projects
- Historical research
- One-time accounting support
If you don’t know what you’re going to find when you open the books, committing to a fixed price can be risky.
The Cons of Charging Hourly
The biggest downside is that you’re essentially selling your time.
And there are only so many hours available.
There’s also an interesting problem that happens as you get better at bookkeeping:
You get faster.
Imagine a reconciliation used to take you two hours.
After improving your processes and gaining experience, you can complete it accurately in one hour.
If you’re charging hourly, becoming twice as efficient could mean earning half as much for completing the same deliverable.
That’s not necessarily the incentive you want to create in your business.
Hourly billing can also make revenue less predictable.
One month a client might require eight hours.
The next month they might require five.
Your revenue changes along with your hours.
What Is Fixed Monthly Bookkeeping Pricing?
With fixed monthly pricing, your client pays an agreed-upon monthly fee for a defined set of services.
For example:
$750 per month
might include:
- Monthly bookkeeping
- Bank reconciliations
- Credit card reconciliations
- Month-end close
- Standard financial statements
- One monthly meeting
Whether the work takes you seven hours or nine hours, the client pays the agreed-upon $750—as long as the work stays within the defined scope.
The Pros of Monthly Pricing
Your Revenue Becomes More Predictable
If you have ten clients paying $750 per month, you know those engagements generate approximately:
$7,500 per month
That makes it much easier to forecast your business revenue than wondering how many hours each client will require.
Your Client Gets Predictable Costs
Clients often appreciate knowing exactly what bookkeeping will cost each month.
Instead of wondering whether this month’s invoice will be $400 or $900, they know the amount in advance.
Efficiency Can Benefit You
Suppose you originally priced a client expecting the engagement to require eight hours per month.
Over time, you improve your workflow and reduce that to six hours.
If the scope and value of your service haven’t changed, your monthly price doesn’t automatically decrease just because you’ve become more efficient.
Your effective hourly earnings increase.
It’s Easier to Build Recurring Revenue
Monthly packages make it easier to see the bookkeeping business you’re building.
Instead of thinking:
“I need to find another 20 hours of work.”
You can think:
“I need three more clients in my Growth package.”
That’s a very different way of planning your business.
The Cons of Monthly Pricing
Monthly pricing isn’t automatically more profitable.
If you price the engagement incorrectly, it can actually be worse than hourly billing.
Imagine you charge a client $500 per month because you expect the work to take five hours.
Then you discover it consistently takes ten.
You haven’t created a profitable package.
You’ve simply locked yourself into an underpriced client.
That’s why you still need to understand your internal hourly rate—even if you never show that rate to the client.
Your Internal Hourly Rate Still Matters
This is one of the most important distinctions to understand.
You don’t necessarily have to bill hourly to think hourly when analyzing profitability.
Suppose your sustainable internal rate is $100 per hour.
You estimate a prospective client will require six hours per month.
That gives you a starting value of:
6 × $100 = $600
But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should quote $600.
You still need to consider complexity, communication, risk, scope, and profit.
Maybe you ultimately quote $750 per month.
Your hourly calculation helped you establish a floor.
Your final monthly price reflects the entire engagement.
What About Bookkeeping Packages?
Packages are a variation of monthly pricing.
Instead of creating a completely custom offer for every client, you establish several service levels.
For example:
Essential
Designed for a straightforward small business.
Could include:
- Monthly bookkeeping
- Bank and credit card reconciliations
- Month-end close
- Basic financial statements
Growth
Designed for businesses requiring additional support.
Could include everything in Essential plus:
- Higher transaction volume
- Additional accounts
- Monthly meeting
- Payroll or sales tax support
- Expanded reporting
Premium
Designed for more complex or high-touch clients.
Could include:
- Accounts payable or receivable support
- Enhanced reporting
- Additional meetings
- More complex reconciliations
- Priority support
The important thing is that your packages should reflect the type of clients you serve.
Don’t copy another bookkeeper’s three packages simply because they look good on their website.
Their costs, capacity, clients, services, and income goals may be completely different from yours.
Don’t Make Packages Unlimited
This is where package pricing can get dangerous.
Imagine advertising:
Unlimited bookkeeping — $500/month
What does unlimited mean?
Unlimited transactions?
Unlimited accounts?
Unlimited meetings?
Unlimited questions?
Unlimited cleanup?
That’s a lot of risk for one fixed price.
Instead, define your scope.
Your agreement might specify the number of accounts, expected transaction volume, included services, meeting frequency, reporting, and communication expectations.
Then explain how additional work will be handled.
What Happens When a Client Goes Outside the Package?
This should be decided before it happens.
You might charge:
- An additional hourly rate
- A fixed add-on fee
- A separate project fee
- A higher monthly package
For example, your monthly package might include normal bookkeeping but exclude historical cleanup.
If the client later asks you to fix the previous year’s books, that’s a separate project—not a free addition to their monthly package.
Clear boundaries protect both you and your client.
When I Would Consider Hourly Pricing
Hourly pricing can make sense when:
- You’re still learning how long certain services take
- The scope is difficult to predict
- You’re performing cleanup or catch-up work
- You’re providing consulting
- The client needs occasional support rather than recurring bookkeeping
- You’re taking on a one-time project
It can also be a useful starting point while gathering information about your own efficiency.
Track your time even if you don’t bill hourly.
That data is incredibly valuable.
When I Would Consider Monthly Pricing
Fixed monthly pricing can work well when:
- The client’s books are relatively predictable
- You’ve clearly defined the scope
- You understand the expected workload
- The client wants ongoing bookkeeping
- You want predictable recurring revenue
- You have enough experience to estimate the engagement confidently
Monthly pricing becomes much safer when you have good data behind the price.
Can You Use Both?
Absolutely.
Your bookkeeping business doesn’t have to choose one pricing method forever.
You could charge:
Monthly pricing for recurring bookkeeping.
Hourly pricing for consulting and out-of-scope work.
Project pricing for cleanups and QuickBooks setup.
That can give you predictable recurring revenue while protecting you from unpredictable projects.
Don’t Choose Monthly Pricing Just Because Everyone Else Is Doing It
It’s easy to see established bookkeeping businesses advertising monthly packages and assume that’s what you’re supposed to do immediately.
You don’t have to.
If you’re pricing your very first client and genuinely have no idea whether the work will take four hours or fourteen, hourly billing may give you valuable information.
You can track the engagement.
Learn the workload.
Improve your process.
Then use that information when pricing future clients.
The goal isn’t to use the pricing model that sounds the most sophisticated.
The goal is to use a pricing model that allows you to provide excellent service and build a sustainable business.
So, Which Pricing Model Should a New Bookkeeper Use?
If you’re brand new, I wouldn’t worry about committing yourself to one model forever.
Instead, ask:
How predictable is this work?
If the answer is not very predictable, hourly or project pricing may make sense.
If the answer is very predictable, a fixed monthly price may be a great fit.
And regardless of which method the client sees, understand the hourly economics happening behind the scenes.
Because a $1,000 monthly client isn’t necessarily better than a $500 monthly client.
If the $1,000 client takes 20 hours and the $500 client takes three, those engagements look very different once you understand the numbers.
Build Your Prices From Your Numbers
Before creating monthly packages, you need to know what an hour of your available client capacity actually needs to produce.
That’s why I created the Bookkeeper Pricing & Profit Calculator.
It helps you work backward from your income goals, business expenses, available client hours, and desired profit to calculate a sustainable pricing rate.
Then you can use that rate to:
- Estimate prospective client pricing
- Account for workload and complexity
- Build monthly bookkeeping packages
- Compare different pricing scenarios
- Calculate how many clients you need to reach your revenue goal
Whether you ultimately charge hourly or monthly, the important thing is knowing that the price makes sense for your business.
Because your pricing model can change.
But the math still needs to work.