UK bookkeeping costs £20 to £55 an hour in 2026. If you want a fixed fee, a quiet sole trader might pay about £100 a month. Once VAT and payroll are involved, that can rise to £700 or more.
What drives the price is not business size on its own. It is transaction count. A sole trader with 40 bank lines a month is light work. A shop with 400 is not.
This guide breaks down the usual ranges and the things that push a quote up or down.
Quick answer
Ad hoc work usually falls in the £20 to £55 an hour range. A sole trader on a fixed fee often pays £100 to £300 a month. A small limited company often lands at £200 to £400. Add VAT and payroll, and the monthly cost can reach £400 to £700.
What do UK bookkeepers charge per hour?
Hourly bookkeeping rates run from £20 to £55 across the UK in 2026. Freelance and junior bookkeepers sit at £18 to £30. Qualified bookkeepers and established firms charge £30 to £55. Catch-up work on neglected books is usually billed by the hour.
Two 2026 UK guides point to much the same range. Alto Accounting quotes £18 to £30 an hour for freelance bookkeepers and £30 to £50 for firms. Hill Bookkeepers quotes £35 to £55 plus VAT for general bookkeeping. Taken together, the market range is £20 to £55.
Hourly billing makes sense for a one-off job. Cleaning up two years of unrecorded transactions is a good example.
It is a poor fit for ongoing work. You cannot budget for it, and neither side knows when to stop.
What do monthly bookkeeping packages cost?
Monthly fixed fees track transaction volume. Under 50 transactions a month costs roughly £100 to £300. Between 50 and 200 transactions costs roughly £200 to £400. Add VAT returns, payroll and reporting, and the range moves to £400 to £700 a month.
Here is the same picture in table form. The figures below sit in the overlap of the two sources named above.
| Monthly transactions | Typical business | Monthly fee range |
|---|---|---|
| Under 50 | Sole trader, freelancer, single bank account | £100 to £300 |
| 50 to 200 | Small limited company, one or two staff | £200 to £400 |
| 100 to 300, plus VAT and payroll | Growing agency or trade business | £400 to £700 |
| 300 plus, multiple accounts | Established company, several entities | £700 to £1,200 |
Count your bank lines before you ask for a quote. Export three months from your bank and divide by three. That one number will get you a more realistic price faster than a long turnover discussion.
Most UK firms price a monthly bookkeeping service this way. Volume sets the base fee, then the extras sit on top.
What drives your bookkeeping price up?
Six things move the number. Transaction volume, VAT registration and payroll come first. Then the number of bank accounts, the state of the records and how fast you need the work done. Cash businesses and multi currency businesses cost more again. Software you already use can lower the price.
Transaction volume is the main driver. Every line has to be coded and matched.
VAT registration adds a quarterly return and a stricter record keeping burden. GOV.UK sets out the rules on keeping VAT records. You need to keep a VAT account and hold the records for six years. Expect £25 to £75 per return on top of the base fee.
Payroll is a separate monthly job with its own deadlines. Most bookkeepers price it per payslip.
The number of bank accounts matters too. Two accounts and a card means three feeds to match, not one.
The state of the records changes the job a lot. A tidy handover is cheap. Two years of shoebox receipts is a project.
Speed matters as well. Year end catch up in late January costs more. Steady monthly work costs less.
What does a base bookkeeping fee actually include?
A standard monthly fee usually covers bank feed coding, monthly bank matching, and basic supplier and customer invoice entry. That is the floor. VAT returns, chasing late payers, payroll reconciliation and management reports cost extra. Cheap headline quotes often leave all four out.
Alto Accounting lists what cheap quotes tend to leave out. It is a useful checklist:
- VAT return preparation
- credit control and chasing late payments
- payroll reconciliation
- work in progress tracking
- management reporting beyond raw ledgers
Ask for an itemised quote, not a headline price. Two quotes at the same number can still hide very different scope.
The full task list sits in our guide to what a bookkeeper does. Compare any quote against it line by line.
Is it cheaper to do your own bookkeeping?
Only if your time is worth less than the fee. Software costs £10 to £30 a month. Add four hours of your own time. The real cost often beats a fixed fee. DIY also risks missed claims and late filings.
Run the numbers on your own hour. Four hours a month at £40 an hour is £160 of your time. That is already inside the fixed fee range for a sole trader.
Then add the cost of getting it wrong. Missed expense claims raise your tax bill. Missed deadlines bring penalties. HMRC can fine a company £3,000 for failing to keep proper accounting records. Directors can also lose the right to run a company.
Hiring someone in house is another option with its own maths. Read in house vs outsourced bookkeeping before you hire anyone.
Why do two quotes differ so much?
Scope, qualification and supervision set the gap. A coding only quote always beats a full scope quote on price. A qualified bookkeeper costs more than an unqualified one. Anyone paid to do your books also needs anti money laundering supervision by law.
The supervision point is the one owners skip. Paid bookkeepers count as accountancy service providers. They need anti money laundering supervision from a professional body or from HMRC.
GOV.UK is blunt about it. You break the law if you do this work without registering with a supervisory authority.
So ask one question of any cheap quote. Who supervises you for money laundering? A real answer names a body. Silence usually explains the price.
Getting a quote that holds
Bring three numbers to the conversation. Your monthly transaction count, your VAT status, and how many people you pay.
With those three, a decent provider can price the work in one call. Without them, you will get a range first and a revision later.
DASA’s small business bookkeeping service is priced on volume and scope, not guesswork. Send us your transaction count and tell us how you take payments. Get a quote and we will send you our current pricing.
This article gives general information about UK bookkeeping costs. Prices quoted are market ranges from third party sources, not DASA prices. It is not financial, tax or legal advice. Speak to a qualified accountant about your own situation.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a bookkeeper cost per hour in the UK?
Hourly bookkeeping rates run from £20 to £55 in 2026. Freelance and junior bookkeepers sit at £18 to £30. Qualified bookkeepers and established firms charge £30 to £55. Catch-up work is usually billed hourly.
How much does monthly bookkeeping cost for a small business?
Monthly fees track transaction volume. Under 50 transactions a month costs roughly £100 to £300. Between 50 and 200 transactions costs roughly £200 to £400. Add VAT returns and payroll, and the range moves to £400 to £700.
What is included in a standard bookkeeping fee?
A base fee usually covers bank feed coding, monthly bank matching, and basic supplier and customer invoice entry. VAT returns, credit control, payroll reconciliation and management reports are usually extra.
Is it cheaper to do your own bookkeeping?
Only if your time is worth less than the fee. Software costs £10 to £30 a month. Four hours of your own time at £40 an hour is £160, which already sits inside the fixed fee range for a sole trader.
Why are some bookkeeping quotes so cheap?
Cheap quotes usually cover coding only. VAT returns, credit control, payroll reconciliation and reporting get stripped out. Some cheap providers also lack anti money laundering supervision, which paid bookkeepers need by law.