How much does accounting cost for a startup?
The range is wide because startups are not all the same. A bootstrapped SaaS company with 20 transactions a month has different needs than a funded e-commerce brand processing hundreds of orders daily. Here’s what you can expect to pay at different levels.
DIY with accounting software runs $0 to $50 per month. QuickBooks or Xero handles invoicing, expense tracking, and basic reports. This works fine for pre-revenue founders who have time to learn the software and stay on top of it. The problem is most founders don’t have that time, and the books slip until they become a mess.
Basic bookkeeping from a professional typically costs $300 to $800 per month. This covers transaction categorization, monthly reconciliation, and standard financial statements. For startups with straightforward operations and moderate transaction volume, this level handles the day-to-day needs and keeps the books clean.
Full-service bookkeeping with more complexity runs $800 to $2,000 per month. Higher transaction volume, multiple revenue streams, inventory, payroll, multi-state sales tax, or investor reporting all push costs up. You’re paying for someone to handle the details that would otherwise eat your time or get ignored.
Fractional CFO services add $1,000 to $5,000 or more per month depending on involvement. This isn’t bookkeeping. It’s financial strategy, forecasting, fundraising support, and decision-making help. Most early-stage startups don’t need this until they’re raising a round or scaling quickly.
Tax preparation is separate and usually runs $500 to $3,000 annually for startups, depending on entity type and complexity. Some bookkeeping providers include tax prep in their packages. Others don’t.
What drives cost up: high transaction volume, multiple integrations with payment processors or e-commerce platforms, inventory tracking, multiple states with nexus, payroll, and the need for investor-ready financials. What keeps it down: simple operations, low transaction count, and straightforward revenue models.
The real cost to consider is what happens when you don’t invest. Founders who push bookkeeping off for a year end up paying for cleanup, which often costs more than a year of proper bookkeeping would have. Worse, messy books delay fundraising. Investors ask for financials and you’re scrambling to reconstruct months of transactions instead of closing the round.
A good startup bookkeeper pays for itself by keeping you out of trouble and making fundraising faster. The monthly fee is predictable. The cost of getting it wrong is not.
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