How much does outsourced bookkeeping cost in 2026? (US, UK, Canada, Australia)

Outsourced bookkeeping cost in 2026 runs about $150 to $1,600 a month in the US, £100 to £1,500 in the UK, C$300 to C$2,000 in Canada and A$300 to A$1,500 in Australia (indinero, 2026; UK, Canadian and Australian fee surveys, 2026). The price follows transaction volume, account count, cash or accrual basis and how much review sits behind the work.

What does outsourced bookkeeping cost in the US?

US outsourced bookkeeping ranges from about $150 to $1,600 per month (indinero, 2026). Plans with a reviewer or controller behind the bookkeeper usually land between $400 and $800 (indinero, RadCity and NerdWallet, 2026).

The low end covers coding transactions and a monthly report. The high end adds accrual entries, payables, receivables and management reports.

Published prices from the larger US brands show the spread. Bench lists $249 to $749 per month by monthly expenses, QuickBooks Live runs about $300 including the QuickBooks Online subscription, and Bookkeeper360 starts at $399 with common add-ons taking it to $749 to $874 (indinero, 2026; provider sites, Sep 2026). Pilot starts at $499 to $599 and rises to $989 as revenue passes $1 million. indinero starts at $750 and Zeni at $494.

At the low end, Remote Books Online starts at $150, CoCountant charges $160 to $235 and Merritt Bookkeeping charges a flat $199 (NerdWallet and RadCity, 2026). Catch-up work is priced separately, typically $200 to $500 per back month (John Galt Finance, 2026).

Hourly pricing still exists for firms and project work. US-based bookkeepers charge $40 to $75 an hour, while offshore teams serving CPA firms charge $10 to $25 (Madras Accountancy, Acculink and Rose Talent, 2026). The market behind these numbers is large: US payroll and bookkeeping services take in $80.9 billion a year across 331,000 businesses (IBISWorld, 2026).

What does outsourced bookkeeping cost in the UK?

UK fixed-fee bookkeeping runs £100 to £1,500 a month (UK provider pricing surveys, 2026). A sole trader with under 25 transactions a month typically pays £50 to £150. A company with 50 to 200 transactions pays £150 to £400, and 500 or more transactions pushes the fee to £400 to £1,500 or above.

Hourly rates sit at £20 to £55 for general bookkeeping and up to £90 for specialists such as CIS or multi-currency work. Some providers still charge per transaction at £1 to £2 each. The comparison point is an in-house bookkeeper at £24,700 to £32,100 a year plus employer National Insurance at 15% above the £5,000 threshold (GOV.UK, 2026).

Two rule changes are moving prices. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax became mandatory on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000, dropping to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028 (GOV.UK, 2026).

Quarterly digital updates mean spreadsheet bookkeeping no longer works, and providers have added £5 to £15 a month for the extra submissions. The VAT registration threshold is £90,000 (GOV.UK, 2026).

What does outsourced bookkeeping cost in Canada?

Canadian outsourced bookkeeping runs C$300 to C$2,000 a month, with most small businesses paying C$400 to C$800 (Outsource Bookkeeping CA and TheAccTaxCo, 2026). Flat-rate cloud services cluster at C$350 to C$600. Freelance bookkeepers charge C$30 to C$90 an hour, and full-charge bookkeepers who handle payroll and remittances charge C$60 to C$90.

The in-house alternative is C$45,000 to C$60,000 a year in salary before benefits and payroll costs. Provincial sales tax adds work that affects the quote. HST applies in Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island; GST plus PST applies in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba; Alberta and the territories charge GST only; Quebec charges GST plus QST (Canada Revenue Agency, 2026).

Tax returns are a separate line. Only registered EFILE transmitters can file returns, so a bookkeeping provider prepares the workpapers as preparation support for the client’s CPA (Canada Revenue Agency, 2026).

What does outsourced bookkeeping cost in Australia?

Australian bookkeepers charge A$40 to A$100 an hour, and fixed monthly fees of A$300 to A$1,500 are typical (Australian bookkeeping fee surveys, 2026). Companies with one to five staff usually pay A$850 to A$1,800 a month, and a full finance function for ten or more staff runs A$2,200 to A$4,500. The market has moved firmly to fixed fees.

BAS is where the price splits. Only a TPB-registered BAS agent may prepare or lodge a BAS for a fee, and registered agents charge A$75 to A$150 an hour (Tax Practitioners Board, 2026).

A bookkeeping provider that is not a registered agent prepares the BAS workpapers for your TPB-registered BAS agent or accountant. That is how LedgerBPO handles Australian BAS work.

Payday Super starts on 1 July 2026, so super is paid with each pay run rather than quarterly (ATO, 2026). That raises the payroll reconciliation workload every month, and quotes for businesses with staff reflect it. Xero leads the Australian market, with MYOB second.

How do the four markets compare?

The table below puts the four markets side by side in local currency. Ranges are for ongoing monthly bookkeeping, not catch-up or tax work.

The pattern is the same in every country. A basic monthly service costs roughly a tenth of an in-house hire, and a full-service plan with payables, receivables and management reports costs roughly a third. Our outsourced bookkeeping cost index tracks these ranges as providers reprice.

What do you get at each price level?

At $150 to $300 a month in the US, or the UK and Australian equivalents, you get transaction coding from bank feeds, a monthly reconciliation of one or two accounts and a basic profit and loss statement. Support is usually by message, and the work is often batched at month-end. This level suits sole traders and service businesses with few transactions.

At $400 to $800 you add a reviewer, accrual entries where needed, a balance sheet that ties to statements and a short monthly call. Many plans in this band include sales-tax or VAT workings and a document-collection process. This is the band most established small businesses end up in (indinero, RadCity and NerdWallet, 2026).

Above $800 the plan usually includes receivables and payables, management reports, cash-flow forecasts and a controller-level review. Some brands reach this level through add-ons, which is why Bookkeeper360’s $399 headline becomes $749 to $874 in practice (indinero, 2026). Ask for the all-in figure, not the entry price.

What moves the price up or down?

Transaction volume is the biggest driver. Most providers tier their plans by monthly transactions or monthly expenses, so a business that adds a second bank account or a marketplace channel moves up a tier. Bench and Pilot both price by expense level for this reason (provider sites, Sep 2026).

Basis of accounting comes next. Cash-basis books are quicker to keep because nothing is accrued or deferred. Accrual books need month-end entries for prepaid expenses, unbilled revenue, inventory and loan interest, which is why accrual plans cost more.

Scope beyond bookkeeping is the third driver. Coding transactions and producing a profit and loss statement is the base.

Sending invoices, chasing receivables, preparing payables for approval and reconciling payment-processor payouts each add hours. Review adds cost too: a plan where a second accountant checks every close costs more than a single-person plan, and it catches more errors.

Four smaller factors round out the quote: multi-currency and multi-entity work, sales-tax or VAT filings prepared, payroll reports reconciled, and the state of the books at the start. A backlog is priced as a one-time catch-up project before monthly service begins.

What do catch-up and cleanup add to the cost?

Catch-up bookkeeping, where months were never recorded, typically costs $200 to $500 per back month in the US (John Galt Finance, 2026). Cleanup, where months were recorded badly, is usually quoted as a project by the hour or as a fixed bid after a file review. Most providers will not start a monthly plan until the books are current, so budget for this first.

The cost of a backlog grows with time. Bank portals often keep 12 to 24 months of statements, and card processors keep less, so a backlog older than a year often needs document reconstruction before posting. Our catch-up bookkeeping service scopes the work by month once we see the last reconciliation date on each account.

How do the pricing models compare?

Flat monthly fees dominate in all four markets. You know the cost in advance, and the provider carries the risk of a busy month. The trade-off is that the tier boundaries matter, so read what happens when you cross one.

Hourly pricing suits project work, cleanup and firms buying capacity. It is transparent but hard to budget, and it rewards slow work. Per-transaction pricing, still seen in the UK at £1 to £2 per item, is fair for very small businesses and expensive for anyone with card-heavy sales.

Dedicated-staff pricing is the fourth model. You pay for a named person’s time each month at a fixed rate, and the scope covers whatever that person can do in the hours.

This is how offshore providers serve accounting firms at $10 to $25 an hour against $40 to $75 for US-based staff (Madras Accountancy, Acculink and Rose Talent, 2026). It is also the model behind our bookkeeping service: a named accountant, a backup and a team lead, working inside your own QuickBooks Online, Xero or Zoho Books file.

How does outsourcing compare with hiring in-house?

A US in-house bookkeeper costs $40,000 to $60,000 in salary and $6,000 or more a month once payroll taxes, benefits, software and management time are loaded in (RadCity and UseCalcPro, 2026). A full-service outsourced plan at $400 to $800 a month is a fraction of that, and it comes with cover for holidays and sick days.

The hire makes sense when the work fills a full week, when the role includes duties that need someone on-site, or when you want to build an internal finance team. Below that point, outsourcing wins on cost, and it wins on continuity because a provider has a backup. About 70% of companies now outsource at least one finance function (Deloitte, cited 2026), and finance and accounting outsourcing is a $76.5 billion market growing at 9.3% a year (Grand View Research, 2026).

Owners who keep the books themselves should count their own time. Small-business owners spend 120 or more hours a year on bookkeeping (RadCity and UseCalcPro, 2026).

At any reasonable value of an owner’s hour, that is more than a basic outsourced plan. Our in-house vs outsourced calculator runs the comparison with your own numbers.

How should you compare quotes?

Compare scope before price. Ask each provider for the list of tasks in the monthly fee, the number of bank and card accounts included, and whether reconciliations are done to statements every month. Ask whether the books are cash or accrual and what a change costs.

Ask who does the work and who checks it. A named person with a backup is different from a rotating pool.

Ask how you reach them, how fast they reply, and whether the work happens inside your own software or inside the provider’s. Books kept in a proprietary system are harder to take with you.

Ask what is extra. Catch-up months, sales-tax or VAT filings, 1099 or T4 preparation, payroll reports, payables and receivables are commonly billed on top.

Ask what happens when you cross a transaction tier and whether the contract is month-to-month. Then run the numbers through our outsourcing cost calculator to see the annual difference.

How does LedgerBPO price bookkeeping?

We price by the dedicated accountant’s time and the scope of work, not by a plan tier. A business with two bank accounts and 150 transactions pays for that, and a business with invoicing, payables and payout reconciliation pays for that. Pricing depends on volume and scope, so we send a custom quote within 1 business day.

The pricing page explains what moves a quote and what is always included: a named accountant, a backup, a team lead review on every close, and work done inside your own ledger. For US clients, tax work is preparation support: your firm reviews and signs. For Australian clients, BAS workpapers are prepared for your TPB-registered BAS agent or accountant.

Sources

• indinero, How much does outsourced bookkeeping cost in 2026?: indinero.com
• NerdWallet, Best online bookkeeping services: nerdwallet.com
• IBISWorld, Payroll and bookkeeping services in the US: ibisworld.com
• Grand View Research, Finance and accounting BPO market: grandviewresearch.com
• GOV.UK, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: gov.uk
• Tax Practitioners Board, BAS agent registration: tpb.gov.au
• Canada Revenue Agency, GST/HST for businesses: canada.ca
• UseCalcPro, Bookkeeping services cost calculator 2026: usecalcpro.com