Sample workflow — not a specific client’s data
A written scope and change log
The fixed scope you approve up front, and the documented record of every change when the work closes.
QuickBooks pricing
Fixed scope, fixed fee, quoted after a free review.
We price every QuickBooks engagement — cleanup, catch-up, migration, setup, or monthly bookkeeping — as a fixed scope with a fixed fee — project work from $1,500, monthly bookkeeping from $400/mo — quoted after a free read-only review of your file. There is no hourly meter and no surprise on the invoice: you see the number, and the work behind it, before anything begins.
- Fixed fee, not hourly
- Quoted after a free review
- No surprise on the invoice
What QuickBooks help costs here
QuickBooks help here costs a fixed fee for a fixed scope — project work from $1,500, monthly bookkeeping from $400/mo — quoted after a free read-only review. That is the whole model: we look at your file first, define exactly what the job is, and put one number on it that does not move unless you ask it to.
We don't lead with a single sticker price because "QuickBooks help" isn't one job. A light chart tidy-up, a two-year catch-up, and a Desktop-to-Online migration are three different amounts of work, and pretending otherwise would mean either padding every quote to cover the worst case or lowballing and clawing it back later. Neither is honest. Instead, the cost of the work is set to the work — measured, not guessed. If you want the mechanics of a specific job, a QuickBooks cleanup and monthly bookkeeping each have their own page; this one is about how the price is set, whatever the job.
Why we quote after a free review, not before
We quote after the review because an honest number needs your file, not a phone description. Until we can see how far behind the books are and how tangled they got, any figure we said would be a guess dressed up as a quote.
Two owners can use the same words — "my books are a mess" — and be a week of work apart. One is three months behind on a single checking account; the other is two years behind across three accounts, a credit card, and a payroll feed that never tied. A read-only look tells the two apart in minutes. That is why the free QuickBooks review is the front door to every quote: a senior specialist opens your file, sees the real condition, and scopes the fee to it. You get a number built on evidence, and we get a scope we can commit to. Nobody is protecting themselves with a padded range.
What moves the price up or down
Three measurable things move a quote more than anything else: how many months or years are behind, how many accounts and connected feeds we have to reconcile, and how many transactions run through the file. The review reads all three, and together they decide whether a job is small, standard, or large.
How many months (or years) are behind
Time is the biggest lever. Catching up three months is a short job; catching up two years means reconciling far more periods, chasing far more missing documentation, and untangling changes that compounded while nobody was watching. The further back the gap runs, the more the fee reflects it — which is also why closing the gap sooner usually costs less than letting it grow.
How many accounts and feeds
Each bank account, credit card, loan, and connected bank feed is another ledger to reconcile and another place errors hide. A single-account file is quick to bring to a tie; a file with several accounts, a card, and a payroll integration is proportionally more work, because every one of them has to reconcile independently before the whole file can.
Transaction volume
A file with a few dozen transactions a month behaves nothing like one with thousands. Higher volume means more to categorize, more duplicates to find, and more to check — so a high-throughput file at the same age and account count as a quiet one scopes higher. Volume is the multiplier on the other two.
A messy chart of accounts, undeposited-funds pileups, or a broken opening balance can add scope on top, but they tend to ride along with the three above rather than drive the number on their own.
What it costs
Fixed-scope pricing by engagement
Here is how the common engagements are priced. Each floor is the published starting point for that engagement — your free review turns it into one exact number for your file; we never bake a made-up number into this table.
| Engagement | Typical range | Timeline | What's included |
|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks cleanup | From $1,500 | About 1–4 weeks | Reconcile accounts, correct mis-categorized entries, and fix the chart so your reports tie. |
| Catch-up bookkeeping | From $1,500 | Scoped by months behind | Bring a file that is months or years behind current, period by period, to a clean tie. |
| Migration or setup | From $1,500 | About 1–2 weeks | Move to QuickBooks Online or Desktop, or set up a new file, with balances carried correctly. |
| Monthly bookkeeping | From $400/mo | Month to month | Ongoing categorization, reconciliation, and reports once the file is clean — no lock-in. |
| Estimate a cleanup with the calculator | |||
QuickBooks cleanup
- Typical range
- From $1,500
- Timeline
- About 1–4 weeks
- Included
- Reconcile accounts, correct mis-categorized entries, and fix the chart so your reports tie.
Catch-up bookkeeping
- Typical range
- From $1,500
- Timeline
- Scoped by months behind
- Included
- Bring a file that is months or years behind current, period by period, to a clean tie.
Migration or setup
- Typical range
- From $1,500
- Timeline
- About 1–2 weeks
- Included
- Move to QuickBooks Online or Desktop, or set up a new file, with balances carried correctly.
Monthly bookkeeping
- Typical range
- From $400/mo
- Timeline
- Month to month
- Included
- Ongoing categorization, reconciliation, and reports once the file is clean — no lock-in.
What "fixed fee" actually means for you
A fixed fee means the number you approve is the number you pay for the scope you approved — the risk of a slow week sits with us, not you. There is no hourly meter running while you wait, and no incentive for us to take longer.
Hourly billing quietly rewards slowness and hands you the uncertainty: you find out the total only when the work is done. A fixed scope flips that. We commit to a defined job and a defined price, so our only incentive is to finish it correctly. If, once we're in the file, we find something the read-only review genuinely couldn't see — a hidden second entity, a year of history nobody mentioned — we don't absorb it silently or spring it on the invoice. We stop, show you precisely what changed, and re-quote that added scope for your approval before we do it. The original fee never quietly grows.
Which model fits?
Fixed scope vs. hourly vs. subscription
Our fixed-scope model isn't the only honest way to buy bookkeeping help — it just fits different needs than hourly or subscription pricing. Rather than invent competitor prices, here is how the three models actually differ so you can pick the right one, even if it isn't us.
| Fixed scope (us) | Hourly bookkeeper | Subscription service | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total price known before work starts | — | Flat recurring | |
| Scope fixed in writing | — | Ongoing, not scoped | |
| Billed for time spent | — | — | |
| Requires an ongoing commitment | — | — | |
| Best for | A defined project — cleanup, catch-up, migration | Small, ad-hoc tasks | Steady monthly upkeep |
| Verdict | Know the total, then decide | Fine for small tasks | Fine for steady upkeep |
Need ongoing upkeep instead of a one-time project? Monthly bookkeeping is our month-to-month arrangement — and it, too, is quoted after the free review.
What every fixed fee includes
Every fixed fee includes the work, the proof, and the handoff: the defined job done, a written change log of what we touched, before-and-after reports that tie, and a call to walk you through it. Nothing is a line item you discover later.
The engagement is done remotely, over read-only access to your file or a screen-share you control — never your banking logins. When it closes, you get a documented record of every material change, not a black box, so you or your CPA can audit exactly what happened. That verification-first approach is the whole point of our methodology: we save your key reports before we start and re-run them after, so we can show that historical totals still tie rather than just assert it. The fee covers all of that — the work is not finished until the proof exists.
When our pricing is wrong for you
Our pricing is the wrong fit when the job is too small to be worth a paid engagement, or when what you actually need is a service we don't sell. We would rather say so at the review than take a fee that doesn't serve you.
If your file needs an afternoon of obvious fixes you're comfortable doing yourself, a fixed-fee engagement is more than the problem warrants — a free cleanup cost calculator can help you sanity-check the size before you ever talk to us. If you need tax preparation, an audit representative, or a CPA's sign-off, that's not us: we're QuickBooks and bookkeeping specialists, and we'll point you to the right kind of firm rather than pretend otherwise. And if the free review shows your books already read cleanly and tie, the honest answer is that you don't need to spend anything at all — which is exactly what we'll tell you.
How to trust the number
A quote is only as good as what stands behind it. Here is what you can check before you commit — the deliverable the fee buys, the method that proves the work, and our response commitment.
Our methodology
How we prove reports still tie, so a quote is backed by verifiable work.
Read the full methodResponse commitment
A real specialist replies within one business day, in writing.
Remote-first, nationwide
Mon–Sat · 8am–6pm CT
We work entirely remote — a fixed fee agreed in writing, secure read-only access to your file, a screen-share whenever you want to watch, and every change documented.
- Texas
- Florida
- California
- New York
Questions about QuickBooks pricing
How much does QuickBooks help cost?
Every engagement is a fixed scope with a fixed fee — project work from $1,500, monthly bookkeeping from $400/mo — quoted after a free read-only review of your file. We don't publish a single sticker price because the work isn't one thing — a light cleanup and a two-year catch-up are different jobs. The review is how we turn your actual file into one number you approve before anything starts.
Why won't you quote a price over the phone?
Because a phone call can't size the work. "My books are a mess" covers everything from three un-reconciled months on one account to two years across three accounts — jobs a week of work apart. The free read-only review shows us which one yours is, so the quote comes from your file instead of a padded range that protects us.
Do you charge by the hour?
No. You approve one fixed fee for a defined scope, and that is what you pay. Hourly billing hands you the risk of a slow week and rewards taking longer; a fixed scope puts that risk on us, so our only incentive is to finish the job correctly.
What makes one engagement cost more than another?
Age, accounts, and volume. Every month behind is another period to reconcile, every bank account, card, and connected feed is another ledger that has to tie on its own, and higher transaction volume multiplies both. A single-account file three months behind is a small job; the same file two years behind across several accounts and a card is a large one. The review measures all three, and the fee comes from that measurement.
Is the free review really free?
Yes, and it comes with no obligation. A senior specialist looks at your file, read-only, and tells you what it needs and what a fixed fee would be. If the answer is that you don't need us, we say so. You leave the review knowing your file's condition whether or not you hire us.
Can the price change once we start?
Not without your say-so. The fixed fee holds for the scope you approved. If we open the file and find something the review couldn't see — a hidden second entity, a year we didn't know was there — we stop, show you exactly what changed, and re-quote that added scope before touching it. You never get a surprise on the invoice.
Do I have to sign a monthly contract?
No. A project — cleanup, catch-up, migration, or setup — is a one-time fixed fee with no ongoing commitment. Monthly bookkeeping is a separate month-to-month arrangement: start it after a project or on its own, stop it any month. We don't lock projects into subscriptions.
How does your price compare to QuickBooks Live or an hourly bookkeeper?
They price on different models, so the honest comparison is structure, not a single number we'd have to invent. A subscription service charges a flat recurring fee for ongoing upkeep; an hourly bookkeeper bills for time spent; we quote a fixed fee for a defined project. For a bounded job like a cleanup or migration, a fixed scope means you know the total before you commit. For steady monthly upkeep, a subscription or our monthly bookkeeping may fit better.
What do I need before the review to get an accurate quote?
Almost nothing — read-only access to your QuickBooks file, or a screen-share you control, is enough. You don't need to tidy anything first; seeing the file as it really is makes the quote more accurate, not less. We never ask for your banking logins, and we scope from what's in QuickBooks, not from a questionnaire.
Ready for your number? A free QuickBooks review turns your file into a fixed quote. Or read what drives the cost of QuickBooks help before you start.