Free tool
Bookkeeping cost calculator
What should bookkeeping actually cost you per year? Enter how many businesses you keep books for and how many bank accounts should feed automatically, and compare the three ways the market prices the same job.
Compare your annual cost
Entry-tier list prices; a real quote varies with volume and add-ons. Your review time is a cost in every option and is not priced here.
Human bookkeeping service$7,176/yr
$299/mo per business, entry tier (Bench, as of July 2026)
Accounting software, per company$912/yr
$38/mo per company, entry list price (QuickBooks Online, as of July 2026)
LedgerMCP + the AI you have$108/yr
Software free; $9/mo covers all 4 connected accounts, pooled
Where the differences come from
The spread is structural. Human services price a person’s time per business. Traditional software prices a subscription per company file, before the person or AI operating it. The agent-plus-ledger shape prices neither: the software is free because the AI you already subscribe to supplies the labor, and the only metered thing is live bank feeds.
The full breakdown with worked scenarios is in how much does AI bookkeeping cost and what bookkeeping costs a small business. Pricing details live on the pricing page.
The honest caveats
Common questions
How much does bookkeeping cost for a small business?
Three shapes, three price bands as of mid-2026. Human services run $299 to $499 per month per business at entry tiers. Accounting software runs $38 to $275 per month per company, plus your time or an assistant. An AI agent on free ledger software costs $0 to $79 per month total, plus the AI subscription you likely already pay.
Why does most bookkeeping software charge per company?
Because the subscription is the product. Each legal entity needs its own company file, so a second business or a few client books multiplies the bill. Pooled pricing flips that: LedgerMCP books are unlimited and free, and the only meter is connected bank accounts, shared across everything you keep.
Is free bookkeeping software actually free?
Here, the software genuinely is: unlimited books, CSV import, categorization, reconciliation, and every report, no trial clock. The paid feature is live bank feeds, from $9 per month pooled. The honest total cost of any bookkeeping setup also includes your review time, which no vendor can price away.
When is a human bookkeeping service worth it?
When you want zero involvement and the price of a part-time professional is acceptable. You send documents, humans return finished books. If you can spend ten minutes a month reviewing an agent’s flagged items instead, the same monthly close costs roughly a service’s single month per year.
Try the $0 column for real
Free books, your AI does the work, no card. If it is not simpler than what you do now, you lost nothing.