How to create bookkeeping pricing packages (+ examples)

Setting a price for your bookkeeping services is something of a fine art. On the one hand, you’ve got to cover your expenses and add in a healthy profit margin to make running your business worthwhile. However, push things too far, and you run the risk of turning off potential clients and getting savaged by your rivals.

The big question you need to ask here is: How do you strike a sensible balance when putting together bookkeeping pricing packages?

In this article, we’ll look at the primary factors that go into setting your bookkeeping service prices and explore the most popular pricing models you can choose. Then, we’ll share some real-world examples so you can see how it's done.

What should I charge as a bookkeeper?

According to Bark.com, the average monthly cost of an outsourced bookkeeper in the US is between $500 and $2500. That’s a pretty wide range explained by various factors, such as experience, qualifications, services offered, company size, and the amount of work required.

Regarding the flat hourly rate, ZipRecruiter figures for June 2024 puts the average hourly pay for a US bookkeeper at around $25 per hour.

These are helpful ballpark figures, but as we’ll explain below, there are many moving parts to consider when formulating your bookkeeping pricing packages or hourly rates.

What to consider when creating bookkeeping pricing packages

Bookkeeping pricing packages offer an agreed service at a flat fee. But how do you arrive at this flat fee? Let’s explore the different factors that go into your price.

Your fixed costs

Fixed costs are the first thing you must calculate when setting bookkeeping prices. You need to thoroughly evaluate what it will cost for you to offer your services.

Some of the costs involved include:

• Office costs (mortgage or rent)
• Utilities (internet, phone bill, electricity)
• Employee salaries
• Insurance
• Bank or legal fees
• Marketing and advertising
• Accounting and business software

Of course, not all bookkeepers will have the exact same costs. A small freelance bookkeeping business with no employees that you run from your kitchen will have lower fixed costs than a firm with a few employees and an office.

What is essential here is to get an accurate figure of your costs. Think of everything that it takes to offer your service, and, if possible, factor in a little extra for unexpected expenses, such as rent or mortgage rises, repairs, or anything else that might come out of the blue.

Your location

Location plays a key role in bookkeeping prices. For example, the rent and general cost of living in your area will add to your fixed expenses and minimum profit margins.

The other thing to consider is that these economic pressures also affect the other bookkeepers where you live. So, expect that reality to be reflected in the prices they charge, or in other words, the prices you’re competing against.

The rise of remote work has changed this dynamic somewhat. But if your focus is on local businesses, your prices should align with their expectations.

Your experience and certifications

You can work as a bookkeeper without certifications. However, having a CPB from the National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers (NACPB) or a CB from the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers (AIPB) typically means you can charge more for your services.

Experience is another factor that you can turn to your advantage.

It’s not just about being accomplished — although that does help. Instead, some clients will want a bookkeeper who has worked extensively within a field and earned knowledge about tax, regulations, and other industry-specific things. In these scenarios, your awareness of a niche can be a profitable point of differentiation between you and other bookkeepers.

Know your target market

As we mentioned earlier, bookkeeping pricing packages offer a particular service at a flat price. Each client's size and business will dictate the number of hours you spend delivering these services.

When you're formulating booking packages, think about client size. For example:

• Small clients will have limited staff, more straightforward needs, and, in many cases, a modest budget.
• Medium-size clients will require more comprehensive services.
• Larger clients could have more complexity but have a bigger budget.

It comes down to estimating how many hours each client needs per month and using that as part of your fixed cost.

The types of services you offer

Finally, the breadth of services you provide is a huge part of figuring out your bookkeeping pricing packages. So, before you weigh up the different packages that might resonate with your clients, consider the services you can or want to offer.

Some of these services include:

• Basic bookkeeping includes recording transactions, accounts payable and receivables, and cash flow management
• Payroll services
• Tax preparation and filing
• Financial statements
• Financial consulting and advisory

How to package your bookkeeping services

Now that you’ve mastered the costs and various factors involved in pricing your service consider combining all of this information into a bookkeeping pricing package.

Here are the steps and types of bookkeeping pricing packages you can create:

1. Choose your pricing model
2. Creating a basic bookkeeping package
3. Creating an advanced bookkeeping package
4. Creating a full-service bookkeeping package
5. Presenting your pricing packages
6. Create a website
7. Integrate with a client portal like Copilot

Alright, let’s look at each of these.

1. Choose your pricing model

There are four main pricing models you can use for your bookkeeping services. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Explore each model to determine what will work best for you and your clients.

Hourly rate pricing

Hourly pricing is the traditional bookkeeping pricing model. It involves setting an hourly rate (costs + profit) and invoicing your clients for each hour you work. One of the big advantages of this model is its overall simplicity.

However, as bookkeeping and accounting software tech stacks have evolved, adopting the hourly pricing model might mean leaving money on the table. Let's tease this out this with a very straightforward example.

In the past, bookkeepers manually entered expense receipts, which, let’s say, took 4 hours per month. However, these days, optical character recognition (OCR) tech scans receipts and uploads all the vital information in less than an hour. Your client's result is the same, but you’re down three monthly work hours.

Another thing to think about is that hourly work is not scalable. You’re limited by the hours you have each day. If you want to grow your revenues, you need to add employees.

Flat fee pricing

Flat-fee pricing allows a more granular billing approach. It involves sketching out the different services you offer and charging fixed prices based on these services. For example, you might charge:

• $500 for basic bookkeeping
• $300 for tax preparation
• $200 for financial statements
• $400 for payroll

Your clients can mix and match each service based on their particular needs. Of course, charging a flat fee has one obvious flaw: businesses have different needs.

Let’s say you offer payroll bookkeeping for $400. What happens if your client expands from 10 to 50 staff? You can’t do five times the work for the same price. The solution is to build usage limits into each service and use the flat fee as a base price that is capped at, say, 15 employees and rises based on extra resource use.

The best part of flat fee pricing is that it’s amenable to subscription billing. However, you must clarify how much each fee allows your clients to ward off the all-too-familiar scope creep.

Tiered pricing

Tiered pricing is another way to offer a subscription-type service. Instead of usage-based flat fee pricing, a tiered pricing model segments your target audience based on their needs and budgets.

The tiered pricing model is standard in SaaS. This approach's benefits include predictable monthly revenue, better targeting, and a clear value proposition. Bookkeepers can productize their services by telling clients what they can get at different tiers.

A tiered pricing model offers clients choice, transparency, and the ability to scale while also facilitating easy cost control.

In recent years, businesses outside of the SaaS community have moved towards productized subscription services because they benefit both themselves and their clients.

Value-based pricing

Value-based pricing focuses on the benefits your service can bring to the client. Instead of using your costs + profits or competitors' prices as your benchmark, you set your fee based on the value you can provide to your client.

In a bookkeeping context, value-based pricing could involve offering additional services, such as financial advisory, domain expertise, or even fees based on achieving particular goals or outcomes.

Implementing booking pricing packages like this won’t work for everyone. It relies upon providing strategic advice that can help your client save money, grow revenues, or even leverage your expertise to navigate choppy regulatory waters. However, the benefit is that you can charge clients for this premium service and develop meaningful and profitable long-term relationships.

Next, we’ll look at how you can build a three-tiered bookkeeping pricing package.

2. Creating a basic bookkeeping package

A basic bookkeeping package is the first and most straightforward. These packages focus on small clients with basic bookkeeping needs.

Target audience:

• Sole proprietors
• Freelancers
• New startups
• Small businesses with simple bookkeeping requirements

Services offered:

• Recording transactions
• Data entry
• Reconciling banks and credit cards
• Basic profit and loss and balance sheet reports
• Annual or quarterly bookkeeping reports

Example of a basic bookkeeping package

CWM Tax Services offers a range of different packages to suit customers of every size. Their Starter package costs $400 per month and provides monthly reports and reconciliation for up to two bank accounts and 100 transactions. Adding AP and AR requires paying for the Small Business or Growing Business tiers. 

3. Creating an advanced bookkeeping package

Advanced bookkeeping packages target a larger client profile. While the businesses that use these services would still be considered small, they typically have more complex needs. For example, startups trying to access funding, or businesses with a lot of transactions.

Target audience:

• Growing small businesses and startups
• Early stage scaleups
• Businesses with more complex needs
• Startups that need financial advice

Services offered:

Everything in the Basic service plan, plus:

• Accounts payable
• Accounts receivable
• Sales tax preparation and filing
• Cash flow forecast
• Budgeting forecast
• Customized financial reporting

Example of an advanced booking package

Bench offers its users two bookkeeping package tiers: Essential and Premium.

Their Essential package comes in at $299 per month and offers users a range of financial reports and monthly and year-end bookkeeping, alongside access to a dedicated bookkeeping expert. If you want to add annual income tax filing, you need to spring for the $499 per month Premium package.

4. Creating a full-service bookkeeping package 

Full-service bookkeeping services go beyond basic accounting. The services offered here include managing the general ledger, reconciling accounts, AP and AR, payroll processing and management, tax compliance, and more.

Target audience:

• Established businesses are outsourcing their bookkeeping
• Businesses that need specialist financial management and support
• Firms who need expert financial advice

Services offered:

Everything in the Basic service plan, plus:

• Tax return preparation
• Tax filing
• Payroll preparation and processing
• Year-end accounts management
• Financial consulting
• Strategic advice

Example of a full-service bookkeeping package

If you need a real-world example of a full-service bookkeeping package, look no further than Block Advisors. Their full-service bookkeeping package gives their users access to a dedicated accountant, custom financial statements, and an up-to-the-minute review of their annual books.

Full-service bookkeeping prices start at $175 per month. However, if you want to add things like expense tracking, inventory management, sales tax filing, you need the premium service, which starts at $299 per month.

 As you can see, bookkeeping service packages are built to appeal to companies of different sizes and needs. So, think about your target audience and how the services you offer can align with their requirements.

5. Presenting your pricing packages

Once you’ve built out your bookkeeping pricing packages, it’s time to think about how you communicate your value proposition to your clients.

The first thing to think about is clarity. You need to be able to demonstrate your packages and offers so that your potential clients understand them right away. Visual presentation is important here, so spend time on your website landing page to ensure it converts.

6. Create a website

There are many ways to attract clients for your bookkeeping service, such as through freelance work platforms, LinkedIn, in-person networking, and PPC ads. However, all of these acquisition channels should funnel toward one place: your website.

Having a quality bookkeeping website gives you bookkeeping form more credibility. Pushing your prospects towards a high-quality, professional website is a good start. However, specific, targeted landing pages can lead to even greater conversions.

Either way, one of the most critical parts of your website is the “Pricing” section. Many users will go straight to this section, so it’s important to make it clean and clear. Make the prices transparent and create frames for each package that outline what your users can expect when they sign up.

If you need some inspiration on how to do an accounting firm website the right way, check out these examples here.

7. Integrate with a client portal like Copilot

Setting packages and covering prospects is a huge part of any client acquisition strategy. However, if you sell subscription packages of any kind, you’ll soon realize that client retention is just as, if not more, necessary.

So, if you want to avoid customer churn, you need smooth operations and an excellent client experience. Bookkeeping client portal software like Copilot was built to provide that.

Client portals are an efficient way to centralize all your client communications. Thanks to secure file sharing and document uploading, your clients can feel comfortable sharing receipts and personal financial documents. Moreover, Copilot also integrates with a wide range of popular bookkeeping and accounting software, meaning you can build it around your existing software stack.

Finally, Copilot allows you to create proposals, forms, and contracts thanks to various highly customizable templates. You can use them to automate onboarding, sign client agreements, and generate accounts receivables invoices if it’s a service your clients need.

Conclusion

With new businesses and startups launching daily, bookkeeping is more crucial than ever. Automation has eliminated much of the data entry and repetitive work involved in the profession. These technological advances mean that modern bookkeepers are able to focus on more strategic work, providing additional value to their clients.

However, it’s worth remembering that bookkeeping is a competitive space. In many ways, there are limited points of difference between service providers. As a result, many people end up competing on price. While that can work in specific markets, competing on service is how you both get and hold onto clients.

Copilot’s client portal software was designed to elevate client experiences and ensure you can easily manage your customers and projects. It’s flexible, integrates with a wide range of software, and can be customized around your unique needs.

Start a free trial today to take your bookkeeping business to the next level.