Most of the bookkeeping pricing templates you’ll see out there tell you to charge by service or by the hour.
… but I actually don’t recommend that.
Why?
There’s a better way — one that sets you up for better profit margins and zero overtime.
In this guide, you’ll get a free template you can swipe to maximize your bookkeeping pricing.
Let’s go!
Table of Contents
- Free Bookkeeping Pricing Template
- What to Include in a Bookkeeping Pricing Template
- How to Set Prices in the Template
- Why Do You Need a Bookkeeping Pricing Template?
Free Bookkeeping Pricing Template
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | |
| Services | |||
| Bookkeeping services | |||
| Accounts payable management | |||
| Accounts receivable management | |||
| Strategy calls | |||
| Payroll processing | |||
| Budget preparation and analysis | |||
| Custom financial reports | |||
| (List your other deliverables) | |||
| Support | |||
| Dedicated account manager | |||
| Senior bookkeeping resource | |||
| Response time | |||
| (List other ways clients can access you or others) | |||
| Technology | |||
| QuickBooks Online | |||
| Dext | |||
| (List the tools that you will be using to perform client work) | |||
| Total Price | $ | $ | $ |
What to Include in a Bookkeeping Pricing Template
Pricing Tiers
This bookkeeping pricing template is a three-tiered pricing model.
It prices your work by tiers, not by service or billable hours.
This tiered pricing model prevents your firm from doing bookkeeping tasks outside what’s been agreed upon — in other words, it eliminates (or substantially reduces) scope creep.
In fact, three-tiered pricing is one of the reasons I had $0 accounts receivable when I was running my previous firm.
Here’s how to include pricing tiers in your bookkeeping pricing template:
- Bronze: This basic package will include essential bookkeeping services like transaction categorization, bank reconciliation, and financial statement preparation. It’s for clients who want the core bookkeeping services without the bells and whistles. Support is limited at this level, so clients can’t expect unlimited emails or quick replies.
- Silver: Most people will choose this plan. It’s close to the Bronze plan but includes extra benefits for clients looking for more comprehensive support. This tier is ideal for those who want just a little more, without committing to full premium services.
- Gold: The premium plan. This is for clients who want proactive financial support and your firm’s full expertise. We’ll get into setting prices later, but the price difference between your Gold and Silver plan should be much bigger than the difference between your Silver and Bronze plan.
It’s impossible to nail one perfect plan for everyone. This approach gives prospective clients options instead of just a yes or no.
I like this three-tiered pricing plan from one of my Future Firm Accelerate members, Phillip Calderon of Ten Accounting.
The beauty of the three-tiered pricing model is that it sets clear boundaries for your firm while giving clients transparency in their costs.
For them, it means their total cost is predictable and straightforward. For you, it means you’re in control of your time and revenue.
You can also apply the three-tier pricing strategy to manage price disagreements with clients too — listen to this podcast episode.
Services (Standard Deliverables)
When building your bookkeeping pricing template, include all the services you’ll offer at each tier, so prospective clients know exactly what’s on the table.
A few examples:
- Bookkeeping tasks: Common bookkeeping work like transaction categorization, reconciliations, and monthly financial reporting. List these recurring tasks as a single item.
- Payroll: A single line item for payroll services (frequency can be customized by pricing tier, e.g., monthly for Silver or bi-weekly for Gold).
- Accounts payable and receivable: Processing, tracking, and managing client bills and invoices.
In the context of a three-tiered pricing strategy, this section shows clients the services provided at each service level.
When you do three-tiered pricing right, it’s easier to present the value of your services to clients…
Which then makes it easier for you to justify price increases.
Just take it from John, one of my Future Firm Accelerate members, who used three-tiered pricing to increase his firm’s prices and easily land a new client:
Support (How & When Clients Can Access Your Team, Who They Can Access)
The Support section of your bookkeeping pricing template covers the types of assistance your team provides.
These additional services go on top of standard deliverables and further strengthen your service packages.
Here’s what to include:
- Specific services: For example: access to a dedicated bookkeeper, advisory sessions, and optional CFO-level support.
- Defined response times: Clients need to know how quickly they can expect help. For example, Gold clients might get a same-day response, 2 days for Silver clients, and 5 days for Bronze clients.
- Access channels: How can clients contact your firm? For instance, you might be reachable by email only for Bronze and Silver clients. On the other hand, Gold clients can reach you more easily via channels like Slack.
- Scalable support: The level of support should scale according to service levels. Clients in higher tiers receive more dedicated time or unlimited access when needed.
One of the most valuable support features you can offer is unlimited support.
But there’s a right way to do it.
As an example of what not to do, I included unlimited support in my $275 premium plan when I first started my previous firm.
$275 isn’t even good enough for a basic plan.
You’ll be providing clients unlimited access to your expertise, so unlimited support should only be included in your highest plan.
And the price should absolutely reflect that value.
Technology (Tools You’ll Use)
The Technology section of your bookkeeping pricing template highlights the tools and software you use to deliver your services.
Include tools that provide value to the client, not to you. Here’s what to include:
- Accounting software: QuickBooks, Xero, or other platforms you use to manage financial data and perform bookkeeping work.
- Payroll tools: Tools like Gusto and ADP. Clients may use these tools to approve payroll runs, update employee records, or review payroll reports.
- Client portals: Secure apps for sharing documents, tracking progress, and communicating with clients. These tools also give clients easy access to their files.
- Dashboard tools: Higher-tier plans may include access to dashboard solutions that provide real-time financial insights.
What about practice management tools?
Unless you use a practice management tool with a built-in client portal, you don’t need to include it in your pricing template.
Why?
Practice management tools are internal systems designed to help your team collaborate.
For example, while QuickBooks provides clients with access to their financial data and reports, practice management tools like Jetpack Workflow focus on your internal processes like task delegation and project tracking.
Clients typically don’t interact with these tools, so they don’t need to be part of the discussion during the pricing process.
However, if you’re using a tool that supports client communications (like Karbon), then it would make sense to have it in your pricing template.
As an example, here is Karbon’s client portal feature, which allows you to communicate with clients directly on the platform.
How to Set Prices in the Template
Most firms calculate their bookkeeping costs with a formulaic approach:
Services Provided x Hours Worked = Final Price
While it’s straightforward and easy for clients to understand, this method often leads to suboptimal pricing, because:
- It undervalues your expertise — often leading to underpricing out of fear of losing clients — instead of maximizing your prices.
- It leads to your team working too many hours, because clients frequently request additional tasks outside the agreed-upon scope.
But what I’m about to share is different.
Instead of relying on a simple equation, we’ll focus on maximizing price per client by creating fair pricing for both you and the client — pricing that reflects the true value of your service offerings and achieves your desired profit margin.
Step 1: List Your Services
To keep things easy to follow, let’s assume we’re building a Bronze plan.
First, make a list of the services, support features, and technology you offer.
For example:
- Services: Bookkeeping, financial check-in, customized reporting, budgeting and forecasting
- Support: Dedicated account manager, senior bookkeeping resource, bookkeeping support, response time
- Technology: QuickBooks Online, Dext
If you want to learn more about which features to include in your list, check out my guide on how to price your bookkeeping services.
Step 2: Determine the Value of Each Tier
Think of your offerings as one solution.
For example, take a look at this Bronze plan:
Then, put yourself in your clients’ shoes and consider how your offerings address their pain points.
What are their goals? What is the outcome worth to them?
Maybe they’re overspending without knowing it. Maybe they’re working with an accountant that still uses a paper-based system.
Clients value financial gain and time savings, among other things I mentioned in this podcast episode.
From there, set the price as high as you think it makes sense. Let’s say you want your baseline Bronze plan to cost $600/month.
This price is more expensive than what a “traditional” bookkeeper might charge.
But if you help clients…
- Save hundreds of thousands of dollars every year
- Save dozens of hours on their bookkeeping every month
Then $600/month is easily worth it.
You can apply this same process to your Silver and Gold plans.
This step DOES require some guesswork, but it’s required if you want to charge as much as possible.
As a general rule to guide you:
The more painful or costly a problem is, the more a client will pay to solve it.
If you’d like my complete process for setting the highest prices possible and landing clients with confidence, check out my Future Firm Accelerate program.
Step 3: Do a Gut Check
To do this, multiply each item by the number of hours it would take to perform it per year.
List every service, support feature, and piece of technology in your plan, the rate, and the number of hours you estimate it’ll take per year (for services & support).
Let’s assume the following for the core bookkeeping services:
- It will take 100 hours every year.
- Your internal cost to provide the service is $20/hour.
Note: The cost is an estimate. I recommend basing this value on the salaries of your firm’s team members.
Now, take those 100 hours and multiply it by the rate:
Apply this same process to the rest of the items.
One thing to remember:
This will likely vary from one tier to the next.
For instance, if the Bronze package only involves essential bookkeeping, then base the number of hours on that.
Your Gold package, on the other hand, may involve detailed monthly reports and cash flow forecasting throughout the year. Therefore, it will require more hours from you or your team.
The same logic also applies to the support features.
For example, if the Bronze package includes one email and one 30-minute call with a dedicated account manager every month, that will translate to 12 hours for the year.
But if your Silver package includes four emails and two 30-minute calls with an account manager every month, that will translate to 36 hours for the year.
Here’s what a completed Bronze package might look like:
In this example, the total amounts to $4,000 per year — about $334 per month.
This is in line with what many bookkeepers charge.
But this doesn’t account for your profit margin yet.
At Future Firm, I tell firm owners to apply a profit margin you’re happy with on top of that number.
For the Bronze plan, I recommend 50%.
With that profit margin applied, the total now becomes $6,000, or $500 per month.
That’s a solid starting point. You should never be charging less than $500 per month for bookkeeping anyway.
Important note: While this process is a great way to check if the pricing you want makes sense, you shouldn’t use this for pricing your services.
Pricing should be done by considering the client’s needs — not your costs.
You should always avoid thinking of your costs when pricing since they don’t determine whether a client will say yes or no.
Why Do You Need a Bookkeeping Pricing Template?
It Helps Clients Understand the Value You Provide
Saying you’ll do a client’s books isn’t as compelling as explaining how you’ll save them time or save them money with your expertise.
When you use a value-based 3-tiered pricing structure, it stops being about transaction volume or hours per month.
It shifts the conversation to the value you provide to their business.
It also sets you up for strong profitability, which allows you to:
- Reinvest in your firm
- Hire the right people
- Avoid doing too much for too little
This is the tactic Kevin Dodgson, a Future Firm Accelerate member, used to work 50% less without decreasing his revenue.
It Helps Prevent Scope Creep
A pricing template is a tangible document that establishes the services you will provide.
It keeps you and the client on the same page. If it’s not in the agreed-upon pricing document, then it’s outside the scope of work and will require an additional fee.
For example, while clients won’t ask for extra reports or more transactions directly, they might say things like, “We’re growing and need more reports” or “Can we hop on a quick call?”
As much as you want to keep your client happy in these instances, it’s extra work that impacts profitability.
Clients that constantly ask for ad hoc work aren’t ones you want to be working with anyway.
You can learn more in my podcast episode about preventing scope creep.
It Helps Forecast Revenue More Accurately
A pricing template makes it easier to standardize your fees so you can predict your firm’s revenue more effectively.
With consistent pricing across your services, you can perform better planning, budgeting, and decision-making as your firm grows.
Use This Bookkeeping Pricing Template to Win Clients
That’s a wrap.
Go ahead and take the template above and customize it to your needs.
I hope you found my guide to writing and filling out a bookkeeping pricing template useful.
If you liked this post, I’ve got a lot more articles about pricing, including this guide on how to price accounting services.
How do you prepare your pricing templates? Would you do my process differently?
Share your thoughts in the comments below!
