Bookkeeping Cost Calculator for Ontario Corporations
Bookkeeping is priced on volume and mess rather than on revenue. Work out a realistic monthly figure for your actual transaction count, see what a cheap quote usually leaves out, and compare a freelancer against a firm honestly.
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Where the Monthly Fee Comes From
| Component | Basis | Monthly |
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Freelancer Against a Firm
| Item | Freelance Bookkeeper | CPA Firm |
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The Year in Full
| Item | Basis | Annual |
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Points That Decide This
What to Do Next
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Disclaimer: The figures on this page are illustrative estimates generated from the inputs and the editable pricing assumptions you provide. They are not a quotation, an offer, or our fee, and they are not representative of what any particular bookkeeper or firm charges. Bookkeeping is priced differently by different providers, and the rates used here are placeholders intended to show how volume, the number of accounts, payroll, sales tax filings and the condition of the records drive the total; please replace them with figures from an actual quote. Costs in practice also depend on matters not captured here, including the industry, the complexity of the transactions, foreign currency, multiple revenue systems, the quality of the source documents, how promptly information is provided, and whether historical periods need correcting before current work can begin. The comparison between a freelance bookkeeper and a professional firm describes general differences in the service typically provided and is not a statement about any individual provider; competent freelance bookkeepers exist and expensive firms are not automatically better. Nothing here is a recommendation to engage or not engage any particular provider. Whether a corporation requires monthly, quarterly or annual bookkeeping depends on its circumstances, including its filing obligations and the decisions its owners need information for. Year end, corporate tax return preparation and sales tax filings are separate engagements from bookkeeping and are commonly quoted separately. This page is general information, not accounting or tax advice.
Volume and Mess, Not Revenue
Owners usually expect to be quoted against turnover, and it is the wrong unit. A consultancy billing a million dollars across twelve invoices is less work than a cafe turning over three hundred thousand across four thousand card transactions.
What drives the fee is the number of lines to be coded, the number of accounts to be reconciled, whether payroll runs, how many sales tax filings fall due, and above all what condition the records arrive in.
Which is why “what do you charge for bookkeeping” has no answer. Any quote given without asking about transaction volume and the state of the records is a guess, and it will be revised once the work starts.
Software Is the Difference Between Cheap and Expensive
A business on cloud accounting software with bank feeds connected is substantially cheaper to keep than one handing over statements and a folder of receipts, because the mechanical part is already done.
Spreadsheets sit in between and carry their own risk: they are fine until someone overwrites a formula, and nobody notices for months. The gap in fee between a tidy cloud file and a shoebox is frequently larger than the cost of the software itself.
| How records arrive | Effect on the fee |
|---|---|
| Cloud software with feeds connected | The baseline |
| Spreadsheets | Noticeably more |
| Statements and loose receipts | Substantially more |
The Cheap Quote Usually Excludes the Expensive Parts
This is where owners get caught. A low monthly figure often covers coding transactions and nothing else: not the sales tax filings, not the year-end adjusting entries, not the corporate return, not the payroll filings.
Those arrive later as separate invoices, and the total for the year lands well above what the monthly number suggested. Comparing quotes means comparing what is actually in them, which is tedious and is the only way to compare them honestly.
Ask what happens at year end. Bookkeeping that has not been kept to a standard the accountant can work from gets cleaned up at year end at a higher rate, so a cheap monthly fee can produce a larger annual bill than a more expensive one.
A Freelancer Is Often the Right Answer
It is worth saying plainly, from a firm that sells the alternative. For a small corporation with modest volume, tidy records and no payroll, a competent freelance bookkeeper is frequently the sensible choice and costs less.
What a firm adds is review, continuity, and the fact that the person doing the books and the person signing the return are in the same place. That matters more as volume grows, as payroll and sales tax filings multiply, and where mistakes would be expensive to unwind.
| Consideration | Where it points |
|---|---|
| Low volume, tidy records, no payroll | A freelancer, or doing it yourself |
| Payroll, inventory, several accounts | Either, with review |
| Cross-border, multiple entities, financing | A firm |
| Cover when the bookkeeper is unavailable | A firm |
Doing It Yourself Has a Real Cost Too
The hours an owner spends on the books are hours not spent on the business, and the comparison worth making is against what those hours are otherwise worth rather than against zero.
For some owners the honest answer is that the bookkeeping is manageable and the money is better spent elsewhere. For others, eight hours a month at the kitchen table is the most expensive bookkeeping in the city.
What This Estimate Does Not Include
- Catching up historical periods, which is separate work
- Software subscriptions, which you pay directly
- Payroll filings and slips beyond the monthly processing
- Audit or review engagements, which are different services
- Advice, which is not bookkeeping
- Any actual quote, which follows a look at the file
If the books are already behind, that is a different exercise. Our catch-up bookkeeping calculator covers arrears, which are priced differently from ongoing work, and the DIY against CPA calculator covers the return itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions on bookkeeping fees.
Related Calculators and Guides
More on the cost of keeping a corporation current.
Get a Figure Based on Your Actual File
Send us a month of statements and tell us what software you use. We will quote on what is actually there rather than on a guess, and we will tell you if a freelancer would serve you better at this size.