How Much Does an Accountant Cost for Small Businesses?

Before you actually sit down with your bookkeeper to discuss any bookkeeping services fees, you will want to have a clear idea of what exactly you will be asking your bookkeeper to do. Some of the best small-business accounting software options include QuickBooks, Xero, and FreshBooks. It may be time to hire an accountant if you are seeking funding, in need of help preparing taxes, or in need of financial advice as you start or scale your small business. Even if you aren’t planning on growing any time soon, you need to have a sense of how much money is coming in versus what is going out. On top of that, you need the data used in bookkeeping to file your taxes accurately.

In this example, doing your own bookkeeping is more expensive than hiring a professional —  and a lot more expensive than using Keeper. It’s a better idea to have someone do it for you, since your time is more valuable elsewhere. You also have to think about the size of your business, not to mention its structure and complexity. We will go over the cost of all your bookkeeping options — and help you determine which one right for you. We will get to price ranges and examples below, but first, we should explain how we price our services.

Can I do my own bookkeeping for my business?

If you have been wondering, “How much does an accountant cost for a small business? We will provide you with everything you need to know about bookkeeping services for small business owners and small business accountant fees. Your business probably already uses tools and software to help keep your records and operations organized— adding in more applications to your tech stack can often cause more stress than it needs to. Whether you’re hiring in-house or outsourcing your bookkeeping, finding someone that has the right software tools to make finance management easy is important.

These services usually charge flat rates, which makes budgeting simple. Virtual bookkeepers are typically best for people who are just looking for a bookkeeper and don’t need full-service accounting help like payroll, budgeting, and forecasting. The primary difference between bookkeepers and accountants is the level of financial detail involved with the service provider. A bookkeeper deals with recording and organizing finances, including receipts and invoices.

What Does a Bookkeeper Do for Your Small Business?

Whether you do the bookkeeping yourself or hire someone to do it, certain elements are fundamental to properly maintaining the books. Some of these elements are done more regularly than others to ensure that the books are always up to date. Other elements are completed at certain time periods as necessary to complete a business task.

• The average accountant fees for small businesses and the average bookkeeping fees provided by a bookkeeper are outlined in the table below.
• While it’s still outsourcing, hiring a freelancer is much like hiring an employee for in-house services, but you don’t have to pay for any benefits or added costs aside from the cost of the services.
• But before you do, let’s look at some questions you should ask yourself before making the decision.
• Before you decide to hire a bookkeeper, you may be wondering what services you’ll be paying for.

At BELAY, we’ve provided remote services from all over the U.S. for 10 years. We work hard to evaluate the necessary tools and technologies that support remote work relationships while providing the key checks and balances needed in bookkeeping. At BELAY, our current length of service with our bookkeepers is 25 months – though we have many bookkeepers that have been How Much Do Bookkeeping Services for Small Businesses Cost? with us five years and more. If you’re a small-to-medium business, the thought of hiring a bookkeeper seems lofty at best, and decadently impossible at worst. Reasonable efforts have been made by AdvisoryHQ to present accurate information, however all info is presented without warranty. Also review each firm’s site for the most updated data, rates and info.

Basic Bookkeeping vs. Full Service Accounting

Typically, a CPA would be the one ultimately responsible for a company’s accounting policies and procedures, including bookkeeping methods, monitoring and reporting. If a company does not have a CPA, then those duties may fall to an accountant. As such, hiring a bookkeeper may be an affordable option for many small businesses.

In-house accounting, on the other hand, gives you peace of mind knowing that someone you know and trust is handling your books and financials. The only drawback of paying a full-time accountant is that you may need to offer them employee benefits. Bookkeeper salaries vary state by state (see our chart below), and depending on where you live, you could be paying a large difference in one place versus another. It depends on the level of services they provide, and a few other factors. Keep in mind that whatever you spend on an accountant, you’re saving in time and reducing your stress when it comes to your small business’ finances.

Full-service bookkeeping (and accounting)

If you fail to keep accurate monthly records throughout the year, a CPA won’t always provide them retroactively. And as we mentioned, without these records, you won’t know where your finances stand. We usually see this scenario with organizations that are growing and have revenue between $750k and $2million who employ between 10 and 20 people. For these growing organizations, we can https://quickbooks-payroll.org/ act as an outsourced accounting department either indefinitely, or until the business grows large enough to hire an internal accountant. In cases where the business grows into needing an internal accountant, we are there to help with training and transition to make sure things go smoothly. The bookkeeper is in charge of making sure that all transactions are recorded accurately.

• If the cost of paying a bookkeeper is a bit too steep, there is always the DIY bookkeeping option.
• A bookkeeper may try to hike up his or her bookkeeping service fees by telling you that your business needs new accounting software and super-detailed books.
• You can calculate the time spent on bookkeeping tasks and translate that into dollars.