For business owners
How much does an outsourced bookkeeper cost?
Standard placement at TaskMasters is $2,500 a month for 40 hours a week of dedicated support, plus a one-time setup fee. Here is what moves that number, what it includes, and how it compares to the other ways of buying bookkeeping.
Standard placement at TaskMasters is $2,500 a month for 40 hours a week of dedicated support, plus a one-time setup fee. That is one named bookkeeper working your hours on your books — not a shared pool, not a ticket queue.
The actual number depends on the role, the seniority, and the scope. A bookkeeper keeping a clean set of books current is priced differently from a senior accountant handling multi-entity files and review-level work. We confirm the figure on the fit call, before anyone signs anything.
What the $2,500 actually buys
Forty hours a week is roughly 173 hours a month. That puts the standard placement at about $14 to $15 per hour of dedicated time.
What sits behind that hour:
- A four-year finance or accounting degree.
- QuickBooks certification. Most operators also work in Xero.
- Role-specific skills testing before you ever meet them — AR, AP, chart of accounts, and whatever else the role actually involves.
- US business hours, in your time zone. Eastern, Central, Mountain or Pacific.
- A signed NDA before any access is granted.
- Client portal access, so you get daily reports and live online/offline status rather than a monthly invoice and a hope.
- Two-week and 30-day check-ins with both you and the operator.
- The 30-Day Right-Fit Guarantee. If the operator is not right within the first 30 days, we re-vet and place someone else at no additional cost — or you exit and we refund the wages you have paid plus a portion of the setup fee.
There is no separate charge for the portal, the check-ins, the replacement, or the onboarding. The recruiting, testing and placement work is what the one-time setup fee covers.
What actually moves the price
Three things, in roughly this order of impact.
Seniority. A bookkeeper doing daily reconciliation, AP entry and month-end close is the base. A staff or senior accountant handling multi-entity consolidation, review-level work, or files a CPA will sign off on costs more, because that person is harder to find and harder to keep.
Scope. One set of books is different from five entities with intercompany transactions. Payroll support for eight employees is different from payroll across three states with contractor filings.
Hours. Forty hours a week is the standard. Some engagements need less and some need more than one seat.
What does not move the price: transaction volume. That is the axis most bookkeeping services price on, and it is the one that makes your bill unpredictable in exactly the months you are busiest.
How this compares to the other ways of buying bookkeeping
There are four common models. They are priced differently because they are structurally different products, and the sticker price is rarely the thing that decides which one is cheaper.
| Model | How it is priced | What you are actually buying | Where the cost hides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer, hourly | Hourly rate, invoiced after the fact | Someone's spare capacity between other clients | Unpredictable monthly totals, no coverage when they take on a bigger client, no replacement when they leave |
| Service bureau / app-based service | Monthly tier by transaction volume | Access to a shared pool that processes your file | Tier creep as you grow, no named person, escalating anything means a ticket |
| Local part-time hire | Hourly wage | Someone in your building for 20 hours a week | Payroll taxes, benefits, software seats, equipment, PTO, and the recruiting cost again when they leave |
| Dedicated offshore operator | Flat monthly, full-time | One named person embedded in your process | Nothing hidden, but it only works if the work is genuinely full-time |
Two honest notes about that table.
If you genuinely have five hours of bookkeeping a week, a full-time dedicated seat is the wrong purchase. Say that on the fit call and we will tell you the same thing. The model earns its keep when the work is real, continuous, and currently landing on someone whose time is worth considerably more — usually you.
And a local part-time hire is not a bad option. It is just a more expensive one than the wage suggests, and it does not solve the problem that most owners actually have, which is that the role is bigger than the hours they budgeted for it.
The comparison people forget to run
The relevant number often is not what a bookkeeper costs. It is what your own hours cost.
If you are spending eight hours a week on categorisation, chasing invoices and month-end tidying, that is roughly 35 hours a month. Put whatever your time is genuinely worth against that — the rate you bill, or the rate you would pay someone to do the work you are not doing while you reconcile a bank feed. For most owners the arithmetic stops being close very quickly.
The same logic applies to a bookkeeper who has outgrown the role. If your bookkeeper is competent at data entry but you are still the one producing the reports you make decisions from, you are paying twice.
What happens between the fit call and the first day
Fourteen to twenty-one days, typically. Faster when a deadline or a backlog is forcing it.
The sequence: a fit call to map the actual work and your software stack, then sourcing and skills testing against those specific requirements, then you interview the shortlist and choose. NDAs are signed and access is scoped before any work starts. We handle onboarding into your systems, and from day one you get daily reports and live status in the portal.
You can see the full range of what operators cover on the services page — bookkeeping and month-end close, QuickBooks and Xero support, AP and AR, tax preparation support, payroll support, financial reporting, client onboarding and practice admin, and staff or senior accountant work.
Common questions
How much does an outsourced bookkeeper cost per month?
Standard placement at TaskMasters is $2,500 per month for 40 hours a week of dedicated support, plus a one-time setup fee. The final figure depends on the role, the seniority and the scope, and is confirmed on the fit call.
Is there a setup fee?
Yes, a one-time setup fee covering sourcing, skills testing, placement and onboarding. It is quoted on the fit call alongside the monthly rate.
What if I only need someone part-time?
Then say so on the call. The standard engagement is a full-time dedicated seat, and if your work does not fill that, we will tell you rather than sell you one.
Do I pay more when my transaction volume goes up?
No. Pricing is based on the role and scope, not on how many transactions run through your file in a given month.
What does it cost if the person is not a good fit?
Under the 30-Day Right-Fit Guarantee, we re-vet and place someone else at no additional cost. Or you exit, and we refund the wages you have paid plus a portion of the setup fee.
How long before someone is actually working on my books?
Fourteen to twenty-one days from the fit call in most cases, and faster when a deadline or a backlog is forcing the timeline.