Bookkeeping prices: what actually moves them
Every accounting firm can quote you a monthly fee. It is still the wrong number to compare, because it says nothing about what your own bookkeeping requires.
The price of bookkeeping is an easy question and a bad one. Easy, because every firm can tell you its monthly fee. Bad, because that figure says nothing about what you will pay.
A monthly fee is not a price
A fixed monthly fee is a bet. The firm estimates how much work an average client causes, then prices it so the estimate survives being wrong in either direction. If your business is smaller than the estimate, you are paying for somebody else’s work. If it is larger, somebody notices eventually and the price is revised.
There is nothing wrong with a fixed fee. It simply answers a different question than you think it does. It tells you what a firm believes about the average of its client base, not what your bookkeeping requires.
The four things that actually move it
Roughly in this order.
The number of receipts. This is the big one. Ten purchases a month and a hundred purchases a month are different work, whatever the turnover.
The VAT period. A sole trader reporting monthly produces twelve returns a year; one reporting annually produces one. The period follows from turnover and is not something you choose on price.
What condition the material arrives in. Organised material is faster to record than disorganised material. This is the only one of the four you control directly, and the effect is larger than most people expect.
Whether anything unusual happened. A first purchase from abroad, an equipment purchase, a first employee. The first time is always the expensive time, because that is when the rule is researched rather than merely applied.
What to ask when you request a quote
Ask these of everyone, including us.
What the monthly fee includes and what is billed separately. Whether the financial statements and the tax return are in the price. What happens in a month that turns out to be unusually heavy. What the notice period is. And what it costs to ask a question mid-month.
That last one is the most revealing. Where advice is billable, you do not ask, and the questions that went unasked are the ones that cost the most.
Why we bill by time
We bill bookkeeping by the time it takes, in fifteen minute increments, and the bookkeeping portion carries a monthly cap. Sole trader bookkeeping starts at 31,50 euros a month, and the bookkeeping portion is at most 86 euros a month.
This is not cheaper for everyone. It is more accurate. A quiet month costs what a quiet month costs, and a small sole trader does not pay for a large one. The cap exists because a time-based price without one would be a promise nobody can check in advance.
The full figures are on the price list, and how it works explains what is required from you.
When the cheapest quote is the right one
The cheapest quote is the right choice when your bookkeeping is simple and stays simple. Plenty of sole traders are exactly that, and they should take the cheapest offer.
It stops being the right choice at the moment you need an answer to something. That cost does not appear on any quote.
Who it is for also says plainly who it is not for. If you want to know what your own case would cost, tell us your turnover and roughly how many purchases you have and we will give you a figure.
Frequently asked
- What does bookkeeping for a sole trader normally cost in Finland?
- There is no normal figure, because the workload varies several times over between one sole trader and another. The price is moved by the number of receipts, the VAT period, how organised the material is, and whether anything unusual happened during the year. With us bookkeeping starts at 31,50 euros a month and the bookkeeping portion is capped at 86 euros a month.
- Is a fixed monthly fee better than time-based billing?
- A fixed fee is predictable and time-based billing is accurate. If your bookkeeping is steady and simple, a fixed fee is the easier choice. If your months vary a great deal, a time-based price follows the actual work instead of an average.
- Are the financial statements included in the monthly fee?
- Not with us, and it is worth asking everyone separately. The financial statements and the tax return are a distinct piece of work and firms treat them very differently. Our price list carries separate figures for both.
- What does asking a question cost?
- A single question mid-month costs nothing extra with us. Ask every firm this, because where asking is billable the questions simply go unasked, and those are the expensive ones.
Tell us what you need, and we will work out what it actually takes.
A free conversation, about 30 minutes: we go through what you invoice, how your paperwork arrives and which plan fits, and tell you which bookkeeping band you land in and what it costs a month. We do not charge for a quote, and the conversation commits you to nothing.