BOOKKEEPING RATES GUIDE
Bookkeeping rates: what to charge in 2026
What US bookkeepers charge by the hour and by the month, how packages step up with the work inside them, what catch-up work costs, how to work out the rate your own costs need — and a free calculator that turns it into a price list for your website.
Free calculator · No sign-up · Nothing you type is saved
The short answer
Most US bookkeepers charge $30 to $90 an hour, or $300 to $2,500 a month (Relay's bookkeeping pricing guide, updated August 2026). Its three package tiers are $300 to $500 a month for transaction entry, bank and card reconciliation and basic monthly reporting; $600 to $1,200 with payables and receivables managed; and $1,500 to $3,000 or more with payroll and tax filing help, for businesses with 200 or more transactions a month or several entities.
Books that are behind are priced apart: providers commonly charge $150 to $500 for each month of backlog, and a full year of neglected books typically runs $1,500 to $6,000 (Beancount.io, October 2026). It puts ordinary freelance bookkeeping at $30 to $60 an hour and experienced or specialized bookkeepers at $75 an hour and up.
The employee benchmark is $24.36 an hour — the median for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks, $50,670 a year (O*NET, 2025 wages). A freelancer's rate has to carry the overhead and unbilled hours an employer would: Relay's worked example needs $124 an hour.
Put your packages on your website: “bookkeeping rates” is put to AI assistants about 520 times a month, “how much to charge for bookkeeping” about 470, and “bookkeeper hourly rate” is Googled about 480 times (DataForSEO, October 2026).
AT A GLANCE · NOVEMBER 2026
Bookkeeping rates at a glance
| The job | Typical US price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate, US bookkeepers | $30–$90 an hour | Relay, August 2026 |
| Essential, entry, reconciliation and a monthly report | $300–$500 | Relay, August 2026 |
| Strategic, plus payables and receivables | $600–$1,200 | Relay, August 2026 |
| Comprehensive, plus payroll and tax filing help | $1,500–$3,000+ | Relay, August 2026 |
| Catch-up, three months behind | $450–$1,500 for 3 months behind ($150–$500 per month behind) | Beancount.io, October 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 for these books?
Pick a monthly package by what's inside it, or a catch-up job by how many months behind the books are, then choose how the client pays. The range uses the published US figures in the table below.
Suggested price
$300–$500
monthly bookkeeping package, per month (Relay's three tiers), essential, entry, reconciliation and a monthly report
A starting range from published US figures — not your price until you've timed the client's books for a month or two. Say in every package how many transactions and accounts it covers and what costs extra.
Show this price on your website ↓Show this price on your website
Put your bookkeeping prices where customers look
Add your town, and Zarla builds your bookkeeping 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
Bookkeeping rates (2026)
Typical US prices for monthly bookkeeping packages and catch-up work, with the hourly range. The package tiers and the hourly range are Relay's (updated August 2026); the catch-up rate is Beancount.io's per month of backlog (October 2026), which puts a full neglected year at $1,500–$6,000.
| The job | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Monthly bookkeeping package, per month (Relay's three tiers) | Essential, entry, reconciliation and a monthly report: $300–$500 · Strategic, plus payables and receivables: $600–$1,200 · Comprehensive, plus payroll and tax filing help: $1,500–$3,000+ · Relay |
| Catch-up bookkeeping, per month of backlog (Beancount.io) | $150–$500 per month behind · about $450–$1,500 for 3 months behind · Beancount.io |
| Hourly rate, US bookkeepers | $30–$90 an hour · Relay |
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 take off for a year paid up front
Relay's suggested discount for prepaying a year: 5% to 15% (August 2026).
| What | Typical US price · source |
|---|---|
| Billing: paid a year up front | 5%–15% off · Relay |
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 bookkeeping rates
Six steps from the rate your costs need to a package price you can check against your own hours.
Know the employee benchmark
The median bookkeeping clerk earns $24.36 an hour, $50,670 a year (O*NET, 2025 wages). A freelancer's rate sits above it because the software, insurance, training and unbilled hours are yours.
Work out the rate you need
Relay's formula: overhead plus the salary you want, divided by billable hours, divided by one minus your margin. Its example — ($60,000 + $80,000) ÷ 1,500 hours ÷ (1 − 0.25) — needs $124 an hour.
Package the work by scope
$300–$500 a month for entry, reconciliation and a monthly report; $600–$1,200 with payables and receivables; $1,500–$3,000 or more with payroll and tax filing help (Relay, August 2026).
Time every client
Relay's warning: a $500 package that takes 12 hours a month is a $42 hour; an $800 one that takes 10 hours is $80. Track your time on every client, and reprice the package when the hours say so.
Price catch-up work apart
$150–$500 for each month the books are behind, and $1,500–$6,000 for a full neglected year (Beancount.io, October 2026). Quote it before the monthly package starts.
Raise prices every year
Relay cites Ignition's 2025 benchmark: 80% of firms plan to raise fees by 5% to 10% in 2026. Relay's advice is 60 to 90 days' notice before a new rate starts; offer a year up front at 5%–15% off.
The rate, worked through
A client on the Essential package at $400 a month takes you six hours a month: $66.67 an hour, inside the $30–$90 market range but under the $124 Relay's example needs. Either the hours come down or the package goes up.
Move the same client to $750 a month — the Strategic tier, with their bills and invoices managed — at eight hours a month, and the hour is $93.75. If the books were three months behind when they arrived, the catch-up was a separate $450–$1,500 at Beancount.io's per-month rate.
So “monthly bookkeeping from $400, catch-up from $150 a month behind, hourly work from $60” — $60 being the top of Beancount.io's range for ordinary freelance work — is a fair first line for your price list. The figures are the publishers'; the sums are ours.
What to charge where your clients are
Relay's own example: a San Francisco bookkeeper quotes $50 an hour for reconciliation work a Denver bookkeeper prices at $32 (August 2026). The Bureau of Economic Analysis's 2024 regional price parities put California at 110.7 and Arkansas at 86.9 against a US average of 100 (released February 2026) — about $443 and $348 for a $400 package. Remote clients let you price against the national range rather than your town's.
In the US, “anyone who prepares or assists in preparing federal tax returns for compensation must have a valid” PTIN, renewed each year, from the IRS (its PTIN page, updated October 2026) — so if a package includes preparing or helping prepare clients' federal returns for pay, you need one. Whether your state taxes bookkeeping services, and whether a tax-preparation line needs anything more where you work, is set state by state; check your state's revenue department and confirm with a tax adviser.
Outside the US, treat the dollar ranges as a shape, not a price: packages by scope, catch-up priced by the month behind and a rate worked up from your own costs hold everywhere. Check what the bookkeepers 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 a bookkeeper costs near them.
If you build your site with Zarla, tell the editor “add a pricing section: monthly bookkeeping from $400, catch-up from $150 a month behind, hourly work from $60” and your prices go on the site, in a section you can edit any time. Want to see a finished site first? Browse bookkeeping website templates or see how Zarla builds bookkeeping websites.
Still setting up? Write your bookkeeping business plan, browse bookkeeping 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.
Not trained yet? Start with how to become a bookkeeper. Filing clients' returns too? The tax preparation fees guide covers what a return costs.
Bookkeeping rates: common questions
Most US bookkeepers charge $30–$90 an hour (Relay, August 2026). Beancount.io puts ordinary freelance work at $30–$60 and experienced or specialized bookkeepers at $75 and up (October 2026). The calculator above prices the monthly packages.
$300–$500 a month for transaction entry, reconciliation and a monthly report; $600–$1,200 with payables and receivables; $1,500–$3,000 or more with payroll and tax filing help (Relay's tiers). Time the client's books before you settle the package.
Providers commonly charge $150–$500 for each month of backlog, and a full year of neglected books typically runs $1,500–$6,000 (Beancount.io, October 2026). Price it as its own job, before the monthly package starts.
Add your yearly overhead to the salary you want, divide by your billable hours, then divide by one minus your profit margin. Relay's example: ($60,000 + $80,000) ÷ 1,500 ÷ 0.75 = $124 an hour.
The median bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerk earns $24.36 an hour, $50,670 a year (O*NET, 2025 wages). A freelancer charges more per hour because they carry their own overhead and unbilled time.
Relay calls fixed monthly fees “the better default for ongoing work” and keeps hourly billing for one-off cleanup projects with undefined scope. Track your hours against every package — a $500 package that takes 12 hours is a $42 hour.
Yes — a “from” price for each package answers the first question before the 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 rates do.
Where these numbers come from
Every range on this page is read off a published source, dated below. They're US figures for a bookkeeper's monthly packages, catch-up work and hourly rate — typical, not a rule; your costs and your market come first.
- Relay — How much to charge for bookkeeping services in 2026 (David White; first published February 2026) — dated August 2026, read November 2026
- Beancount.io — How Much Does a Bookkeeper Cost in 2026? Hourly Rates, Monthly Packages, and What Drives the Price (dated by its address) — dated October 2026, read November 2026
- O*NET OnLine — 43-3031.00 Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks (median wages, 2025; dated by the site's update) — dated October 2026, read November 2026
- IRS — PTIN requirements for tax return preparers — dated October 2026, read November 2026
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis — regional price parities by state, 2024 — dated February 2026, read September 2026
Put your bookkeeping rates on your website
Add your town and your business 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.