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The True Cost Of A Bookkeeper

Outsourcing Your Bookkeeping

Jillian Dearing

March 17, 2008

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Bookkeepers are not as inexpensive as one might think.  When you think about hiring someone to handle one of the most critical aspects of your business - your money, you want someone who is not only honest and reliable but someone who actually knows what they're doing.

Unfortunately, we know first-hand what an inexperienced bookkeeper can do to a business because companies hire us all the time to clean up their accounting.  Let's start out by looking at what your bookkeeper is really costing your business.

The median hourly rate for a bookkeeper with 5-9 years experience is around $15 at 40 hours per week.  Health insurance for the employee with no dependents we'll estimate at $350 per month.  Add on two weeks of vacation per year, ten paid holidays and for some companies, sick leave, and you're looking at an additional $2,000 - $2,500.  Other expenses include payroll taxes, workers' compensation and retirement plan/401K match. 

Now, let's take a look at what you probably never really have taken into consideration.  How many hours do you spend when you're first hiring a bookkeeper placing advertisements, doing interviews, calling references, etc.?  How many hours a week do you spend initially training your bookkeeper and then how many hours on a weekly basis afterwards?

Typically, most companies both large and small have a CPA (wise idea).  Perhaps you hire your CPA to close out each month or quarter or you simply have that person prepare your year-end tax returns.  If you are lucky enough to have a bookkeeper who actually knows how to prepare financial statements (most don't) then this may not be an issue. However, we've found that companies spend an exorbitant amount of money on CPA's to clean up mistakes bookkeepers have made.  This is simply unnecessary.

So in summary, if you add up all the costs, you are looking at well over $4,000 per month in comparison to the initial assumption that you're paying a flat $15 per hour or $2,600 per month.  If you would like to calculate costs based on what your company is currently paying for your bookkeeper, visit our website using this link and plug in the numbers: http://www.osibusinessservices.com/calculate_cost.php

Our concern is the success of your business and we are here to answer any questions you may have with regard to your accounting.  Please feel free to send us an email or give us a call.  We look forward to hearing from you. 

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