What should you charge a new bookkeeping client each month?

What should you charge this bookkeeping client each month, and which current clients are underpaying you?

Enter a prospect's monthly transactions, accounts, payroll runs, AR/AP volume and sales-tax filings and get the minimum monthly fee that hits your target hourly rate, a recommended fee, a one-time cleanup quote and a walk-away price. Paste your existing clients and see who earns you the least per hour and the raise each needs.

Your numbers, not market rates and not advice. This page knows no going rates and gives no tax, accounting or legal advice: every volume, minute and rate is a number you type. Nothing is uploaded: the inputs are used in this browser tab only.

1. Price a prospective client

Transactions per month Bank and card accounts Payroll runs per month AR and AP items per month Sales-tax filings per month Catch-up months to clean up

State of the books Minutes per transaction, clean Minutes per transaction, average Minutes per transaction, messy

Minutes to reconcile one account Minutes per payroll run Minutes per AR or AP item Minutes per sales-tax filing Monthly review and client contact (minutes) Cleanup slow-down multiplier

Software cost for this client ($/month) Target hourly rate ($) Buffer on the quote (%) Walk-away floor (% of target) A competitor's quoted fee ($/month, blank for none)

The fee

Measure	Value

Where the hours go

Work	Minutes per month

If the books were different

State of the books	Hours	Minimum fee

Hours are your own minutes multiplied out; real months vary. The quote is a starting point for your engagement letter, not a promise.

2. Rank your existing clients

One row per client: name, monthly fee, hours you actually spend per month, then optional software cost per month. Up to 200 clients.

Prefer a CLI?

Same logic, zero dependencies, one command:

node cli.mjs price --transactions 420 --accounts 4 --cleanliness messy --cleanup 3 --competitor 600
node cli.mjs roster clients.csv --target 80 --json

Get cli.mjs and engine.mjs — Node 18+, nothing to install, no network call. More: How to price bookkeeping services as a monthly retainer.

What's recognised

Input	Handling

The answer is exact for the numbers you type. It does not know going rates, your local market, your engagement terms, or how a client's books will actually behave.

Common questions

Is this a market rate or tax advice?

No. Every volume, minute per task, hourly rate and software cost in the answer is a number you typed. It does not look up what other bookkeepers charge and gives no tax, accounting or legal advice. It does the arithmetic on your own time so you can see what a client costs you.

Does it upload my clients?

No. The browser page works on the text you paste, in your own browser, and never sends it anywhere. The CLI reads a local file or stdin and makes no network call.

How is the minimum monthly fee calculated?

Monthly minutes are transactions x your minutes per transaction for the state of the books, plus reconciliation per account, payroll runs, AR and AP items, sales-tax filings and a fixed review block. Hours x your target hourly rate plus software is the minimum; the recommended fee adds your buffer.

What is the walk-away price?

Hours x a floor rate (a percent of your target, 75 percent by default) plus software. Below it the client costs you more than the work is worth to you, so you decline or re-scope rather than discount.

How does the roster mode work?

Paste one row per existing client with the monthly fee, the hours you actually spend and optional software cost. It ranks clients by effective hourly, worst first, and shows the fee increase each needs to reach your target rate.