Bookkeeping Industry Benchmarks
Monthly bookkeeping fees swing from a few hundred dollars to several thousand depending on the client’s industry. Here is what each type of business actually pays, why the numbers move, and where the highest-value work sits.
The single biggest driver of a bookkeeping fee is not skill or location. It is the client’s industry, because industry decides transaction volume, the number of accounts to reconcile, sales tax exposure, inventory, and payroll complexity. A solo consultant with one bank account and 40 transactions a month is a different job from an ecommerce store running thousands of orders across Shopify, Stripe, and PayPal.
The table below sets a per-industry baseline for ongoing monthly bookkeeping, drawn from published 2025 and 2026 U.S. pricing data. Use it to sanity-check what you charge, or what you are being quoted.
Monthly bookkeeping fees by industry
| Client industry | Typical monthly fee | Midpoint | Fee index | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solo consultant / freelancer | $200–$500 | $350 | 47 | Low transaction count, one or two accounts |
| Single-member LLC | $300–$600 | $450 | 60 | Personal and business funds often mixed |
| Salon / spa / fitness | $400–$1,000 | $700 | 93 | Booth rent, memberships, mixed payment methods |
| Marketing / creative agency | $500–$1,200 | $850 | 113 | Project billing, contractor payments, deferred revenue |
| Professional services firm | $500–$1,500 | $1,000 | 133 | Payroll, accrual accounting, multi-bank |
| Trucking / logistics | $600–$1,400 | $1,000 | 133 | Per-truck costing, fuel, settlements, IFTA |
| Nonprofit | $600–$1,500 | $1,050 | 140 | Fund accounting, grant tracking, board reporting |
| Real estate / property mgmt | $600–$1,500 | $1,050 | 140 | Per-property tracking, owner statements, escrow |
| Law firm | $600–$1,500 | $1,050 | 140 | Trust / IOLTA accounting, three-way reconciliation |
| Medical / dental practice | $700–$1,500 | $1,100 | 147 | Insurance reimbursements, co-pays, multi-source revenue |
| Construction / contractor | $700–$1,500 | $1,100 | 147 | Job costing, progress billing, retainage, 1099s |
| Restaurant / bar | $700–$1,600 | $1,150 | 153 | Daily sales, POS integration, tips, food cost, payroll |
| Retail (brick & mortar) | $700–$1,800 | $1,250 | 167 | Inventory, sales tax, register reconciliation |
| SaaS / subscription | $800–$2,000 | $1,400 | 187 | Deferred revenue, MRR recognition, Stripe data |
| Ecommerce (single channel) | $1,000–$2,500 | $1,750 | 233 | High volume, platform fees, sales tax, COGS |
| Manufacturing / wholesale | $1,500–$3,500 | $2,500 | 333 | Inventory, COGS, multi-entity, costing |
| Ecommerce (multi-channel) | $2,000–$5,000+ | $3,500 | 467 | Inventory across platforms, multi-state sales tax |
| Multi-entity / holding co. | $2,500–$5,000+ | $3,750 | 500 | Intercompany entries, consolidation, controller review |
Reading the table: the midpoint is the middle of each industry’s typical range, and the fee index restates it against a mid-range service business set at 100. So an index of 233 means an ecommerce client pays about 2.3x what a typical service business pays, and 500 means a multi-entity client pays 5x. The index is the fastest way to see which client types are worth targeting for the same hours of work.
Why industry decides the fee
Four factors do most of the work, and every industry is just a different combination of them.
Transaction volume. This is the largest single driver. A business under 100 transactions a month sits in basic-tier pricing of roughly $150 to $250, the 100 to 500 band runs $300 to $600, and high-volume ecommerce climbs well past that. More transactions means more categorization and more reconciliation.
Number of accounts. Every bank account, credit card, and payment processor is its own monthly reconciliation. A business with one checking account is a fraction of the work of one running four banks plus PayPal and Stripe.
Industry complexity. Inventory, job costing, trust accounting, and fund accounting each add specialized work that justifies a higher fee. Straightforward service businesses clean up fastest; inventory and multi-source revenue businesses cost the most.
Service scope. Payroll, sales tax filing, and 1099s are typically add-ons, not part of the base fee. Whether they are bundled or billed separately changes the headline number significantly.
Where the high-value work sits
The top of the table is not just bigger numbers, it is a different business. Ecommerce, manufacturing, and multi-entity clients pay $2,000 to $5,000 and up per month because the work genuinely requires inventory accounting, multi-state sales tax, and consolidation. A firm whose client base skews toward these industries earns multiples of one built on solo consultants and single-member LLCs doing the same number of clients.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does bookkeeping cost per month for a small business?
- Most U.S. small businesses pay between $300 and $2,500 per month for ongoing bookkeeping. Service businesses cluster around $500 to $1,500, while inventory-heavy and ecommerce businesses run $2,000 to $5,000 or more.
- Why is ecommerce bookkeeping so much more expensive?
- Ecommerce combines the three most expensive factors at once: very high transaction volume, multiple payment processors and platforms to reconcile, and multi-state sales tax plus cost-of-goods tracking. That is why it sits at the top of the range.
- Is monthly flat-fee or hourly billing better for these industries?
- Most businesses now prefer a fixed monthly fee for predictability. Hourly billing is generally reserved for one-time cleanup or project work rather than ongoing monthly bookkeeping.
- Do these fees include payroll and sales tax filing?
- Usually not. Payroll, sales tax filing, and 1099 preparation are commonly priced as add-ons on top of the base monthly bookkeeping fee.
-
Sources & methodology
- Monthly fee ranges compiled from published 2025–2026 U.S. bookkeeping pricing data, cross-referenced across multiple providers for consistency.
- UnifiedBooks, Monthly Bookkeeping Cost USA: Small Business Guide, Feb 2026 (industry tier ranges).
- The Ledger Labs, How Much Do Bookkeepers Charge, Dec 2025 (transaction-volume and account-count drivers).
- RemoteBooksOnline, Bookkeeping Services Cost by State, Feb 2026 (contractor and ecommerce ranges).
- Relay, How Much to Charge for Bookkeeping Services 2026 (advisory and value-based gross margins).
- Note on figures: these are market ranges aggregated from provider pricing, not a single primary survey. Treat the per-industry figures as typical benchmarks; individual quotes vary by volume, accounts, and scope.
