Guide · checked October 2026
Charge too little and every hour resents you; charge by copying a stranger's website and the number means nothing. The published data gives a beginner something better than a guess: the modal monthly fee for bookkeeping is $250–$499/mo, inside a full published range of $300–$2,500/mo, with hourly work at $30–$90/hr (Relay 2026 pricing guide / October 2026). This page turns those bands into your three packages.
The modal band is where typical small clients actually land — a modest transaction count, a couple of accounts, a monthly close and reports. If your starter package for that client lands far under $250/mo, you have priced a hobby; far over $499, you need scope to justify it. The bands are checked and dated because pricing advice rots: re-verify against the current guides each quarter, the way this site does.
Starter is the core service — books kept, month closed, reports delivered. Growth adds the things growing clients ask for: payroll, sales-tax filing, a steadier hand. Full-Service adds priority and review time. Show the client the math lines — base, accounts, adders — and pricing becomes a worksheet you share, not a number you defend. A client who sees how the price is built rarely haggles with the arithmetic.
No package under a floor — ours is $200 — because below it the close-and-reports work cannot be done carefully at any speed. And keep the published $2,500 top in view as a sanity check: a beginner quoting above it needs a scope that explains itself. Between the floor and the modal band is where a first client's price should calmly sit.
Put it to work. The free Retainer / Package Builder computes your case from the same facts this page explains. All 13 guides live on the guides hub.
The guides are the map. The Playbook is the paperwork: the scripts, the call sheet, the worksheets, and the letter template.
See the $49 First Clients Playbook
One payment, yours to keep — the client-getting system the free tools point into. Everything inside →