Bookkeeping with Perfectbooks costs $0.75 per transaction a month for Essentials or $1.00 for Full-Service, and cleanup is $50 an hour. For a small business with 100 to 300 transactions a month, that’s roughly $75 to $300 a month. Payroll and tax returns are priced separately, and the consultation is free.
Everything Perfectbooks charges
No packages built for someone bigger than you.
How much does bookkeeping cost per month?
With per-transaction pricing, your monthly cost follows the size of your business. A transaction is one line on a bank or credit card statement: a sale deposited, a bill paid, a card swipe at the supply store. Count the lines across your business accounts for a typical month, multiply by the rate, and that’s the month.
That’s different from the flat monthly packages many firms sell, which are built around a bracket and charge the same in a slow month as in a busy one. Here, a quiet month costs less.
The examples on the right are just the math. Your exact number comes from looking at your real statements on the free consultation.
Monthly cost by transaction volume
Simple multiplication, before payroll or tax returns.
| Transactions a month | Essentials | Full-Service |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | $37.50 | $50.00 |
| 100 | $75.00 | $100.00 |
| 150 | $112.50 | $150.00 |
| 200 | $150.00 | $200.00 |
| 300 | $225.00 | $300.00 |
| 500 | $375.00 | $500.00 |
How bookkeepers usually charge
When you compare bookkeeping rates, you’ll run into three pricing models. None is wrong. What matters is that you can predict the bill.
Billed by the hour
Common for cleanup and irregular work. Fair when the scope is unclear, but monthly costs can drift if hours aren’t estimated up front. Perfectbooks uses hourly pricing only for cleanup, and scopes it first.
A fixed package
Predictable, but usually built around brackets of volume or revenue. Small businesses often pay for capacity they don’t use, especially in slow months.
What you actually use
Your cost tracks your real activity. It’s how Perfectbooks prices monthly bookkeeping, at $0.75 or $1.00 per transaction.
Is it cheaper to hire a bookkeeper or outsource?
For most small businesses, outsourcing costs far less than an employee. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks at $50,670 a year, or $24.36 an hour, as of May 2025, before payroll taxes, benefits or software.
The outsourced figure is the per-transaction math from the table above, before payroll or tax returns. An employee makes sense once the books are a full-time job. Until then, you’re paying for hours nobody needs.
Want your exact number?
Bring a recent bank statement to a free one-hour call and leave with a real monthly price, not a range.
Get my exact priceCleanup, payroll and tax return pricing
The services that sit around monthly bookkeeping are priced on their own, so you only pay for the ones you use.
Cleanup and catch-up
Hours depend on how far behind you are, how many accounts you have and what records exist. You get an estimate on the consultation before any work starts. More on cleanup and catch-up.
Payroll preparation
You pay your payroll software’s own cost, plus $50 and $5 for each employee. It flexes to fit small teams and a tight budget.
Tax returns
$50 for a simple return, $75 with one or two schedules, and from $100 for more complex returns, prepared from clean books.
What’s included in monthly bookkeeping
Every transaction posted
Bank, card and payment app activity recorded to the right accounts.
Bank and card reconciliations
Every account matched to its statement, every month.
Journal entries and account upkeep
Adjustments the bank feed can’t make, and a chart of accounts kept tidy.
Three monthly reports
So you know where you stand every month, not once a year.
What affects your bookkeeping cost
Mostly volume: more transactions, higher monthly cost, and fewer means lower. A few other things change the work, and we talk through them on the consultation so nothing surprises you later.
How to estimate your transaction count
You don’t need software to get a rough number. Grab last month’s statements for every business bank account and credit card, and count the lines. That’s your transaction count for a typical month.
If your months swing a lot, average two or three of them. Seasonal businesses, like landscaping or construction, often have very different summer and winter numbers, and per-transaction pricing follows that up and down automatically.
On the free consultation we look at the real statements together, so the estimate becomes an exact price. If you’re behind and the statements haven’t been touched in months, that’s fine too. It just means we’ll talk about a cleanup first.
A five-minute estimate
No software needed.
Three example monthly bills
Made-up businesses, real math. Your own number comes from your statements on the consultation.
About $45 a month
60 transactions a month on Essentials comes to $45.00. One business checking account, one card, no employees. Tax prep for the individual return is added once a year. See QuickBooks bookkeeping.
About $180 a month, plus payroll
180 transactions a month on Full-Service comes to $180.00. With four employees, payroll adds $50 and $20 ($5 each), plus the payroll software’s own cost.
A cleanup, then monthly
A catch-up estimated at 30 hours is $1,500 at $50 an hour, once. After that, 250 transactions a month on Essentials is $187.50. See construction bookkeeping.
Questions to ask when comparing bookkeeping quotes
Two quotes with the same monthly number can turn out very differently. The gap is usually in what’s left out. Ask every bookkeeper the same questions, me included, and compare the answers instead of the headline price.
A good bookkeeper will answer all of these without hesitating. If the answers are vague, the bill probably will be too.
Want the full list of what’s included here? See bookkeeping services.
Bookkeeping pricing, answered
How much should bookkeeping cost per month for a small business?
It depends mostly on transaction volume. At Perfectbooks, a business with 100 transactions a month pays $75 on Essentials or $100 on Full-Service, and one with 300 pays $225 or $300. Payroll and tax returns are extra and priced separately.
What is the hourly rate for a bookkeeper?
Rates vary widely by region and experience. At Perfectbooks, hourly pricing is used only for cleanup and catch-up, at $50 an hour, and the hours are estimated on the free consultation before any work starts. Monthly bookkeeping is priced per transaction instead.
Why price per transaction instead of a flat fee?
Because it’s fair to small businesses. You pay for the activity you actually have, so a slow month costs less, and you’re never paying for a bracket built for a bigger company.
Does the price include QuickBooks, Xero or Digits?
No. The software subscription stays in your name and is billed by the provider. That keeps the file yours, and you can see exactly what you’re paying for each.
What’s the difference between Essentials and Full-Service?
Essentials covers the core monthly work: posting, reconciliations, journal entries, chart of accounts upkeep and three monthly reports. Full-Service is the fully handled version. We’ll go through exactly what’s included for your business on the consultation.
Is the consultation really free?
Yes. One hour, no obligation. You leave with an honest read on your books and an exact price, and if Perfectbooks isn’t the right fit, I’ll tell you.
What is a bookkeeper not allowed to do?
A bookkeeper can’t issue audited or reviewed financial statements, which are reserved for CPAs, and isn’t the right person for tax planning or a tax dispute. That’s where your CPA comes in. I keep the books accurate and prepare payroll and individual returns, and work alongside your CPA for the rest. More about Holly.
What happens to my price if the business grows?
It grows with you, automatically. Because monthly bookkeeping is priced per transaction, there’s no bracket to jump into and nothing to renegotiate. A bigger month costs a bit more, and a slow month costs less.
Do I pay for the consultation if I decide not to go ahead?
No. The consultation is free whatever you decide. You leave with an honest read on your books and an exact price, and there is no bill and no follow-up pressure if you choose to keep doing them yourself or go elsewhere.
Know your exact price before you commit
Tell me about your business. I’ll reply personally to set up a time, and you’ll leave with a real monthly number.
Free one-hour consultation. You leave with an exact price.