What drives the price
- Transactions. Every deposit, payment and transfer on your statements has to be coded. Volume is the biggest factor.
- Accounts. Each bank account, credit card and loan is reconciled to its statement every month.
- Payroll and sales tax. Payroll entries and New Jersey or New York sales tax returns add work, and some bookkeepers charge extra for them or do not file them at all.
- The condition of your records. Clean, current books cost less to maintain than books that need fixing first.
- Entities. Each business is its own set of books.
A worked example
A Bergen County contractor has about 110 transactions a month across a checking account, a credit card and an equipment loan, and does not collect sales tax. Two quotes come in at the same $350 a month. One bookkeeper works in QuickBooks Online, which the owner pays for. The other keeps the books in its own system.
| Bookkeeping fee, either option | $350 / month |
| QuickBooks Online Essentials, first option only | $85 / month |
| First option, per year | $5,220 |
| Second option, per year | $4,200 |
| Difference | $1,020 a year |
Same fee on paper, $1,020 a year apart in practice, and that is before anyone files a sales tax return or cleans up the books for the tax return. QuickBooks Online lists at $38, $85, $140 or $340 a month depending on the plan, so the gap can be larger.
Costs people forget
- Software. Many bookkeepers require you to pay for QuickBooks or similar software on top of their fee.
- Sales tax returns. Some services code the sales tax but leave the filing to you or your CPA.
- Year-end cleanup. If the books are not reconciled to a CPA’s standard, your tax preparer may bill to fix them before the return can start.
- Catch-up. Missed months are almost always quoted separately from the monthly fee.
What you should get at any price
- Every account reconciled to its statement every month, not just categorized.
- A profit and loss and balance sheet each month, on a date you can count on.
- One short list of questions, instead of a stream of emails.
- Books that go straight onto your business return without a rebuild.
This guide is general information based on the law as of the date above, not advice for your situation. Tax rules change, and the right answer depends on your numbers.