The short answer
Most small businesses pay $200–$400 per month for bookkeeping, with a typical retainer around $300. Very simple books cost less; high-volume or multi-entity work costs more. The market spread:
| Tier | Range | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| DIY software | $0–$50 | You do the work; software just organizes it. |
| Basic monthly bookkeeping | $95–$250 | Categorization, reconciliation, monthly reports for a simple business. |
| Full-service bookkeeper | $250–$450 | Higher transaction volume, AP/AR, payroll coordination, cleaner reporting. |
| Controller-level / multi-entity | $450–$800+ | Complex books, multiple accounts, near-CFO-lite oversight. |
What actually moves the price
Transaction volume. The single biggest driver. A consultant with 30 transactions a month costs a fraction of a busy e-commerce store with hundreds of orders, refunds, and payouts to reconcile. When you get a quote, expect to be asked about monthly volume and number of accounts.
Cleanup vs. maintenance. If your books are behind, most bookkeepers charge a one-time catch-up fee before the monthly rate kicks in. Ongoing maintenance is far cheaper than untangling a year of neglect, so the earlier you start, the less you pay overall.
Scope creep into accounting. Bookkeeping is recording and organizing; tax strategy and filing are a different service. Bundling payroll, AP/AR, or sales-tax filing raises the retainer. Know where bookkeeping ends and an accountant begins so you’re not paying accountant rates for data entry.
How this guide is priced
Figures are compiled from public rate listings and market data — see the source below and our data methodology. As the Mindhyv marketplace grows, these ranges will reflect real, anonymized engagement data from the platform.
Before you hire
Read the bookkeeper hiring guide for the questions that reveal whether a quote matches your volume. When it’s time to file, compare it against what an accountant costs. A monthly bookkeeping quote is really an hours estimate in disguise, so run the freelance rate calculator to check whether the number matches the work.