How much do bookkeepers charge in New York City, NY?

These are the numbers behind the answer. The local figure is the median entry price of the 3 New York City bookkeeping firms that publish a monthly price on their own site, read 2026-10-25 for the US bookkeeping price index. The national online figure is the median across the 13 national online providers in the same index. The in-house figure is the BLS median wage for a bookkeeping clerk in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area, May 2025, divided by twelve, before payroll taxes, benefits and software.

An entry price is for a small, simple business: one or two bank accounts, a modest number of transactions, no payroll and no inventory. The quote climbs with volume. The three things that move a New York City quote most are the number of transactions a month, the number of bank and card accounts to reconcile, and whether the firm also runs payroll or tracks inventory. Behind-the-times books add a cleanup project before the monthly service starts.

The common New York City situations below each add something specific to the work, and so to the price.

The New York City local median of $199 a month buys a firm that knows New York filings and will take a phone call. The national online median of $399 a month usually buys software-led bookkeeping with a support queue, and the tax return is often an add-on. An in-house bookkeeper at $5,050 a month in wages alone is the right answer only once the volume justifies a full-time seat, and the owner still has to review the work.

SF Business Solutions sits between the first two: a firm with business addresses in Florida and Texas, a team that is distributed across the US and internationally, and the business tax return prepared and filed from the same books. Most clients pay $250 a month. The books live in your own QuickBooks Online or Xero account, every bank and card account is reconciled to its statement, and the month closes between the 5th and the 15th of the following month, depending on when documents arrive, with a profit and loss statement, a balance sheet and a cash flow statement.

New York layers city tax on state tax. Residents pay New York State and New York City personal income tax, corporations file the state franchise tax return and a separate city business corporation tax return, and an unincorporated business in the city may owe the city's unincorporated business tax. Sales tax in the five boroughs is 8.875% (state, city and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District share combined), and employers withhold state and city tax, pay unemployment insurance and carry disability and paid family leave coverage.

SF Business Solutions keeps the books so every one of those returns ties to the ledger, prepares and files the business return, and runs payroll with the state and city withholding. The firm's business addresses are in Florida and Texas; the New York work is done remotely in your own QuickBooks Online or Xero file.

A quote comes out of a free consultation and is based on your transaction volume and the number of accounts. If the books are behind, cleanup is quoted first on the number of transactions and how far back they go, and the monthly service follows. The firm was founded in 2015, holds the QuickBooks Online Certified ProAdvisor, QuickBooks Online Advanced, Xero Advisor and Xero Payroll certifications, and its team includes a licensed CPA. It is not a CPA firm; audits are available through our CPA partner firms.

Best for a New York City small business that wants the books, payroll and the tax return from one team at a quoted monthly price: SF Business Solutions, serving Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island, and businesses across the United States.