How much does bookkeeping cost for one company with 25 to 50 staff? An outside firm charges about $1,000 to $2,500 a month in 2026. Simpler businesses pay $500 to $700, and the fee passes $2,500 when the firm also runs payables, receivables and payroll. Each additional company adds roughly half to three-quarters of the first fee, because every QuickBooks file needs its own reconciliations and its own close. An in-house bookkeeper earns about $49,200 a year at the national median before taxes and benefits. The price matters less than what it buys: which accounts are reconciled, which reports arrive, and by what day of the month.
The published ranges, and who publishes them
Almost every page that answers this question is written by a bookkeeping firm quoting itself, so the ranges are wide and the incentives are visible. Two sources are at least surveying other people.
NerdWallet's guide, updated in March 2026, puts online bookkeeping services at $200 to $700 or more a month, with basic plans at $250 to $350, mid-range at $500 to $700 and premium at $1,000 and up. It cites the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2024 median pay for a bookkeeper at $23.66 an hour, or $49,210 a year, and says small businesses "should expect to pay around $300 or more each month".
Relay's pricing guide from February 2026 surveyed bookkeeping firms about what they charge. Hourly rates run $30 to $90. Retainers run $300 to $2,500 a month, and the most common bracket is $250 to $499, which 29 percent of firms sit in. Businesses with $500,000 to $2 million in revenue pay $1,000 to $2,500 a month. Multi-entity work and anything with CFO advice attached starts at $2,500. Relay also found 80 percent of firms planning to raise fees by 5 to 10 percent this year.
The $300 figure is the one most owners have in their head, and it describes a business with one bank account and a few hundred transactions. A 30-person company has payroll, three or four cards, a loan or two, and usually sales tax. It is the $1,000 to $2,500 case, and if you own more than one company, it is the $2,500-and-up case.
What moves the price
Bookkeeping firms price on volume and complexity. The drivers are the number of transactions a month, the number of bank, card and loan accounts to reconcile, whether the firm runs payroll, whether there is inventory or job costing, how many states you collect sales tax in, and the number of company files.
The last one is the one nobody prices out loud. A second QuickBooks Online file is a second set of bank reconciliations, a second close, a second set of questions, and a second software subscription. Firms know this and quote per entity, usually at a discount to the first because vendors, the owner and the monthly call are shared.
| One company | Two companies | Four companies | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly bookkeeping, typical range | $1,000 to $2,500 | $1,500 to $4,400 | $2,500 to $8,100 |
| QuickBooks Online Plus, March 2026 list price | $115 | $230 | $460 |
| Total a month | $1,115 to $2,615 | $1,730 to $4,630 | $2,960 to $8,560 |
The two- and four-company figures assume each extra file adds half to three-quarters of the first fee. Three files: a 38-person landscaping company, a small nursery that supplies it, and an LLC that holds the yard. Two firms quote. One says $2,850 a month for all three. The other says $1,400 for the landscaping company, $900 for the nursery and $450 for the property LLC, $2,750 in total. The second quote is lower and is the better one for a different reason: it says what each file costs, so when the nursery is sold next year the fee drops by a known amount.
What "included" has to mean
Common advice is to compare bookkeepers on the hourly rate. We would not, because the rate tells you nothing about what arrives or when. A $35-an-hour bookkeeper who reconciles quarterly is more expensive than a $90-an-hour one who closes by the 10th, once you count what the late months cost you.
Monthly close is the process of reconciling every account, posting the entries that belong to the month, and producing a P&L and balance sheet that will not change afterward. Ledge's 2025 survey of 100 finance teams found 94 percent still use Excel somewhere in the close and spend 20 to 50 hours a month on cash reconciliation alone, which is why the close is where fees are earned.
Reconciliation is matching every transaction in QuickBooks to the bank or card statement so the balances agree. An unreconciled account is an unverified one.
A fee for a business your size should include reconciliation of every bank, card and loan account by a set date each month; a close with a P&L and balance sheet delivered by the 10th or the 15th; transactions categorized, with a list of questions for you that stays under ten items; sales tax filed where you collect it; and 1099s in January. Payables, receivables and payroll are separate services and are priced that way. How long the close should take at this size is covered in how long should month-end close take, and it is the first thing to write into the engagement letter.
In-house or outsourced at this size
The BLS median for a bookkeeper is $49,210. Add the 29.9 percent that the Bureau's December 2025 compensation figures show private employers pay in taxes and benefits on top of wages and the loaded cost is about $64,000 a year, or $5,300 a month, before a desk and the QuickBooks seats.
For one company that is well above the outsourced range, so the outside firm wins. For three or four files the arithmetic changes: $2,500 to $8,100 a month outsourced against $5,300 in-house, and the in-house person also answers the phone and chases invoices. What you give up is backup when they are on vacation, a second pair of eyes on their work, and the firm's experience of what a file like yours should look like. We see plenty of three-company owners with an in-house bookkeeper who is good and completely unreviewed, and the file drifts for years before anyone notices. If you go in-house, someone outside still needs to look at the books, and a five-minute check of the file each month is the minimum.
Above the bookkeeper sits another price list. A fractional CFO, per Pilot's August 2025 guide, runs $3,000 to $12,000 a month, most often $5,000 to $8,000, and that is a different job from the one this piece prices. Where a bookkeeper stops and a CFO starts is laid out in AI CFO vs fractional CFO vs bookkeeper.
Cleanup and catch-up are priced separately
Catch-up bookkeeping is bringing months that were never closed up to date. Cleanup is fixing months closed wrong. Both are quoted apart from the monthly fee, and NerdWallet cites Bookkeeper360 at $1,000 and up for cleanup and onboarding, which is a floor, not an estimate.
Firms quote this separately because they cannot see how bad it is until they open the file. If a firm quotes a monthly fee without asking when the accounts were last reconciled, they have not looked. What a cleanup involves and what it should cost is the subject of QuickBooks cleanup cost and checklist.
Negotiating the per-entity price
The extra files are cheaper than the first for reasons you can name in the negotiation. Shared vendors mean one vendor list to maintain. One payroll provider across the group means one set of payroll entries to post. One monthly call covers three companies. A holding LLC with a mortgage, a rent receipt and twelve transactions a month should cost a fraction of the operating company.
What should not be discounted is the reconciliation. Every account in every file, every month. A firm that offers a lower per-entity price by reconciling the small companies quarterly is offering less, not a deal.
Navigator sits on the files the bookkeeper keeps, reads them read-only and shows the owner what changed since yesterday, per company and together, so the monthly close becomes something the owner reads rather than files. It does not replace the bookkeeper. Additional entities are half price, which is the same per-entity logic from the other side, and the tiers are on the pricing page.
Three questions before you sign
Ask who reconciles the accounts, by name, and by which day of the month. The answer tells you whether the close is a process or a person.
Ask when the reports arrive and what they look like. A firm that sends a P&L and balance sheet by the 15th, on the same basis every month, with the open questions listed, is delivering the thing you are paying for.
Ask what happens when you write back with "why did this change". The honest answer from most firms is that it takes a day or two and may be billed, which is fine if it is said up front. The fee tells you none of this. The engagement letter and the first three months can.
Questions owners ask
How much does bookkeeping cost per month?
NerdWallet's March 2026 guide puts basic service at $250 to $350 a month, mid-range at $500 to $700 and premium at $1,000 and up. Relay's February 2026 survey found the most common retainer between $250 and $499, with businesses in the $500,000 to $2 million range paying $1,000 to $2,500. At 25 to 50 staff, expect the upper half of those figures.
Is it cheaper to hire a bookkeeper or outsource?
For one company, outsourcing is usually cheaper: $12,000 to $30,000 a year against about $64,000 for an in-house bookkeeper at the $49,210 national median plus 30 percent for taxes and benefits. For three or four companies the in-house figure starts to compete, but you get one person with no backup and nobody reviewing their work.
How much should bookkeeping cost for two businesses?
About one and a half to one and three-quarter times the fee for one, so $1,500 to $4,400 a month where a single company would pay $1,000 to $2,500. The second file needs its own bank reconciliations and its own close. What it should not need is a second set of vendors, a second payroll setup or a second monthly call, and those are the places to negotiate.
What does a bookkeeping fee include?
It should include reconciling every bank, card and loan account monthly, categorizing transactions with a short list of questions for you, a closed P&L and balance sheet by an agreed date, sales tax filings if you collect it, and 1099s in January. Payroll, bill payment, invoicing and collections are usually priced separately, and cleanup of old months always is.
How much does a QuickBooks cleanup cost?
It is quoted apart from the monthly fee, usually as a one-time project. NerdWallet's March 2026 guide cites Bookkeeper360 at $1,000 and up for cleanup and onboarding. The cost depends on how many months are unreconciled and how many accounts there are, so a firm that quotes a cleanup without opening the file first is guessing.
Related
Once the fee is settled, the monthly conversation matters more than the price, and questions to ask your bookkeeper every month lists the ones that catch problems early. If the three files are supposed to add up to one business, consolidating multiple companies in QuickBooks Online explains what the bookkeeper can and cannot do about that. And a five-minute check of the QuickBooks file is how to tell whether you are getting what you pay for. If you run an accounting firm and are pricing this work for clients with several entities, client advisory services for multi-entity clients is written for you.
If you would like an outside read on whether the books you are paying for are actually closed, the free accounting health check takes a few minutes: navigatorhq.ai/health-check.
You're on the list.
The next post goes to . While you wait, the free Accounting Health Check scores your own books.
Published . Last updated . Reviewed by a CFO on the Navigator team.