You have probably already searched this once and come away with nothing you could use. Pricing for this kind of work is hard to find, and hard to pin down when you do find it. So you end up booking calls just to find out what something costs.
That’s a rough way to shop for anything. So here are my actual prices, and more useful than the prices, here’s what moves the number. You should be able to work out roughly where you’d land before you talk to anybody, including me.
What I charge
Four fixed monthly packages. No hourly billing, and the price is set before any work starts.
Starter, $300 a month. Up to 100 transactions a month, up to 3 connected accounts, up to 3 invoices. Fits a new LLC or a side business.
Standard, $575 a month. Up to 200 transactions, up to 4 accounts, up to 10 invoices. Fits an established solo operator.
Team, $875 a month. Up to 300 transactions, up to 5 accounts, unlimited invoicing, bill pay, and payroll for up to 3 people. Fits a business with a few employees.
Premium, $1,250 a month. Up to 400 transactions, up to 6 accounts, unlimited invoicing and bill pay, payroll for up to 5 people.
On the two lower packages payroll is an add-on, priced by how many people are on it. Catch-up work on books that are behind is quoted separately, as a flat fee, after I look at the actual files. There’s also a one-time setup fee to get your accounts connected. All of it gets a real number before anything starts. The full breakdown lives on the services and pricing page.
The three things that set the price
Three boring mechanical things, and revenue isn’t one of them.
How many transactions you have. Every line that hits your bank or card is something somebody has to look at and categorize. A landscaper running one truck and a card might have 60 a month. A restaurant can clear 400 without trying. That count is most of the work.
How many accounts you run. Two checking accounts, a card, and a payment processor means four things to reconcile every month.
Whether you need payroll or bill pay. These are separate jobs with their own deadlines and their own consequences for getting them wrong.
If you can estimate those three, you can put yourself in a tier right now without calling anyone.
Why I don’t bill hourly
Hourly billing sounds fair. In practice, it works against you.
Under hourly, a messy month is good for me and bad for you. Every hour I spend untangling something is another hour billed. You also can’t budget for it, and you get a little nervous about asking a question, because every question adds to the bill.
A fixed price works the other way. If your books get complicated, that’s my problem to solve. You don’t get a surprise line on your invoice for it. And you can call me without doing math first.
The tradeoff: a fixed price means I have to scope it right up front, which is why there’s a free consult before I quote anything. I look at your real volume and your real accounts first. If your usage changes later, the price can be revisited and move down as easily as up.
When hiring me can wait
Here’s when it makes sense to wait.
If your books are current, you know what last month made, and closing out the month isn’t costing you an evening you’d rather spend somewhere else, you’re in good shape. Keep going.
What decides this isn’t how big you are. Some of my clients have months where the whole thing fits on one page. It’s whether the work is getting done, and what it’s costing you to do it.
So the real test is simpler than counting transactions: you stopped reconciling and can’t remember when you last did, you have no real idea whether last month made money, you’ve started paying people, or tax season has turned into something you dread. Any one of those is worth $300 a month to make go away.
Roughly where you’d land
Most one-person service businesses I look at come out in Starter or Standard. Once there are employees on payroll it’s usually Team. The number climbs with volume and headcount.
If you want a sharper read than a blog post can give you, there’s a free 12-question quiz on the site. It takes about two minutes, tells you where your books stand, and emails you a copy of your score.
Take the free Books Health QuizAnd if you’d rather just ask, the first conversation is free and I’ll tell you a real number at the end of it.