Tools · cost calculator

What will monthly bookkeeping cost? An honest band, from published pricing.

Four inputs — transaction volume, accounts, payroll, and the extra lanes — placed inside our published $550–$1,800 monthly range. Never a single figure, never a market average, and the scoring is printed below the calculator so nothing is a black box.

Runs in your browser; nothing you enter leaves the page. The fee it estimates buys a reconciled monthly close — every account proven, reports delivered.

Published range only Scoring printed below

What moves the fee

Accounts = reconciliations

Each account is proven to its statement every month — the core of what the fee covers.

Volume & liability lanes

Transactions size the monthly pass; payroll and sales-tax lanes add prove-it accounts tied to filings.

Not your revenue

The work scales with activity, not income — pricing by revenue charges you for succeeding.

The math, in the open

Exactly how your inputs place the band.

Each answer scores points, the total picks a band, and every band sits inside the published $550–$1,800 monthly range.

Calculator drivers: the points each adds and why it moves the fee
Driver	Points	Why it moves the fee
Transaction volume	Light = 0 · Moderate = 1 · Heavy = 2	Sizes the categorization and matching pass inside every month.
Accounts	1–2 = 0 · 3–5 = 1 · 6+ = 2	Every account is its own monthly reconciliation — the proof the fee covers.
Payroll support	Yes = +1	Liability accounts tied to filings each cycle — prove-it standard, other parties involved.
Sales-tax / industry lanes	Yes = +1	POS tie-outs, job costing, per-property books — the lanes that make reports mean something.

The bands: 0–1 points → $550–$850/mo · 2–3 points → $800–$1,250/mo · 4+ points → $1,150–$1,800/mo. All three live inside the published range on the pricing page, and what the fee buys is the reconciled monthly close. Two honest notes: if your books first need repair, that's a one-time job with its own estimator (not sure which you need? the five-question cleanup quiz sorts it) — and the wider market's three pricing models, with real dated figures, are in our guide to what bookkeepers charge, including where cheaper models genuinely win.

FAQ · Updated October 2026

The estimate, explained.

Where does the calculator's monthly range come from?

From our own published pricing and nowhere else: our monthly bookkeeping runs from $550 within the published $550–$1,800 range, scoped to the file — the same figures our pricing page carries, dated and standing. The calculator's only job is placing your four inputs inside that band. It quotes no market averages, no competitor rates, and nothing our own pages don't already publish, because a calculator that invents numbers is a lead trap with arithmetic on top.

Why do transactions, accounts, and payroll drive the fee?

Because they're what the monthly work actually scales with. Every account is its own reconciliation each month — the proof step the fee pays for — so more accounts means more monthly proving. Transaction volume sizes the categorization and matching pass inside each account. Payroll support and sales-tax lanes add liability accounts that get tied to filings, where the standard is prove-it rather than approximately-right. What doesn't drive our fee: your revenue — the work scales with activity, not income.

What if my books need repair before monthly service can start?

Then two honest numbers exist, and this calculator only shows one of them. Monthly service maintains books that are current and correct; if yours are behind or drifted, a one-time repair comes first — that's the books-repair estimator's territory, with its own published $1,800–$6,000 band — and the monthly rhythm starts on repaired books. Not sure which side you're on? The scope quiz sorts it in five questions, and the free review sorts it definitively on your actual file.

Is the band a quote?

No — it's calibration, deliberately. The fixed number comes in writing after the free review, and it can land below the calculator's band: a genuinely simple file can sit at the from-$550 floor, and the review will also say honestly when what you need is less than full-service monthly work. What never happens: an hourly meter, a number that moves after work starts, or a fee that quietly grows with your revenue. One figure, in writing, before anything begins — the calculator just gets you to that conversation calibrated.

Do you see what I put into the calculator?

We can't — by design, there's no channel for it. The four answers exist only in your browser tab and vanish when you leave; there's no form submission behind the button, no storage, and no way for us to connect a result to a person. The whole of what we learn is an aggregate count of which bands get shown, which tells us whether the calculator deserves its place on the site. If you want us to know your situation, that's what booking the free review is — and it's a choice you make, not a default you'd have to find and untick.

Ready for the band to become one fixed number? The free assessment — your real file, read by us. All tools: the tools hub →

What will monthly bookkeeping cost? An honest band, from published pricing.

Four inputs, one honest band.

Exactly how your inputs place the band.

The estimate, explained.