What would be a good rate for small business book keeping?
DazyDog asked:
I currently do book keeping full time for my employer (manufacture/construction field) and a we have a guy that uses us every now then that has an office a few doors down. He wants me to come in and organize and get things started in quickbooks (which I already use). What should I charge? I know it depends on how involved it is, but where should I start?
Walton
I currently do book keeping full time for my employer (manufacture/construction field) and a we have a guy that uses us every now then that has an office a few doors down. He wants me to come in and organize and get things started in quickbooks (which I already use). What should I charge? I know it depends on how involved it is, but where should I start?
Walton
He will probably want to pay you about what you are making working for your current employer. If he is not going to put you on the payroll you need to charge him more since he won’t be paying your payroll taxes and you will, so I would estimate a good rate would be what you are making now times 1.5. Say if you make $10.00 an hour, I would charge $15.00.
If you had your own business working out of your own office doing bookkeeping and you were using your own supplies and paying for advertising etc. I would recommend 2.5 times the rate at which you could get a job doing bookkeeping. So if you could get a job at $10.00 an hour the rate would be $25.00.
It will probably take you a while to organize everything. It really depends on if you will be starting from scratch. Is he using QuickBooks now or will you have to set-it up from the beginning? Then, how many months worth of data will you have to enter?
If you start from the beginning you will need to set up his company, a chart of accounts and all the beginning balances. Then enter all the checks, deposits, customers, etc.
It could take some time. If you overprice yourself he many find someone else, but then again don’t underprice yourself either.
Good luck!