What is a bookkeeping pricing template?

A bookkeeping pricing template is your firm's price list in a form you can reuse: the packages you offer, what each one includes, what it costs at different client sizes, and the price of everything that isn't included. You build it once, send it before or after a discovery call, and update it once a year.

Most free templates are a blank spreadsheet with rows for services, quantities, and prices. The hard part is the numbers, and that's what the builder above helps with. It suggests a price for every package at every volume from your own hourly rate, shows what each price earns you per hour, and lets you change anything.

What a complete price list includes

• Monthly packages, usually three, priced by how many transactions the client has each month
• What each package includes: services, reports, how fast you reply, how often you meet, and how often the books are updated
• Add-ons with a unit price: extra accounts, payroll, sales tax returns, Forms 1099, year-end work for the CPA
• One-time fees: setup and onboarding, and catch-up for months that are behind
• The rules that change the price: accounts included, volume above the band, cash or accrual books
• Terms: how you bill, any prepay discount, and how long the prices are valid

Price list, proposal, or engagement letter?

The three work together. Your price list sets the numbers, the proposal applies them to one client, and the engagement letter makes them binding, including the transaction limit and the price for extra volume.

How to use the pricing template

1. Fill in your firm name, phone, and email. They go at the top of the price sheet.
2. Set your hourly rate and minimum fee under "How you price." If you don't know your rate yet, work it out with the steps below.
3. Choose the clients you mostly serve and whether your prices assume cash or accrual books. Restaurants, retail, and construction take more time per transaction.
4. Check the four transaction bands under "Price grid." The prices fill in automatically. Type over any price you want to set yourself.
5. Decide what each package includes: tick the services and set the response time, calls, and update frequency.
6. Switch on the add-ons you offer, set their prices, and add any services of your own.
7. Read the pricing check under the sheet. It shows what each band earns you per hour and flags prices below your rate.
8. Download Excel, Word, or PDF. The Excel file has a client-ready price sheet and a calculator tab with working formulas you can keep using.

Everything is saved in your browser, so next year you open the page, change the numbers, and download again. To quote one client, use "Use these prices in a proposal" and the proposal builder calculates their packages with the same formula.

Step 1: Know the hourly rate you need

You'll charge clients a monthly fee, but every fee should still earn a known hourly rate, or you won't notice when a client quietly costs you money. Your rate has to cover more than your pay: software, insurance, training, the hours you can't bill, and self-employment tax.

Self-employment tax is 15.3% (12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare), applied to 92.35% of your net earnings, so it works out to about 14% of what you earn. In 2026 the Social Security part stops at $184,500 of earnings.

A worked example

The billable hours are the number most people get wrong. Client emails, sales calls, admin, and learning new software don't bill, so a 40-hour week rarely has more than 25 to 30 billable hours in it. Use your own figure.

Two numbers you'll see online, and why they're not your rate: the median employed bookkeeping clerk earned $24.36 an hour in 2025 (BLS), and Upwork lists an average of $43 an hour for bookkeeping services (NerdWallet). The first is a wage paid by an employer who also covers the office, software, and taxes. The second is what freelancers ask on a marketplace. Neither includes a firm's costs or profit.

In the builder, enter the result under How you price → Your hourly rate. At $78 an hour, a client with 250 transactions a month and three accounts comes out at $550, $875, and $1,375 for the three packages.

Step 2: Price by transaction volume

Transactions are the best single measure of how long a client takes each month: every one has to be categorized, matched, and reconciled. They're also something you can check before you quote. Ask for three recent months of bank and card statements, count the lines, and you know which band the client is in.

How the builder estimates the time

The builder assumes about 3 hours a month for the close, review, and reports, plus 1.2 hours for every 100 transactions and half an hour for each account after the first. That's a starting assumption, not a published standard, so time your own clients for a few months and adjust your prices to match.

Karbon, a practice management company, suggests a similar split by time: small clients under 10 hours a month, medium ones from 10 to 20, and large ones over 20. Whichever you use, keep it to three to five bands, so the price list stays easy to read.

What happens when a client goes over the band

Volume grows, and a price list needs a rule for it. The builder sets a price for each extra 50 transactions (at $65 an hour, $40). Pair it with a trigger in your engagement letter, so a client who grows moves up a band instead of getting free work.

Accounts included

Each bank, card, or loan account adds a reconciliation. The builder includes three accounts in every package and prices extras separately (at $65 an hour, $35 a month each). Payment processors such as Stripe, Square, and PayPal add work too, so count them when you check the statements.

Step 3: Build three packages clients can tell apart

Three packages give clients a choice between your prices instead of a yes-or-no decision. The middle package is meant to be the natural choice for most clients, which is why the builder marks it "Most popular." Packages only work if the difference between them is easy to see.

Ryan Lazanis, who ran a bookkeeping and accounting firm before founding Future Firm, builds packages from three parts: the services (what you do), the support (how fast and how often the client reaches you), and the technology the client uses. Support is what many firms forget. His example response times are five days for the basic plan, two days for the middle, and same day for the top.

These are the builder's defaults. Change any of them to match how you actually work, and don't promise a response time you can't keep in your busiest month.

How far apart the prices should be

Make the jump to the top package bigger than the jump to the middle one. The builder starts at 1.6 times Package 1 for Package 2 and 2.5 times for Package 3, so at 250 transactions and $65 an hour the prices are $450, $725, and $1,150. A top package that's only a little more expensive makes clients question the middle one.

Keep unlimited access for the top package

Lazanis writes that when he started his firm, he included unlimited support in a $275 plan and learned it was far too cheap. If you offer unlimited questions or a direct line, put it only in the top package and price it for the time it takes.

Name the packages for the client

Step 4: Price add-ons and one-time work

Anything that isn't in a package needs its own price on the list. Otherwise every "can you also..." becomes a negotiation, or free work. There's no reliable public survey of add-on prices, so price each one from the time it takes you, using your hourly rate.

Setup and catch-up are one-time fees

Never fold catch-up work into the monthly fee. It hides the real cost, and the client pays it again every month after the books are current. Look at the books, then quote the months that are behind as a separate project.

Two published prices to compare against: Merritt Bookkeeping charges $200 for each month behind, or $100 for months that are mostly complete, and Bookkeeper360 starts onboarding and prior bookkeeping at $1,000 per project. The builder prices catch-up as a percentage of the client's Package 1 fee for each month behind (80% by default), so bigger clients pay more for each month.

Step 5: Check that every price is profitable

A price list can look fine and still lose money on one client size. Check each band two ways before you publish it.

1. What does it earn per hour?

Divide each monthly price by the hours that band takes. If it's below your rate, that band is underpriced. The pricing check under the builder does this for every band and marks the ones that fall short, which usually happens when you type in a lower price by hand.

2. Does it cover your costs with a margin?

If you have staff, work from their cost instead. Dream Firms, which advises and brokers accounting firms, suggests a floor price of hours × wage × 1.3 (for payroll taxes and overhead), divided by 0.30 for a 70% gross margin. Their example: 6 hours at $26 an hour comes to a floor of $680 a month. Future Firm's version is a gut check: add up the yearly hours and cost of everything in a package, then add a 50% margin.

Both are checks, not the way to set the price. Clients don't pay for your hours. They pay for accurate books, their time back, and fewer surprises at tax time. Use the checks to find the floor, and your packages to price above it.

What bookkeepers charge in 2026

Market data won't tell you your price, but it tells you whether you're far off. These are the figures we could verify at the source.

What online bookkeeping services charge

Clients compare you with national services they see advertised. Here's what their entry prices include, as listed on their own sites in September 2026.

Two things stand out. The lowest prices come with limits on size, basis, or human review, and the services that include a person for every client start around $250 to $400. Your price for a similar client can sit in that range and still be a better deal, which is the next section.

How to explain your price to clients

Sooner or later a client says they saw bookkeeping for $99. Don't argue about the number. Show what's behind it.

Compare like with like

• Who does the work. An entry plan may be software with limited human review. Your client gets a named person who knows their business.
• Limits. Entry plans are often cash basis only, capped by revenue or expenses, and charge extra for catch-up and onboarding.
• Response time and calls. Your packages spell them out. Ask the client to check what the cheaper plan promises.
• Continuity. Bench, one of the best-known online services, shut its platform down without warning on December 27, 2024, before being acquired by Employer.com and relaunched in January 2025. Clients remember that.

Compare with hiring someone

An employed bookkeeping clerk at the median wage earns $50,670 a year. The employer adds 7.65% for its share of Social Security and Medicare, which brings the cost to about $54,500, or about $4,500 a month, before benefits, software, training, and time off. Against that, a $725 package is an easy decision for most small businesses.

Hourly, fixed fee, or value pricing?

In practice most firms combine them: a fixed monthly fee for the packages, value pricing for the top package, and an hourly rate only for work outside the list. That's the structure the builder produces.

When and how to raise your prices

Review your price list once a year. In Ignition's 2025 benchmark, 80% of firms planned to raise prices in 2026, by an average of 5% to 10%, so a yearly increase is normal.

• Tie it to renewal. If your engagement letters run for 12 months, the new prices start with the new letter.
• Give written notice a month or two before the new price starts.
• Move clients who've outgrown their band when it happens, not at the next annual review.
• Change the "valid through" date on your price sheet, so everyone knows which list is current.

Rules to check before you publish your prices

PTIN for tax filings

The IRS requires a Preparer Tax Identification Number from anyone paid to prepare all or substantially all of a federal tax return. Forms W-2 and 1099 are on the IRS list of exceptions, and a bookkeeper who only organizes records for the client's tax preparer isn't a preparer. Payroll tax returns such as Form 941 aren't on the exceptions list, so if your price list includes preparing them, get a PTIN.

Sales tax on your fee

Hawaii, New Mexico, South Dakota, and West Virginia tax services by default, with exceptions. West Virginia exempts professional services such as those of CPAs, but that may not cover bookkeeping. If you work in one of these states, confirm with the state tax department before you set your prices.

Passing on card fees

Visa caps credit card surcharges at 3%. Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts ban them, Colorado and Oklahoma cap them at 2%, and card network rules don't allow surcharges on debit or prepaid cards anywhere. Autopay by bank transfer (ACH) avoids the question altogether.

Service names and titles

Only licensed CPAs and CPA firms may call themselves CPAs, and some states, such as Minnesota, also restrict titles like "accountant." Name your services for what they are: monthly bookkeeping, reconciliations, financial statement preparation. Don't list audits, reviews, or compilations unless you're licensed to perform them.

Common pricing mistakes

• Pricing by hours in the proposal. Clients compare hours. Quote packages, and keep hours for your own profit check.
• One price for every client. A client with 800 transactions and three entities isn't the same job as one with 60.
• No price for extra volume. Without an overage rule, growth turns into free work.
• Catch-up inside the monthly fee. Quote it separately, per month behind.
• Unlimited support in a cheap package. Keep it for the top package, priced for the time.
• Packages that differ only in price. Make the support and the services visibly different.
• Copying a template's example prices. They're usually made up. Start from your rate.
• Listing tax returns or audit work without the credentials. Some free templates include them.
• Never raising prices. Review the list every year.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. The end of hourly billing: Ignition's 2025 benchmark signals pricing shift for firms, Ignition
2. Ignition report shows shift in pricing for accounting firms, CPA Practice Advisor
3. Bookkeeping prices for small business: what to expect in 2026, NerdWallet
4. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook
5. Topic no. 554, Self-employment tax, Internal Revenue Service
6. What is the current maximum amount of taxable earnings for Social Security?, Social Security Administration
7. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer's Tax Guide (Social Security and Medicare rates), Internal Revenue Service
8. Maximize profit per client with this bookkeeping pricing template, Future Firm (Ryan Lazanis)
9. Bookkeeping pricing guide: how to price your services, Dream Firms
10. Bookkeeping services pricing guide, Karbon
11. Pricing, Pilot
12. Bookkeeping pricing packages and plans, Bench
13. Pricing, Bookkeeper360
14. Merritt Bookkeeping (pricing on home page), Merritt Bookkeeping
15. Bench Accounting, Wikipedia
16. Frequently asked questions: Do I need a PTIN?, Internal Revenue Service
17. 2026 Form 1099 changes: thresholds and new rules, TaxBandits
18. State-by-state guide to charging sales tax on services, Avalara
19. 2026 credit card surcharge laws by state, Nickel
20. Minnesota Statutes § 326A.10, Unlawful acts, Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes