Otherwise, you could wind up losing clients to other firms (and no bookkeeper wants that). Obviously, if you’re an employee working as an in-house bookkeeper, you can’t offer value pricing. You’re either going to be paid an hourly rate or a salary.

The thing that takes the most time with this client is the invoicing. They have a system outside of QuickBooks that is HIPPA compliant, which are the rules in the United States that you need to follow if you keep any medical information about your patients. This process could also involve a lengthy back-and-forth. Your accountant will need to fill in the gaps in your records — which means they’ll ask you to collect all your proof of purchases from the last year. If the cost is a significant deciding factor for you, here’s a way for you to determine whether it’s worth it. Neglect this side of your business, and you could end up missing out on savings — or landing in hot water with the IRS.

Bookkeeping Services

They have to pay so much more in social security, Medicare, worker’s compensation, and unemployment taxes for an employee. When you work for a company, and they give you a W-2, they are paying a bunch of money to have you working for them. One thing you need to be aware of is how many bank accounts your client has. Each bank account will take you significantly more time because you will have to look up the statements individually and reconcile them. A client with a higher income is going to be able to afford a higher price tag for a bookkeeper, and your workload will be quite a bit higher than a small or medium client. This is the benefit to charging based on a percentage of your client’s revenue.

And, you run your business instead of having your business run you. Whether you charge by the hour or offer a fixed fee, both are considered competitive pricing. Most bookkeepers who competitively price their services focus on tasks and time.

Overall stats of a small client

I find cleanup projects always take longer than the client expects. For example, a client with about $500k in revenue, she would charge $650 a month as a bookkeeper. This would be for the basic bookkeeping, reconciling, and bank accounts. Veronica Wasek from 5-Minute Bookkeeping https://www.bookstime.com/articles/how-much-does-bookkeeping-cost has a great pricing strategy. For her fixed-rate pricing, I believe she does the 1-3% for any clients that are $300k or below. For a client who’s revenue starts at $300k and goes up, she will insert a base of $400 and then add on any extra services they may need.

On the other hand, bookkeepers are the more affordable option. Whether you opt for basic bookkeeping or full-service bookkeeping and accounting, either option can help you be better prepared come tax season. When implementing fixed-fee or value-based billing, it’s easy to under or overestimate the time it will take you to complete a task. Having an open dialogue with clients about this when you’re first signing them can be a good idea to pre-empt adjustments down the line. Bundling services together in set packages is a good way to implement fixed-fee pricing. A common way to do this is by building a tiered system for different levels of service.