How to price accounting services for small businesses

Start from a chargeable-hour rate, about $98 in our example, and build every fee from it. The steps:

1. 1Add up a year of practice costs.
2. 2Add the pay you want before tax.
3. 3Divide by the hours you can actually charge to clients, then add a margin.
4. 4Time your common jobs and turn them into fixed fees and monthly packages.
5. 5Check those fees against what small businesses pay locally.

Most clients prefer a known fee to an hourly bill. The hourly rate stays behind the scenes as the check that each fee pays.

Our example sole practitioner spends $21,000 a year before taking any pay. The usual lines:

• Tax preparation software, which often prices by return or by package.
• Bookkeeping and practice management software, client portal and e-signature.
• Professional liability (errors and omissions) insurance.
• License renewals and continuing professional education, if you hold a CPA license or are an enrolled agent.
• Office or coworking space.
• Phone, IT, backups and data security.
• Marketing: website, Google Business Profile, referral partners and directory listings.

Our example practitioner charges 1,296 of 2,160 working hours, or 60%. Admin, chasing documents, marketing, training and unbilled questions take the rest.

Chargeable time is lumpy. Tax season packs it into a few months, and the summer can be thin unless you've sold monthly work.

For comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage of employed accountants and auditors at $40.23 an hour, or $83,680 a year, in May 2025, and bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks at $24.36 an hour. Those are wages, not client fees, and they don't carry the costs or the unbilled time of running a practice.

These are example figures to show the sum. They aren't averages for accountants and they aren't Ringzel customer data.

1. 1Working time: 48 weeks x 45 hours = 2,160 hours.
2. 2Chargeable time: 60%, so 1,296 hours.
3. 3Break-even rate: $116,000 / 1,296 = $89.51 an hour.
4. 4Add a 10% margin: about $98 an hour.

Self-employment tax at 15.3% applies to your net earnings once they reach $400, with Social Security capped at $184,500 for 2026, so keep the pay line before tax.

Now turn the rate into fees. These are examples too:

Thumbtack puts the national average for hiring an accountant at $295 to $787 and tax preparation at an average of $323. Here's how fees look by service:

Sources: Thumbtack's accounting cost guide (updated 28 October 2026), Thumbtack's tax preparation cost guide and Intuit Accountants' summary of its November 2023 Tax Pro Forms Pricing Study of more than 200 accountants. The Intuit figures are older, so treat them as a floor.

The example Schedule C return at about $394 sits inside Thumbtack's tax preparation range. The example bookkeeping package at $197 a month is above the $75 to $175 monthly packages one firm lists on Thumbtack, which include fewer transactions.

Intuit lists six common models: a fee per form or schedule, a minimum plus complexity, value pricing, hourly, a fee per item of data, and a monthly, quarterly or annual package. In practice they fall into three:

Intuit's study found that the most common approach is not to give an estimate up front, but to bill once the return is done. A published starting price wins more new clients, because small business owners are comparing you with someone who did quote.

Yes. The IRS says anyone who prepares or assists in preparing federal tax returns for compensation must have a valid PTIN, and all enrolled agents must have one too.

Put the PTIN renewal into your yearly costs alongside your CPA license, enrolled agent renewal and continuing education, so the fees you set cover them.

Tax season holds most of your chargeable hours, so the fees you set there decide your year. A few rules help:

• Set a late-documents fee for anything that arrives after your cut-off, and say it in the engagement letter.
• Price extensions as their own line, since the return still has to be done later.
• Sell monthly or quarterly work in the spring, so summer isn't empty.
• Bundle the return into a year-round package for business clients, which Intuit notes can help spread client work across the year.

Whether your services are subject to state sales tax depends on your state; check before you print a fee schedule.

1. 1Review fees every year before tax season, as Intuit suggests, against your costs and your time per client.
2. 2Raise fees for new clients first.
3. 3Send existing clients new engagement letters with the new fee before work starts.
4. 4Reprice or let go of the clients who take the most time for the least fee.

Then fill the gaps with better clients. Our guide on marketing for accountants covers Google, referrals and niches.

A small business client on the example monthly package plus a return is worth $197 x 12 + $394 = $2,758 a year, so a missed call that would have signed one time in five costs about $552.

Clients often stay for years, so the real figure is higher. And a new caller who reaches voicemail may not leave a message at all; read does anyone leave voicemail, then put your own figures into our missed call calculator.

Ringzel is an AI receptionist for accountants and other small businesses. It answers every call 24/7, including the ones that come in while you're with a client or deep in a return, and takes down who's calling and what they need.

On the Professional and Premium plans it can book consultations into your calendar and transfer calls to you. The Android app is on Google Play, with the iPhone app coming soon.

Plans cost $99, $179 or $299 a month, as shown on our pricing page, with a 14-day free trial and no card. Basic is $1,188 a year, about three example Schedule C returns.