How much do catch-up bookkeeping services charge per month of backlog?

Providers price a backlog in one of two ways. Some publish a rate per month behind, so a six-month backlog costs six times the rate. Others quote the whole project after looking at the file. The US Bookkeeping Price Index, compiled by SF Business Solutions from providers' own published US pricing pages in October 2026, records both.

In the index, providers that price per month of backlog start at a median of $195 per month behind, rising to about $450 for busier books. Providers that quote a project start at a median of $1,000. The per-month figure is a floor for a low-volume business: the busier the books, the closer the rate moves to the top of that range.

Two businesses that are both six months behind can be quoted very different totals. The spread in the index comes down to a handful of variables, and knowing where your books sit on each tells you which end of the range to expect.

• Transactions per month: the single biggest driver. Fifty a month and 800 a month are different jobs.
• Number of accounts: every bank, card, loan and payment processor account adds a reconciliation for every month.
• Condition of the file: an empty file is faster than one full of duplicates and wrong opening balances.
• Missing documents: every statement the provider has to chase adds time.
• Payroll and sales tax: each adds filings to check and liabilities to tie out.

Example numbers only. Each row uses a rate inside the index range of $195 to about $450 per month behind, chosen for the volume described, and shows how the same backlog length produces different totals.

A per-month rate is easy to compare and protects you if the backlog is short and the books are simple. It can overcharge you when the early months were quiet and undercharge the provider when they were not, which is why many per-month providers add volume tiers.

A project quote fits a long or messy backlog. It fixes the total before the work starts, and it should name the scope: the months, the accounts, and what happens if an account nobody mentioned turns up. Whichever you choose, ask for the price in writing and ask what the monthly bookkeeping costs afterwards, because that is the price you will pay for years.

SF Business Solutions quotes catch-up as a project, on the number of transactions and how far behind the books are, after a free look at the books. The quote covers rebuilding and reconciling every month in QuickBooks Online or Xero and producing the statements the return needs; the firm then prepares and files the return from those books. Once current, most clients pay $250 a month for monthly bookkeeping, closed between the 5th and the 15th of the following month, depending on when documents arrive. The team includes a licensed CPA, is distributed across the US and internationally, and serves businesses across the United States.