If you’re starting in bookkeeping or opening your own business, you’ll need to understand how much to charge as a bookkeeper.
As with all discussions of pricing, there is no definitive answer to this question, but rather a pricing scale predicated on a variety of factors including:
- The type of service (or services) you’re offering.
- The nature of the job; whether ongoing and deep or quick and cursory.
- Fixed or hourly rates.
- Your experience, education, accreditation, and skillset.
- Type of client.
- Competitive landscape.
You’ll find a large range of prices based on these variables. Typically, industry professionals who charge the most are usually experienced, offer niche services, have a deep range of accreditations, or can offer a large range of business advice in a single package.
Bookkeeping rates in Australia
So, what do bookkeepers charge? Again, this figure can vary wildly depending on the nature of the service, and the experience and competence of the bookkeeper, but in Australia as of 2023, you’ll generally see basic bookkeeping rates in the $30-$40 per hour range. Note the term ‘basic’. This generally applies to simple bookkeeping. If you are also a registered BAS agent, for example, this figure jumps considerably.
According to SEEK, the average salary for a bookkeeper is $65k – $75k per year. However, for senior bookkeepers with a larger range of duties and accreditations, this figure can be higher, in the $100k+ territory.
Indeed, by owning your own bookkeeping or advisory business and offering more niche or complicated services, it’s certainly possible to earn more as a bookkeeper. By expanding into accounting, business advisory, payroll or BAS – and by picking up larger clients, you can certainly earn quite well.
How much does a bookkeeper charge?
A great place to start when trying to figure out your bookkeeper fees, such as hourly billing or a flat fee is to do some rigorous competitor research.
Sometimes, a competitor offering similar services in a similar location will advertise their rates openly. Other times, you may even want to send a pricing request to other bookkeepers to discover their going rates. There are plenty of online ‘finders’ or comparison sites which collect bids for bookkeeping work, of various scopes, that could be helpful as well.
While you want to earn as much as you can for your work, you should also be aware of being competitive and not sitting too far outside the currently acceptable pricing range for each type of service you offer.
Of course, how much you charge also depends on the size of your client’s business—small businesses with one employee and a simple structure should be charged less than a large and complex company.
Ways bookkeepers charge
You have a few options when it comes to how to charge for your services. You could use one, or a mix of, fixed price, subscription, or hourly rates. Again, look to the wider market and other bookkeepers to get some ideas. Whatever you choose, be sure you have enough of a profit margin to remain viable.
1. Fixed price
You can choose to offer individual services (or packages of services) for a fixed rate/flat fee. For example, you may charge a flat fee for tax returns or BAS preparation. You could also easily charge a fixed fee for regular bookkeeping duties that take around the same amount of time in every instance.
2. Subscription
You can also extend your fixed price offering by making it an ongoing subscription. This way you have more stability and predictability in your fixed rate earnings, while also helping clients by providing an ongoing ‘set and forget’ bookkeeping service.
3. Hourly rate
Of course, you can also choose to go with an hourly rate for a given job. This is also a common and broadly acceptable way to charge for your services, especially when the task can vary in scope and time taken. Hourly billing suits more complex and variable tasks, as it may be hard to pin down a fixed rate for the service.
Charge different rates for various services
You should also consider charging different rates for different services. Doing payroll for a large company, preparing BAS, and providing more advanced support or advisory services, should certainly attract higher rates than simple data entry bookkeeping duties or tax returns. These simple and light-duty bookkeeping tasks should be on the cheaper side. Keep competitive and relevant to the task, but also be mindful of your profit margin.
How to charge more as an advisor or bookkeeper
Generally, to charge higher fees, you’d look to focus on providing more complex and value-adding services while targeting larger clients.
There are of course multiple revenue streams you can draw upon by offering a diverse range of bookkeeping or advisory services to the market. You may find that being a one-stop shop for all bookkeeping matters will help you charge more by being a single source of truth across a variety of service types.
Some of these more advanced duties will attract better rates, but may also require more education, accreditation, and experience on your part. Becoming a BAS agent, for example, takes time and effort.
On top of basic bookkeeping duties, think about offering higher value-add services. Bookkeepers charge more for:
- Tax preparation and advisory.
- BAS lodging by becoming a registered BAS agent.
- Accounting software consulting and education.
- Payroll processing.
- GST services.
- Complex financial reporting and statement creation.
- Cash flow analysis and advice.
- Budgeting and forecasting.
- Invoicing and quoting.
- Virtual office administration.
- Business process and workflow.
