Bookkeeper Rates and Fees

I am probably low-balled in my chargeout rate. I do bookkeeping for one client at the moment and as I have really no overhead I only charge her $15.00 per hour or a minimum of $150.00 per month.

Cat

TKnTexas wrote:

Do some googling on the dangers of discussing pricing:

anti trust, price-fixing, etc.

That's why professionals do surveys and share compilation results with participants.

Any one charging only $15.00 per hour in today's economy would hardly be classified as a professional. Doubtful given the rate noted, that there is any danger.

It all depends on your area. Call around to other bookkeepers pretending to be a potential customer to see what they charge. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, then have a friend or family member make the phone calls.

Considering I do this for a living at my place of employment and I have been doing bookkeeping for over 30 years I would consider myself a professional. However, I do bookkeeping on the side at home as a hobby. I am not out to gouge someone, nor am I out to make a living at it (at this time). I based my fee on what my client would have paid to have a bookkeeper come to her place of business as an employee.

Cat

Allan Mart> >>I am probably low-balled in my chargeout rate. I do bookkeeping for

That shows off the phoniness of society. One person telling an other "I charge X dollar per hour" is price fixing but printing the result of an industry survey saying the average is approx. the exact same X dollars per hour is plain, astute business.

Joanne, to protect yourself from that kind of 'harassment' better say "I probably charge an average of $ 15.00 per hour at this point in time." (No one can nail Jello to the wall.)

If you are indeed a professional you would know that as an employee the employer is responsible for the employer's portion of payroll taxes as well as other employee benefits. As an out side bookkeeper you must pay it all. Therefore your rates should be higher.

I should mention that I meant no disrespect. Lets both agree that my definition of a professional differs from yours. I can however live with the title "profesional bookkeeper".

Snapshot of Intuit 2006 Rates Survey

Intuit

Here is a quick snapshot of the results of our latest poll on hourly rates and fixed fees for bookkeeping and related services.

Hourly Rates

Rates shown are simple averages.

Software Install/Setup $80 General Bookkeeping $60 Training $76 General Business Consulting $85 Troubleshooting $77 Generating Reports $69 On-site Maintenance $76 Telephone consulting $73

Fixed Fees

Rates shown are simple averages.

Installation and Setup (New User) $304 Quarterly Tune-up $235 Personal training (1-2 hrs.) $153 Personal training (3-4 hrs.) $294 Personal training (full day) $562

This public document is open to all; subscribers to Intuit® ProConnection® get to see the full details.

To find out what this means, to see the high and low ranges, and to compare these figures against 2005 results, be sure to see the full article: Intuit's 2006 Rates Survey. You will need to log into Intuit ProConnection if you haven't already. If you don't belong to Intuit ProConnection, you can learn more and join here.

begin 666 pixel.gif K1TE&.#EA`0`!`( ``````````"'Y! $`````+ `````!``$```("1 $`.P`` ` end

begin 666 blank.gif K1TE&.#EA`0`!`( ``/___P```"'Y! $`````+ `````!``$```("1 $`.P`` ` end

I'm having a little difficulty following your post. I didn't make the rules regarding price fixing but they exist and have been prosecuted for as little as a few people chatting about their fees.

I would not verbalize your suggested response for various reasons. The second being, my fees (which are higher than the survey posted by Allen Martin in another post) are irrelevant to someone doing similar work in other parts of the country or world. What I bring to the client in terms of experience and credentials may not be the same as what someone else brings. My clients may be premium clients when someone else's clients are not or are ultra-premium.

I think anyone attempting to set fees needs to start at a price that makes the work worth the fee. From there, prices go up with the diminishing number of hours one has to sell. When one runs out of time, prices increase and those clients unwilling to pay the price fall away to make time for new and growing clients who will.

To illustrate Steve's point, I left an employer as the bookkeeper. I was bored in the position and the office secretary could handle the month to month items. I told the owner I was quitting to take another position. I told him I would be back to do year end if he wanted me to do that, this was in May.

He called me in January to come back to do year end. I charged him $100 per hour because of the time crunch he gave me. He was upset at that quote, however, I reminded him I could walk in and do what I had to do with minimal number of hours and he had waited until January to tell me.

The next year I charged $50 because he called me and we had a better schedule. Any> Then to be honest you are significantly under pricing your work. It's