What it costs
What bookkeeping actually costs, and what moves the number.
We do not publish a price, and we will explain why below. What we can do is tell you exactly what drives the cost for a contracting business, so you can read anyone's quote — ours included — and know whether it is honest.
The Two-Day Guarantee— Your first month back in two days, or the next month is free.
Why there is no price on this page
Nobody can quote you honestly before they have looked.
Bookkeeping for a contracting business is not a product with a shelf price. The work depends on your transaction volume, how far behind you are, whether payroll is involved, and how much job-level detail you need. Two HVAC shops doing the same revenue can be very different amounts of work.
So a firm that publishes “starting at” is publishing a number that will move once they see your books. We would rather do your most recent month for free, see the actual condition of things, and then quote you something we can stand behind.
What moves the number
Five things that decide what bookkeeping costs you.
How many transactions you run
The single biggest factor. A one-truck operation running eighty transactions a month and a fifteen-tech shop running two thousand are different amounts of work, and any honest quote reflects that rather than a flat rate pulled from a page.
How far behind you are
Catch-up is separate work from keeping you current. Six months behind means six months of transactions to categorize and reconcile before monthly bookkeeping even begins. It is one-time work, and it should be quoted separately from your ongoing cost.
Whether payroll is in scope
Mixed rates, overtime and prevailing wage jobs take real time to reconcile every month. A business running six people on varied rates is meaningfully more work than one running two on salary.
How much job-level detail you want
Company-level books are cheaper than books that separate profit by job, by truck, by route, or by insurance versus retail. That separation is usually where the value is — but it is more work and it should be priced as such.
What condition the records are in
Clean QuickBooks with connected feeds is one thing. Duplicate entries, a chart of accounts nobody maintained, or a shoebox of receipts is another. The starting condition affects the first few months more than the steady state.
Comparing quotes
Five questions to ask anyone quoting you.
Including us. If a firm cannot answer these plainly, the number they gave you is not comparable to anyone else's.
Is catch-up quoted separately from monthly?
It should be. A single blended number that folds one-time catch-up into your ongoing rate makes it impossible to know what you are actually paying month to month once you are current.
Who reviews the work, and are they credentialed?
A cheap rate usually means nobody credentialed ever looks at the file. Ask specifically whether a CPA reviews it, and whether that review covers every month or a sample.
What exactly is delivered each month?
Ask for the actual list. Categorized transactions, reconciliation, P&L, balance sheet, job-level reporting, a written summary. "Bookkeeping" on its own is not a deliverable.
What happens if they are late?
Ask what the commitment is and what happens if it is missed. A deadline with nothing attached to it is not a deadline.
Are you quoting before or after seeing the books?
Anyone who quotes a firm number before looking at your actual transaction volume and condition is guessing, and the number will move later.
The honest way to find out what it costs.
Let us do your most recent month free. Then we both know what is actually involved, and the number we give you is one we can stand behind.