Outsourced accounting has no single price. A sole proprietor with one bank account can get monthly books closed for a few hundred dollars, while a venture-backed startup with payroll in several states, revenue recognition questions and a board that wants forecasts can spend several thousand dollars a month before tax season starts. The question is less “what does it cost” than “what am I buying, and how is it priced.”
This guide breaks down the pricing models you will see in 2027, the ranges for bookkeeping, full-service accounting, fractional CFO work, tax preparation and offshore staff, and how those figures compare with hiring in-house. Every price below comes from a provider’s own published pricing page, and every wage figure comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Prices were checked in late 2026, so confirm current numbers with any provider before you sign.
Most outsourced accounting providers use one of four models, and many combine them: a flat monthly fee for recurring work, an hourly rate for advisory or cleanup, and a separate annual fee for tax returns.
Monthly Flat Fee
This is the most common model for small business bookkeeping. You pay a fixed amount each month for a defined scope, usually transaction categorization, bank and card reconciliations, and a monthly profit and loss statement and balance sheet. The fee is typically tiered by monthly expenses, number of accounts or general complexity. Xendoo, for example, lists plans at $395, $695 and $995 per month, with tiers set by monthly expenses (up to $50,000, $75,000 and $125,000) and the number of bank and card accounts (up to 4, 6 and 12). Annual billing lowers those to $355, $625 and $895 per month.
Hourly Billing
Hourly billing is common for freelancers, tax consulting, cleanup projects and specialist work. Upwork reports median hourly rates of $11 to $25 for experienced North American bookkeepers on its platform. At the other end, Pilot lists tax consulting starting at $250 per hour for single-member LLCs and $400 per hour for partnerships, S corporations and C corporations. Some firms package hours into monthly blocks: Remote Books Online lists dedicated plans of 40 hours for $1,400 ($35 per hour), 80 hours for $2,400 ($30 per hour) and 160 hours for $4,000 ($25 per hour).
Per-Transaction or Volume-Tiered Pricing
Few providers publish a true per-transaction rate. More often, transaction volume sets the tier you land in. 1-800Accountant describes its dedicated bookkeeping as starting at 75 monthly transactions, and Kruze Consulting rates its packages by “Transaction Volume Support” of low, medium or high. If a provider quotes by volume, ask how it counts a transaction (every bank line, or only items that need manual work) and what happens in a month when you exceed the tier.
Dedicated Staff or FTE Pricing
CPA firms and larger businesses often hire a dedicated offshore or nearshore staff member through a staffing provider and pay a monthly or hourly rate for a full-time seat. The provider handles hiring, payroll and equipment; you direct the work. We cover rates for this model in the offshore section below, and our list of top offshore accounting staffing companies compares the firms that offer it.
Outsourced Accounting Cost By Service
The table below collects published starting prices from provider pricing pages. Starting prices assume a simple business; most providers quote higher once volume, entities or add-ons enter the picture.
Service
Common Pricing Model
Published Examples
Typical Published Range
Small business bookkeeping
Monthly flat fee, tiered by expenses or accounts
Pilot Essentials $99/mo; Remote Books Online from $150/mo; Merritt Bookkeeping $250/mo; QuickBooks Live from $300/mo; Xendoo from $395/mo; Bookkeeper360 from $400/mo
About $100 to $1,000 per month
Startup or venture-backed bookkeeping
Monthly flat fee by complexity
Kruze Basic $650 to $850/mo; Kruze Founder Timesaver $850 to $1,500/mo
About $650 to $1,500+ per month
Bookkeeping plus tax bundle
Monthly fee billed annually
1-800Accountant Starter $299/mo; Business Complete $469/mo
About $300 to $500 per month
Fractional or virtual CFO
Monthly retainer
Bookkeeper360 from $1,600/mo; Pilot from $1,750/mo; Xendoo from $2,500/mo; Fully Accountable from $2,500/mo
About $1,600 to $5,250+ per month
Business tax return
Annual fee per entity
Pilot $1,000+ (LLC) to $2,450+ (C corp); Bookkeeper360 from $1,200; Xendoo from $1,295
About $1,000 to $2,500+ per year
Catch-up or cleanup
Per month behind or project fee
Merritt $100 to $200 per month behind; Xendoo from $295/mo; Bookkeeper360 from $1,000
Varies with months behind
Offshore dedicated staff for CPA firms
Hourly or monthly per full-time seat
Accountably staff accountant from about $11/hr, tax preparer from about $14/hr; MY-CPE from $11/hr
About $1,800 to $2,500 per month for entry-level seats
Small Business Bookkeeping
Published entry prices cluster between $100 and $400 per month. Pilot’s Essentials plan is listed at $99 per month for businesses with up to $100,000 in monthly expenses. Remote Books Online lists $150 per month for one bank account and $195 for two. Merritt Bookkeeping charges a flat $250 per month with no tiers. Intuit lists QuickBooks Live Full-Service Bookkeeping starting at $300 per month after an initial cleanup fee. Bookkeeper360 starts custom plans at $400 per month with a dedicated U.S.-based team.
The low end usually means cash-basis books, a fixed number of accounts and limited contact with your bookkeeper. Moving to accrual accounting, adding integrations or asking for weekly closes pushes the price up quickly.
Full-Service Accounting
Full-service plans add some combination of accrual books, payroll, bill pay, tax filing and regular calls with an accountant. 1-800Accountant lists its Business Complete plan at $469 per month billed annually, which includes a dedicated bookkeeper, one business tax return, payroll setup and quarterly estimated tax calculations. Kruze Consulting, which works with startups, publishes $650 to $850 per month for its Basic package and $850 to $1,500 per month for Founder Timesaver, with a separate one-time onboarding fee for each new entity.
Fractional Or Virtual CFO
Fractional CFO work is priced as a monthly retainer, and published starting points sit between about $1,600 and $2,500. Bookkeeper360 starts at $1,600 per month. Pilot lists CFO plans at $1,750, $3,150 and from $5,250 per month billed annually, with the tier set by meeting frequency. Xendoo offers a fractional CFO add-on from $2,500 per month for existing accounting clients, and Fully Accountable lists bespoke accounting and fractional CFO services starting at $2,500 per month. For a comparison of providers, see our guide to the best virtual CFO services.
Tax Preparation
Business tax returns are usually priced per entity per year. Pilot lists $1,000 and up for single-member LLCs, $2,000 and up for partnerships and S corporations, and $2,450 and up for C corporations, plus $250 to $500 for each additional state or city filing. Bookkeeper360 starts business returns at $1,200 and individual returns at $550. Xendoo lists annual federal and state returns with tax guidance from $1,295 per year and personal returns from $625.
Offshore Dedicated Staff For CPA Firms
CPA firms that add offshore capacity pay far less per hour than they would for a domestic hire, though they take on training and review work. Accountably, which places staff from India with U.S. CPA, EA and accounting firms, publishes starting rates of about $11 per hour for an entry-level staff accountant (roughly $1,800 to $2,500 per month) and about $14 per hour for a tax preparer (roughly $2,400 to $2,500 per month). Senior reviewers and managers are quoted on request. MY-CPE also lists full-time offshore staff starting at $11 per hour, with an extra $1 to $1.50 per hour for full overlap with a U.S. schedule.
What Drives The Price Up Or Down
Two businesses with the same revenue can get quotes that differ by thousands of dollars a year. These are the inputs providers use, based on what they list on their own pricing pages and quote forms.
Transaction volume and monthly expenses. This is the most common tier driver. Xendoo and Pilot set tiers by monthly expenses; Kruze and 1-800Accountant reference transaction volume.
Number of accounts. Each bank account, credit card and payment processor is another reconciliation. Remote Books Online and Xendoo both tie plan limits to account counts.
Entities. Each legal entity needs its own books and its own return. Kruze charges a one-time onboarding fee per new entity, and tax fees are almost always per entity.
Payroll. Running payroll or reconciling it adds cost. Bookkeeper360 lists payroll administration from $200 per month.
Sales tax and multistate filings. Bookkeeper360 lists sales tax from $125 per month, and Pilot charges $250 to $500 for each additional state income tax filing.
Cleanup and catch-up work. Books that are behind or wrong get fixed before the monthly fee starts. Merritt Bookkeeping charges $200 for each month behind (or $100 for nearly complete months), and Bookkeeper360 lists prior-period cleanup from $1,000.
Accounting basis and reporting depth. Cash basis is cheapest. Accrual accounting, revenue recognition, inventory, multiple currencies and class or department tracking all move you into higher tiers at firms like Kruze and Xendoo.
Software. Some providers include their own software; others work in your subscription. QuickBooks Online lists regular monthly prices of $38 (Simple Start), $85 (Essentials), $140 (Plus) and $340 (Advanced). Ask whether the software fee is included in the quote or billed to you separately.
How Outsourcing Compares With Hiring In-House
The BLS publishes wage data through its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program. The most recent figures available in late 2026 are for May 2025.
Applying those shares to the median wages gives a rough loaded cost. This is our own estimate, not a BLS figure:
Option
Annual Cost Estimate
Monthly Equivalent
Basis
In-house bookkeeper (median)
About $73,800
About $6,150
$50,670 median wage divided by 0.687 wage share
In-house accountant (median)
About $122,200
About $10,180
$83,680 median wage divided by 0.685 wage share
Outsourced small business bookkeeping
About $1,200 to $12,000
About $100 to $1,000
Published plan prices above
Outsourced bookkeeping plus fractional CFO
About $24,000 to $42,000+
About $2,000 to $3,500+
Bookkeeping plan plus a $1,600 to $2,500 CFO retainer
Those in-house figures also leave out recruiting, software seats, equipment and the time an owner spends managing the hire. On the other hand, an in-house employee works a full schedule and can handle tasks that fall outside a fixed outsourcing scope, such as chasing receivables, processing bills or answering vendor questions. If your business genuinely has 40 hours a week of finance work, an in-house hire can be the better value. If it has 10 hours a week, you are paying for idle capacity. We go deeper on this in our guide to outsourced vs in-house bookkeeping.
How To Budget For Outsourced Accounting In 2027
A practical way to build a budget is to price each layer separately rather than asking for one all-in number.
Count your inputs. List monthly expenses, bank and card accounts, payment processors, entities, employees on payroll and states where you file. These are the numbers every quote form asks for.
Price the recurring bookkeeping. Get at least three quotes at the same scope: same basis (cash or accrual), same close frequency, same reports.
Add one-time cleanup. If you are behind, ask for a written cleanup quote by month, and confirm it before the monthly plan starts.
Add tax as a separate annual line. Price each entity return, each state filing and owner returns.
Decide whether you need CFO work yet. Forecasting, budgeting and fundraising support are worth paying for when decisions depend on them. Many companies add a CFO retainer after bookkeeping is stable.
Also ask about billing terms. Several providers, including Pilot, Xendoo and 1-800Accountant, publish prices tied to annual billing or offer a discount for paying annually, while others such as Merritt Bookkeeping and Bookkeeper360 advertise no long-term contract.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is A Reasonable Monthly Price For Small Business Bookkeeping?
For a simple business, published starting prices run from about $100 to $400 per month. Businesses with higher expenses, more accounts or accrual reporting should expect $500 to $1,500 per month or more.
Is Tax Preparation Included In Monthly Bookkeeping?
Usually not. Most providers price business returns as a separate annual fee per entity. Some bundles, such as 1-800Accountant’s Starter and Business Complete plans, include one business return.
How Much Does Catch-Up Bookkeeping Cost?
It depends on how many months are behind and how messy they are. Published examples include $100 to $200 per month behind at Merritt Bookkeeping and cleanup projects from $1,000 at Bookkeeper360.
When Does A Fractional CFO Make Sense?
When you need forecasts, budgets, cash planning or fundraising support, and a full-time CFO would be underused. Published retainers start around $1,600 to $2,500 per month, well below the BLS median for a full-time accountant once benefits are added.
Why Are Offshore Accounting Rates So Much Lower?
Labor costs in markets such as India are lower than in the U.S. The trade-off is that the hiring firm usually supplies training, review and process documentation, so the true cost includes the time your senior staff spend supervising.
Conclusion
For most small businesses in 2027, outsourced bookkeeping will cost somewhere between $100 and $1,000 per month, tax returns will add $1,000 to $2,500 or more per entity each year, and fractional CFO support will add $1,600 to $5,000 or more per month when you need it. Compared with the loaded cost of a median in-house bookkeeper, roughly $74,000 a year based on BLS data, outsourcing is usually cheaper until the workload reaches full-time levels.
The best way to get an accurate number is to count your accounts, entities, payroll and filing obligations, then request written quotes at the same scope from several providers. Ask what is excluded, how overages are handled and whether the price depends on annual billing.
