The short version is that average monthly expenses are a good proxy for how much work the books actually require. A business spending $5,000 a month doesn’t generate the same workload as a business spending $150,000 a month, even if both technically have one checking account and a credit card. More dollars usually means more transactions, more vendors, more reconciling items, and more categories to keep straight.

At GMJ Accounting, full-service bookkeeping starts at $225 a month. The price for any particular client is based on average monthly expenses measured by total dollar amount, plus complexity and volume. That last part matters. Two businesses can have similar expense totals and very different bookkeeping needs.

Total dollar amount is the starting point because it correlates strongly with transaction count for most businesses. A contractor running $80,000 through their accounts each month is moving real money across payroll, materials, subcontractors, fuel, equipment, and overhead. Each of those transactions needs to be categorized, reconciled, and supported with documentation. The dollar volume tells us roughly what we’re walking into before we look at anything else.

Complexity layers on top of that. A business with one bank account, one credit card, and a simple chart of accounts is straightforward. A business with multiple bank accounts, several credit cards, loan accounts, merchant processors, a payroll service, and inventory is a different animal entirely. So is a business that operates in multiple states, deals with sales tax in several jurisdictions, or runs through platforms like Shopify and Amazon that require separate reconciliations.

Volume is the third factor. Two businesses with identical monthly expenses can have wildly different transaction counts. A consulting firm spending $20,000 a month might have 30 transactions. An e-commerce store spending $20,000 a month might have 800. The reconciliation work scales with how many lines hit the books, not just the totals at the bottom. Our full-service bookkeeping pricing accounts for both sides of that equation.

This pricing approach is fairer than charging by the hour or by a flat rate that ignores what your books actually look like. Hourly billing punishes you when something takes longer than expected and creates an awkward incentive on the firm’s side. Flat pricing that ignores volume means simple clients subsidize complex ones. Tying the fee to average monthly expenses, then adjusting for complexity and volume, lines the price up with the actual work.

When you reach out about bookkeeping, tax and consulting services, expect to be asked about your bank and credit card statements, your accounting software, your sales channels, and roughly what your monthly spend looks like. Those answers give us what we need to quote a real number rather than a vague range. The goal is a price that holds up over time, not one that has to be renegotiated every quarter because the original estimate missed the mark.