Bookkeeping Rate Calculator
Bookkeeping is usually sold as a monthly retainer, but the retainer should still be built from a real hourly rate and a realistic estimate of monthly hours per client.
Recommended monthly retainer
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Recommended hourly rate
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Billable hours/year
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Max clients at this scope
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Bookkeeping-specific cost considerations
- Hours per client scale with transaction volume, not just client count — a high-volume ecommerce client can take far more monthly hours than a simple service business.
- Deadline-driven, compliance-linked work (tax filing season, month-end close) concentrates workload unevenly across the year — 70% average utilization can still mean much higher peak-season hours.
- Software subscription costs (QuickBooks Online, Xero, receipt-scanning tools) scale with client count and should be reflected in overhead.
"Max clients at this scope" is a capacity ceiling based on average hours per client — actual capacity will vary with each client's real complexity.
Worked example
$65,000 income, $6,000 overhead, 48 weeks, 35 hrs/week, 70% utilization, 10% reserve, 12% margin, 8 hrs/month/client:
- Billable hours: 48 × 35 × 0.70 = 1,176 hours/year (98/month)
- Recommended rate: $71,000 ÷ (1 − 0.22) ÷ 1,176 ≈ $77.42/hour
- Monthly retainer: 8 × $77.42 ≈ $619
- Max clients: 98 ÷ 8 ≈ 12.3 clients at this scope
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Frequently asked questions
Should tax season work be priced separately from monthly bookkeeping?
Many bookkeepers price ongoing monthly bookkeeping and annual tax-prep coordination as separate line items, since the workload and skill set differ.
How do I price a client whose volume grows over time?
Revisit hours-per-client periodically and adjust the retainer — bookkeeping retainers are not "set and forget" once a client's transaction volume changes materially.