ACCOUNTING FEES GUIDE
Accounting fees: what to charge in 2026
What US accounting firms most often charge for monthly accounting, financial statements and fractional CFO work, what the average firm charges by the hour, how firms set and raise fees — and a free calculator that turns them into a fee schedule for your website.
Free calculator · No sign-up · Nothing you type is saved
The short answer
Monthly bookkeeping and accounting is most often priced at $250 to $499 a month — the most common band in Ignition's 2025 survey of 219 US accounting firms using its practice software — and 10% or fewer of those firms bill by the hour for any service it benchmarked, tax planning and advisory aside (as Accounting Today reported it, August 2025). The most common business tax return fee was $1,000 to $1,499 a year and the most common individual return $400 to $599.
Financial statements are priced by the level of assurance: $1,500 to $5,000 for a compilation, $5,000 to $15,000 for a review and $10,000 to $25,000 or more for an audit at a typical small business, with the first year at a new firm running 20% to 30% higher (Beancount.io, September 2026). A fractional CFO is typically $2,000 to $5,000 a month for a small business (Beancount.io, August 2026).
By the hour, the average US firm listed on Clutch charges $100 to $149 (September 2026), against a median accountant's wage of $40.23 an hour (O*NET, 2025 wages). Firms keep moving: 80% of Ignition's firms planned to raise prices in 2026, and the AICPA's 2025 survey of 1,073 CPA firms found median net client fees up 6.7%.
Put a “from” fee for each package on your website: “accounting fees” is put to AI assistants about 4,200 times a month, and “cpa fees” is Googled about 1,000 times (DataForSEO, October 2026).
AT A GLANCE · NOVEMBER 2026
Accounting fees at a glance
| The job | Typical US price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly accounting, a full year | $3,000–$5,990 for 12 months ($250–$499 per month) | Accounting Today, August 2025 |
| Compilation | $1,500–$5,000 | Beancount.io, September 2026 |
| Review | $5,000–$15,000 | Beancount.io, September 2026 |
| Audit | $10,000–$25,000+ | Beancount.io, September 2026 |
| Fractional CFO, lower end | $2,000–$3,000 | Beancount.io, August 2026 |
| Hourly rate, average US accounting firm | $100–$149 an hour | Clutch, September 2026 |
The same published figures as the full rate table below; the calculator works out a price for your own job.
FREE PRICE CALCULATOR
What should I charge this client?
Pick monthly accounting by the month, a set of financial statements or fractional CFO work, then tick the returns that go with it. The range uses the published US figures in the table below.
Suggested price
$3,000–$5,990
monthly bookkeeping and accounting, per month (the most common band among Ignition's 219 firms), 12 months
A starting range from published US figures — not your fee until you've scoped the client's transactions, accounts and deadlines. Say on every engagement what's inside the monthly fee and what's billed apart.
Show this price on your website ↓Show this price on your website
Put your accounting prices where customers look
Add your town, and Zarla builds your accounting website from this one line. Then tell the editor “add a pricing section” with your prices, and change them any time.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.
RATES · NOVEMBER 2026
Accounting fees (2026)
Typical US fees for monthly accounting, year-end financial statements and fractional CFO work. The monthly band is the most common answer among Ignition's 219 US firms — 29% of them — not an average (August 2025). The statement and CFO ranges are Beancount.io's for a typical small business (September and August 2026). The hourly row is the average Clutch shows for US accounting firms listed on its site (September 2026).
| The job | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Monthly bookkeeping and accounting, per month (the most common band among Ignition's 219 firms) | $250–$499 per month · about $3,000–$5,990 for 12 months · Accounting Today |
| Year-end financial statements, by level of assurance (typical small business) | Compilation: $1,500–$5,000 · Review: $5,000–$15,000 · Audit: $10,000–$25,000+ · Beancount.io |
| Fractional CFO, per month (small business retainer) | Lower end, 5–8 hours a month, forecast and monthly review: $2,000–$3,000 · Upper end, 10–15 hours a month, detailed model and quarterly work: $3,500–$5,000 · Beancount.io |
| Hourly rate, average US accounting firm | $100–$149 an hour · Clutch |
Rates read off each publisher's page in November 2026. The calculator above uses exactly these numbers, rounded to whole dollars and to the nearest $5 from $100 up. Full source list below.
ADD-ONS AND ADJUSTMENTS
What to add for returns and a first-year client
The return fees are the most common bands in Ignition's 2025 survey; the first-year uplift is Beancount.io's 20%–30% for a new firm's first statements.
| What | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Statements: first year with your firm | 20%–30% more · Beancount.io |
| Business tax return, per year | +$1,000–$1,499 · Accounting Today |
| Owner's individual tax return | +$400–$599 · Accounting Today |
Where a row shows a sum (a rate × a quantity, or a percentage worked out from published dollar ranges), the arithmetic is ours and the inputs are the publisher's.
THE PRICING FORMULA
How to set your accounting fees
Six steps from what an hour of your time costs to a fixed fee the client can say yes to — and a schedule you raise every year.
Know what an hour costs you
The median accountant earns $40.23 an hour (O*NET, 2025 wages). Add payroll taxes, software, insurance and the hours nobody pays for, and that's the floor under every fee you set.
Price the engagement, not the hour
10% or fewer of Ignition's 219 firms bill hourly for the services it benchmarked, apart from tax planning and advisory, and only 3% bill hourly for tax prep (August 2025). A fixed fee is what the client compares.
Build the monthly package
$250–$499 a month was the most common fee for monthly bookkeeping and accounting (Ignition, 2025). Scope it by transactions, bank and card accounts and how often the client wants a meeting.
Price statements by assurance
A compilation carries no assurance and runs $1,500–$5,000; a review, limited assurance, $5,000–$15,000; an audit, reasonable assurance, $10,000–$25,000 or more (Beancount.io, September 2026). Ask for the bank's exact covenant language before you quote.
Collect part of it up front
31% of Ignition's firms took a deposit up front in 2025, up from 26% the year before, and 13% collected the full fee before starting (Accounting Today, August 2025).
Raise the schedule every year
80% of Ignition's firms planned to raise prices in 2026 — 37% by 5% and 30% by 10% — and the AICPA's survey found median net client fees up 6.7% (September 2025). Send the new schedule a month before it starts.
The fee, worked through
A small business with one bank account and two cards: monthly accounting at $350 a month is $4,200 a year; its business return at $1,250 and the owner's return at $500 bring the year to $5,950 — about $496 a month if you bill it as one fixed monthly fee. Every figure sits inside Ignition's most common bands; the package is ours.
Check it against the hour: at Clutch's $100–$149 for the average US firm, $5,950 buys 40 to 60 hours a year. If the books take longer than that, the scope or the fee is wrong. When the client's bank asks for a compilation, quote it apart: $1,500–$5,000, or $1,800–$6,500 in the first year at Beancount.io's 20%–30% first-year uplift.
So “monthly accounting from $350 a month, business returns from $1,250, compilations from $1,500” is a fair first line for your fee schedule.
What to charge where you practice
The Bureau of Economic Analysis's 2024 regional price parities put California at 110.7 against a US average of 100 and Arkansas at 86.9 (released February 2026) — read loosely, a $350 monthly package in an average market is about $387 in California and about $304 in Arkansas.
Clutch's own country table shows how far the hour travels: $100–$149 for US firms, $50–$99 in the UK and Canada, under $25 in India and the Philippines (September 2026). A US client who can hire offshore bookkeeping is comparing your monthly fee with that — the review, the advice and the signature are what the fee is for.
In the US, a CPA is “licensed by a state board of accountancy” (NASBA), and the rest — who may offer audits and reviews, and which fee arrangements are allowed — is for that board's rules. Check them before an assurance service or a percentage-based fee goes on your schedule, and confirm whether your state taxes accounting services with your state's revenue department or a tax adviser.
Outside the US, treat the dollar ranges as a shape, not a price: fixed monthly packages, assurance priced by level, a deposit up front and a yearly increase hold everywhere, but who may sign which report is set by each country's own accountancy bodies. Check what the firms near you publish.
Put your prices on your website
A price list — even “from” prices — answers a customer's first question before they pick up the phone, and it's the line an AI assistant can quote when someone asks what an accountant costs near them.
If you build your site with Zarla, tell the editor “add a pricing section: monthly accounting from $350 a month, business tax returns from $1,250, compilations from $1,500” and your prices go on the site, in a section you can edit any time. Want to see a finished site first? Browse accounting website templates or see how Zarla builds accounting websites.
Still setting up? Write your accounting business plan, browse accounting business name ideas, and when the prices are set, read how to get your business on Google. Raising prices you set a year ago? The price increase letter tells customers a month ahead.
Pricing returns as well? Tax preparation fees has the per-return figures for individual and business returns, and how much to charge for consulting covers advisory work billed as a project.
Accounting fees: common questions
Monthly bookkeeping and accounting was most often priced at $250–$499 a month in Ignition's 2025 survey of 219 US firms (29% of them chose that band). The calculator above turns it into a year and adds the returns.
The average US accounting firm listed on Clutch charges $100–$149 an hour (September 2026). Few firms quote it, though: 10% or fewer of Ignition's firms bill hourly outside tax planning and advisory (August 2025).
For a typical small business, $1,500–$5,000 for a compilation, $5,000–$15,000 for a review and $10,000–$25,000 or more for an audit, often $20,000 or more in an audit's first year (Beancount.io, September 2026).
Typically $2,000–$5,000 a month for a small business: $2,000–$3,000 for 5–8 hours of forecasting and monthly review, $3,500–$5,000 for 10–15 hours with a detailed model and quarterly work (Beancount.io, August 2026). Ignition's most common CFO and controller fee was more than $2,500 a month.
Most of Ignition's surveyed firms have moved to fixed fees: only 17% of them bill hourly for tax planning and advisory, and hourly billing for CFO and controller work fell from over 20% to 10% (August 2025). Keep the hour for work you can't scope, and say which work that is.
Ignition's firms most often planned 5% (37% of them) or 10% (30%) for 2026, and the AICPA's 2025 survey found median net client fees up 6.7%. 28% of Ignition's firms said fear of losing clients held them back, and 30% reported no hesitation at all.
Yes — a “from” fee for each package answers the first question before the discovery call, and it's the line an AI assistant can quote. On a Zarla site, tell the editor “add a pricing section” with your packages, and change them when your schedule does.
Where these numbers come from
Every range on this page is read off a published source, dated below. They're US figures for an accounting practice's monthly, assurance and advisory work — typical, not a rule; your costs and your market come first.
- Accounting Today — Firms plan to raise fees in 2026 (Ignition's 2025 pricing survey of 219 US accounting firms) — dated August 2025, read November 2026
- Beancount.io — Compilation, Review, or Audit: Which Financial Statement Service Does Your Bank Loan Actually Require? (dated by its address) — dated September 2026, read November 2026
- Beancount.io — Fractional CFO Services: What to Expect for $2,000–$5,000 Monthly (dated by its address) — dated August 2026, read November 2026
- Clutch — Accounting Pricing Guide 2026 (average cost per hour by country) — dated September 2026, read November 2026
- O*NET OnLine — 13-2011.00 Accountants and Auditors (median wages, 2025) — dated October 2026, read November 2026
- AICPA & CIMA — CPA firms report steady growth in revenue and profit (2025 National MAP Survey, 1,073 firms) — dated September 2025, read November 2026
- NASBA — CPA licensure — no date on the page, read November 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — regional price parities by state, 2024 — dated February 2026, read September 2026
Put your accounting fees on your website
Add your town and your practice's name, and Zarla builds the site from that one line. Your packages go in a pricing section you edit by chat.
Already have a website? Bring it across →Zarla keeps your old page addresses where it can and redirects the ones that change, helping you keep the Google standing you've built.