How much does a bookkeeper cost? 6 small business bookkeeping services priced (October 2026)

How much does a bookkeeper cost? Six small business bookkeeping services cost US$99 to $750 a month to start (Oct 2026). Prices from their own pages.

An online bookkeeping service for a small business costs from US$99 a month (Pilot) to $750 a month (inDinero) to start, as of 2026-10-19. That's US$1,188 to $9,000 a year. If you'd rather close the books yourself (sort and check each month's transactions so your reports are final) with bookkeeping software, it costs US$30 to US$65 a month. That's six companies and seven plans. Each price is as the page showed it by default. Pilot, Bookkeeper360 and Puzzle offer both monthly and annual billing, and the annual price may differ. We read every price on the company's own pricing page on 2026-10-19, and each one links to that page.

Bookkeeping pricing is the easy part to compare. What you can't compare is what you get for it. Only one of the six publishes the day your books will be closed. None publishes an error rate or a price per transaction. Two promise "accurate books" without saying what that promise covers. So the end of this page lists the questions to ask a bookkeeper before you sign, so their answers line up side by side.

Pilot, Puzzle and Digits list their prices in US dollars, marked US$ here. QuickBooks Live, Bookkeeper360 and inDinero show a bare $ and don't say which dollar. All six are US companies.

Bookkeeping services: someone else does the books

Pilot's Custom plan reports on the 6th business day, but its price isn't published. Pilot Essentials covers up to US$100,000 in monthly expenses. None of the others publishes how much volume its starting price covers, so ask what your monthly price covers.

Bookkeeping software: you close the books yourself

Software costs about a tenth to a fifth (10% to 22%) of a service with a human bookkeeper: US$360 to US$780 a year, against US$3,588 for Pilot Core. The difference is your own time each month, and neither software company publishes how much of it you'll need.

Your first-year cost

Your first year costs 12 times the monthly price, plus catch-up if you're behind. Here is a plan with a person reviewing your books, for an owner who is 6 months behind:

A first year with a person reviewing your books starts at about $3,600 before catch-up. Bookkeeper360 is the only one of the four that publishes enough to put a floor under the whole year: from $5,800. Its page doesn't say whether the $1,000 grows with how far behind you are.

What you'd pay

1. You want it off your plate and your books are simple: US$99 a month (Pilot Essentials). The work is done by AI, not a person. You get answers in the app, but no bookkeeper reviews your books.
2. You want a person reviewing your books: about $300 a month. Pilot Core costs US$299, and QuickBooks Live costs $300. Pilot tells you your reports arrive by the 10th business day. QuickBooks Live doesn't say when.
3. You want a team, weekly closes or accrual books: $400 to $750 a month and up (Bookkeeper360, inDinero).
4. You'll do the close yourself: US$30 to US$65 a month (Puzzle, Digits). Puzzle promises you'll "close your books 50% faster - or your money back". We didn't read the terms of that promise.
5. You're months behind: catch-up is priced separately. Two of the six publish a catch-up price: Puzzle charges from US$300 for each month of books, and Bookkeeper360 starts at $1,000, one-time. QuickBooks Live adds a cleanup fee but doesn't publish what it costs.

What none of them publishes

What bookkeeping services cost is published. How well they do the job isn't.

Questions to ask a bookkeeper before you sign

Ask for each answer in writing, so you can line two bookkeepers up side by side:

1. What day of the month will my books be closed? Ask for the business day, not "monthly".
2. How often do you get a transaction wrong, and what happens when you do? If they say "accuracy guaranteed", ask what the guarantee pays for and how you claim it.
3. What does my monthly price cover? Ask how many transactions or how much spending, and what it costs when you go over.
4. Who does the work: a person, AI, or both? And who reviews it before you see it?
5. How fast do you answer a question, and how? In the app, by email, or by phone?
6. What does catching up cost if I'm behind?
7. If I leave, what do I get, and in what format? Make sure your books can move to another bookkeeper without starting over.

How we collected this

On 2026-10-19 we read each company's own pricing page and recorded each price, what it covers, the close date, any accuracy figure or guarantee, and support, with the URL and the date. Where a page says nothing, the record says "not published", and so does this page. We read the pricing pages only. A help article or a contract may say more, and if one does, tell us and we'll add it with its date. Prices change, so each row carries the date it was read. No company paid to be listed, and nobody was contacted.

What to do next

The next problem is choosing between the answers you get, and then switching without losing a month of books. If you're months behind, that switch starts with a catch-up. We're setting up catch-up bookkeeping into your own QuickBooks or Xero file, at a fixed price per month behind, opening once we sort out the tech. Join the list.