Before we give you a price, you need to understand how pricing actually works.

Most bookkeeping firms quote an hourly rate or a random flat rate before they know anything about your business. Those numbers means very little. It is either too low and they make it up later or too high because they guessed at complexity they never actually measured.

We do not quote until we understand your books. Pricing Is Custom Because Every Business Is Different.

Two businesses with the same revenue can require completely different levels of work. A business with clean records, one bank account, and straightforward transactions costs less to maintain than one with multiple accounts, payment platforms, and mixed activity. Revenue does not set your price. Complexity does.

Here is what actually drives your monthly cost.

The Main Factors That Impact Price

1. Transaction Volume

How busy are your accounting records? The more transactions, the more time we spend reviewing, categorizing, and reconciling. A business with 75 transactions per month is very different than one with 350 transactions per month.

2. Number of accounts

Each account adds complexity:

• bank accounts
• credit cards
• loans
• lines of credit

More accounts = more reconciliations and more chances for errors.

3. How money moves through your business

Some activities require more work to organize:

• heavy credit card usage
• payment apps (Stripe, PayPal, etc.)
• writing checks

The more movement, the more time it takes to organize accurately.

4. Merchant accounts and payment platforms

Multiple platforms each come with their own reporting, timing differences, and fees to match. Every platform we reconcile adds to the scope.

5. Revenue (as a measure for complexity)

Revenue doesn’t set price, but it usually reflects how active and complex the business is.

6. Accounts receivable support

If we help track invoices and apply payments, that adds work:

• matching payments to open invoices
• keeping receivables clean and accurate
• flagging open and overdue invoices

7. Accounts payable support

If we help manage bills, that expands the scope:

• tracking due dates
• organizing vendors
• supporting payment workflows

8. Payroll structure and complexity

Payroll can vary widely—and it matters. We look at several pieces to your payroll setup:

• Are you using QuickBooks Online Payroll or an outside provider?
• Does payroll need to be mapped and maintained in QuickBooks?
• Is everything clean, direct deposit, or does it involve manual elements?
• Are 1099 contractors included in your payroll workflow?

The more complex the setup, the more time it takes to ensure payroll flows correctly into your financials.

9. Tracking by job, location, or class

If you want profitability broken down by job, location, or department, we have to build and maintain that structure every single month. Being consistent ensures you can use the data over time to see the trends and profitability you’re looking for. More detailed reporting requires more detailed bookkeeping.

10. Advisory and Reviewing Your Financial Reports

If you want ongoing guidance and advice around your numbers, that increases involvement. More meetings = more time spent reviewing, explaining, and helping you make decisions.

Here’s a real example of how pricing factors affected a small business

A web consulting client came to us with what appeared to be a straightforward setup. When we got into the books we found two significant problems. Loan payments had been logged as expenses and were showing up on the profit and loss statement. They should have been applied against a liability on the balance sheet with only the interest deducted. On top of that, a credit card was not connected in real time inside QuickBooks. Only the payments were being recorded as a general expense instead of being routed to the actual credit card balance in the bank register. The credit card activity itself was missing entirely.

Both errors were directly affecting net income and liability balances. When we explained what we found, the client understood immediately. The scope changed. The price changed. And they were completely agreeable because the numbers told the story for us.

That is why we review before we quote. A price without context is not a price. It is a guess.