What a bookkeeper costs in Vancouver, BC: per month and hourly for a small business (2026)

What a bookkeeper costs in Vancouver, BC in 2026: 13 firms' monthly prices, $150 to $750 to start, priced by your transactions per month.

In October 2026, a bookkeeping firm serving Vancouver and BC small businesses charges from $150 to $750 per month to start for monthly bookkeeping, on the pricing pages of the 13 firms we read (12 publish a price; Orbis quotes). The middle of those 12 starting prices is about $375. Ledger Logic's $350 plan is quarterly or yearly books with a tax return, so we count its monthly plan, $750. Most local firms price by how many transactions you have each month, so you can work out your own price from your bank statement: count the lines in a typical month and find your band in the table below. Four of the firms publish the day your books will be ready each month.

The median wage for a bookkeeper in British Columbia is CA$28.00 an hour, and for an accountant CA$40.00 an hour (Job Bank). A firm charges more than the wage, and the firms below say hourly bookkeepers in BC bill $45 to $150 an hour.

A BC business also has steps that a US online service may not do: BC PST returns to the Ministry of Finance, WorkSafeBC, and employer health tax. Ask about them before you sign, whoever you hire.

Firms with a BC address on their site

Firms that serve BC remotely, or don't say where they are

Prices are bare $ as each firm's page shows them; only Fluent Book labels its price CAD. All of these firms are Canadian, so read them as Canadian dollars. "Price per transaction" is our arithmetic: the plan's price divided by the top of its transaction band, so it's the lowest you'd pay per transaction on that plan. Fill the band and it's that; use half of it and it's double.

Local firms are more open about volume than the big online services. Five of the 13 publish a price for each transaction band (a sixth, Orbis, names its bands but quotes the price), and four publish a close day. Of six large US online services we checked on the same day, none published a price per transaction, and only one published a close day (what a bookkeeper costs). For US-based online services, which price in US dollars and don't mention BC PST, see online bookkeeping services, priced.

Hourly: wage vs what firms bill

Rows 3 and 4 are the firms' own claims about the market, not measured data. They sell flat monthly plans, so they have a reason to make hourly billing look expensive. Row 1 is the only measured figure: the wage, before a firm's overhead. A freelancer working on their own falls somewhere between the wage and the firms' hourly rates.

BC steps to ask about

1. PST returns. If you sell taxable goods or services in BC, your PST return goes to the BC Ministry of Finance, filed through eTaxBC, separately from GST to the CRA [5]. The month-end checklist has the BC steps.
2. WorkSafeBC and employer health tax, if you have staff.
3. PST on the bookkeeping itself: paused. BC's Budget 2026 would have added 7% PST to accounting services, including bookkeeping, from 1 October 2026 [17]. The Province paused that expansion "until the trade war is over", with no new date [18]. So today a BC bookkeeper charges you no PST on their fee. If the pause ends, expect 7% on top.
4. Who may sign what. In BC, anyone may offer bookkeeping, but only a licensed CPA may sign an audit, review or compilation report. See bookkeeper vs accountant.

Questions to ask a Vancouver bookkeeper

1. What does my monthly price cover: how many transactions, accounts and employees?
2. What day of the month will my books be closed?
3. Do you file my GST/HST and my BC PST returns, and WorkSafeBC?
4. Are my books in my own QuickBooks or Xero file, and what do I get if I leave?
5. What do you charge to catch up the months I'm behind?
6. Who reviews my books each month, and how do you catch errors before my accountant does?

How we collected this

On 2026-10-19 we read the pricing page of each firm in the tables, and its contact page for where it is, and Job Bank's wage figures for BC. We list only firms that publish a price; many Vancouver firms quote only after a call. Where a firm's page states its location, we say so. No firm paid to be listed, and nobody was contacted. Prices change, so check the date.

What to do next

If you're months behind, a catch-up comes first. We're setting up catch-up bookkeeping into your own QuickBooks or Xero file, at a fixed price per month behind, with the BC PST step built in, and we plan to publish our close day and error rate when it opens. Join the list.