Bookkeeping Cost Calculator

Understanding bookkeeping costs in Australia

What bookkeeping costs in Australia in 2026

Bookkeeping is priced three ways in Australia, and most providers offer at least two of them. Hourly rates in 2026 run roughly $45 to $70 for a bookkeeper doing data entry and reconciliation, $70 to $100 for a senior bookkeeper handling payroll and BAS preparation, and $100 to $180 for a virtual CFO or advisory engagement. Fixed monthly packages are increasingly the norm and typically run $200 to $400 for a micro business with low transaction volume and no payroll, $400 to $900 for a small business with a handful of staff and moderate volume, $900 to $2,000 for a growing business with inventory or multiple entities, and above that for anything with substantial complexity. Offshore or outsourced services advertise well below these figures, and the trade off is discussed further below.

What drives the monthly fee

Transaction volume is the headline driver, because every line on every bank and card account has to be coded correctly and reconciled. But volume alone does not explain the spread, and two businesses with identical transaction counts can differ substantially. Payroll adds a fixed obligation per pay run through Single Touch Payroll reporting, plus superannuation calculation and lodgement, leave accruals and award interpretation, and award complexity in industries like hospitality and construction adds genuine work. Inventory tracking requires stock reconciliation and cost of goods calculations. Multiple entities mean multiple sets of books and intercompany reconciliation. Foreign currency adds revaluation. Job or project costing requires allocating every cost to the right job. Integrations with point of sale, ecommerce platforms and payment gateways each require reconciliation of settlement timing and fees. Each of these is a separate workflow rather than a marginal increase in an existing one.

Automation is the real variable

The gap between an expensive bookkeeping arrangement and a cheap one, on identical volume, is usually automation. A business with live bank feeds into its accounting software, receipt capture through a phone app, supplier invoices arriving as digital documents, and rules configured for recurring transactions is largely reconciled rather than entered. A business delivering a folder of paper each month requires a person to key every line. Providers price that difference explicitly, and it is the single most actionable lever a business owner has over the fee. The setup effort is modest, usually a few hours of configuration, and the payback is immediate. It also improves accuracy, since feeds do not mistype amounts, and it makes the records available in real time rather than six weeks in arrears, which is when they are actually useful for decision making.

BAS agents, registration and what that means

In Australia, only a registered BAS agent may charge a fee to provide BAS services, which includes preparing and lodging a business activity statement, advising on GST treatment, and dealing with the ATO on those matters on your behalf. Registration is administered by the Tax Practitioners Board and is publicly checkable, and registered agents must hold professional indemnity insurance and meet ongoing education requirements. An unregistered bookkeeper can lawfully do data entry and reconciliation under supervision, but cannot charge for the BAS work itself. This matters for two reasons. First, using a registered agent gives you recourse and an insurance backstop if something goes wrong. Second, registered agents access the agent lodgement program, which carries different lodgement dates. Check the register before engaging, and be cautious of anyone who is vague about their registration status.

Offshore and outsourced bookkeeping

Offshore bookkeeping services advertise at a fraction of Australian rates and are a legitimate option for some businesses, particularly those with high volume and simple, repetitive transactions. The honest assessment is that they work well for mechanical processing and less well where local knowledge matters. GST treatment of Australian specific items, award interpretation for payroll, superannuation guarantee rules, and dealing with the ATO all require Australian expertise. Many businesses land on a hybrid, using an offshore team for processing under the supervision of an Australian registered BAS agent who handles the compliance and review. If you go offshore, confirm who is registered, where your data is stored and under what privacy protections, and who is accountable if a lodgement is wrong, because the answer to that last question is what you are really buying.

Getting the relationship right

The most useful thing a business owner can do is treat bookkeeping as part of a chain rather than an isolated service. Your bookkeeper, your BAS agent and your accountant should be using the same chart of accounts, agree on how unusual transactions are treated, and hand over clean files at year end. When they do, your annual accounting fee falls, because the accountant is reviewing rather than rebuilding. When they do not, you pay twice: once for bookkeeping and again for your accountant to unwind it at a much higher hourly rate. Ask a prospective bookkeeper how they communicate with your accountant, how quickly they turn around queries, what reports you will receive and when, and how they handle a transaction they are unsure about, since the correct answer is that they ask rather than guess.

Next steps

Use the estimate above as a monthly bracket, then ask two providers to quote against your actual transaction count, payroll headcount and software, with a clear list of what is inside the monthly fee and what is charged separately. Confirm BAS agent registration, ask what automation they expect you to have in place, and get any catch up work quoted as a distinct project rather than folded into the ongoing fee.