What should you charge this client per month? Free, no signup.
Bookkeeping is easy to underprice, because the work looks simple until you add up the hours. This calculator builds your monthly retainer from your real workload. Enter your target hourly rate and the software cost you pass to the client, then describe the client: monthly transaction volume with quick presets, bank and credit card accounts, loan accounts, employees on payroll, sales-tax states filed, and months behind if there is cleanup work.
Check the complexity boxes that apply: inventory or e-commerce, multiple entities or locations, and messy shoebox books, each adding a time uplift. The tool estimates monthly hours from a disclosed formula, multiplies by your rate, adds the software cost, and quotes the monthly retainer, plus a one-time cleanup fee when the client is behind and the annual value of the client. A sanity check compares your quote to the client's monthly revenue, and a planner shows how many clients at this rate it takes to hit your annual income goal.
Example only, not typical earnings/pricing/numbers. A client with 150 transactions a month, 3 bank accounts, and 1 loan account: estimated hours = 1.5 + (150 x 0.02) + (3 x 0.5) + (1 x 0.2) = 6.2 hours. At a $60 hourly rate that is $372 in labor plus $40 software, for a $412 monthly retainer, or $4,944 a year. Against $40,000 in client monthly revenue that is 1.0 percent, squarely IN THE HEALTHY BAND. To hit a $100,000 annual income goal at this rate, you need about 20.2 clients.
With a disclosed formula: 1.5 hours for month-end close and reports, plus 0.02 per transaction, 0.5 per bank account, 0.2 per loan account, 0.15 per employee, and 0.75 per sales-tax state, then complexity uplifts. The tool lists the full formula under "How the math works."
They multiply. Inventory or e-commerce adds 15 percent, multiple entities adds 20 percent, and messy books adds 15 percent, so all three together multiply hours by 1.15 x 1.20 x 1.15, not by adding 50 percent.
Enter the months behind and the tool adds a one-time cleanup fee of months behind times the retainer times 0.6, and shows the first-month total separately from the ongoing retainer.
Bookkeeping typically runs 1 to 3 percent of a client's gross revenue. Inside that band the quote looks healthy; above it you may need to justify the scope; below it the tool flags the quote as likely underpriced.
The planner divides your annual income goal by the annual value of the client at your quoted retainer. At $4,944 per client per year, a $100,000 goal needs about 20.2 clients.