Monthly Bookkeeping Services with Flat-Rate Pricing

Monthly bookkeeping services are an ongoing arrangement where a bookkeeper categorizes your transactions, reconciles every bank and credit card account, and delivers financial statements on a fixed schedule each month. CentsIQ closes your books by the 5th, for one flat monthly fee starting at $299.

Last updated: September 2026

What Is Included in Monthly Bookkeeping Services

Every CentsIQ monthly bookkeeping engagement covers the same core close, whether you are a solo operator or a growing team:

• Transaction categorization — every income and expense item coded to your chart of accounts
• Bank reconciliation — all bank, credit card, and merchant accounts reconciled to statement
• Accounts payable and receivable tracking — bills and invoices kept current
• Exception review — duplicates, missing transactions, and miscodes flagged before they compound
• Monthly financial statements — profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash summary in plain language
• A short monthly check-in — so you actually understand what the reports say

Work is performed in QuickBooks Online. If your file needs repair first, that is cleanup work, not monthly work — see the catch-up section below.

How Much Do Monthly Bookkeeping Services Cost?

CentsIQ monthly bookkeeping starts at $299 per month, billed as a flat fee with no hourly billing and no long-term contract. Your quote is fixed after we look at your actual file, so the number you are quoted is the number you pay.

Four things move the price:

• Transaction volume — how many items clear your accounts each month
• Number of accounts — each bank, credit card, loan, and merchant processor is another reconciliation
• Complexity — inventory, job costing, multi-entity, or fund accounting add work
• Payroll and sales tax — whether those need to be supported alongside the books

For comparison, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median wage for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks well above what most owners assume once payroll taxes, benefits, software, and management time are added on top. Outsourced monthly bookkeeping is usually the cheaper path until a business is large enough to keep someone busy full time.

Your Month-End Close, Step by Step

The close runs on the same schedule every month so you always know where things stand.

When	What happens
Days 1–2	Transactions imported and categorized; questions sent to you in one batch
Days 2–4	Bank, credit card, and merchant accounts reconciled to statement
Day 4	Exception review — duplicates, uncleared items, and odd balances investigated
Day 5	Financial statements delivered and the books locked for the period
Ongoing	Email, text, or a scheduled call whenever something does not make sense

Monthly Bookkeeping vs. Catching Up Once a Year

Most owners who call us are choosing between an ongoing monthly close and a once-a-year scramble before the tax deadline. The difference is not just tidiness.

	Monthly bookkeeping	Annual catch-up
When you see numbers	By the 5th, every month	Once, months after the fact
Cost pattern	Flat, predictable monthly fee	One large bill, often at the worst time
Error correction	Caught within weeks	Caught a year later, if at all
Tax preparation	Books already closed and reconciled	Reconstruction under deadline pressure
Decision support	Current data for pricing, hiring, cash	Historical data only
Cash flow visibility	Continuous	None between filings

Cash visibility is the part owners underestimate. The Federal Reserve Banks’ 2025 Small Business Credit Survey found 51% of employer firms faced uneven cash flow in the prior year, and more than half struggled to cover operating expenses. You cannot manage a cash gap you learn about in April.

Behind on Your Books? That Is Normal

Almost every client we take on starts behind. Some are a few months out; some are more than a year out. Catch-up work is priced separately from the monthly fee, done first, and then the monthly close keeps the file from drifting again. No judgment, no lectures.

Businesses We Support

CentsIQ has served small businesses since 2018 — restaurants, e-commerce sellers, construction contractors, nonprofits, retail shops, salons, property managers, and professional service firms. We work remotely with clients nationwide and are based in the Seattle and King County, Washington area.

How to Get Started

1. Book a free consultation and tell us what is going on with your books.
2. We review your QuickBooks Online file and quote a flat monthly fee, plus catch-up work if needed.
3. You connect your accounts securely and we take over the close.
4. You get statements by the 5th, every month, with a short check-in.

Monthly Bookkeeping Services FAQ

What do monthly bookkeeping services include?

Monthly bookkeeping services include categorizing all income and expense transactions, reconciling every bank and credit card account to statement, tracking bills and invoices, reviewing for errors and duplicates, and delivering a profit and loss statement and balance sheet each month.

How much does monthly bookkeeping cost?

CentsIQ monthly bookkeeping starts at $299 per month as a flat fee. Final pricing depends on transaction volume, the number of accounts to reconcile, and complexity such as inventory or job costing. There is no hourly billing and no contract.

Is virtual bookkeeping the same as monthly bookkeeping?

Virtual, online, remote, and outsourced bookkeeping describe where the work happens — off-site, in cloud software. Monthly bookkeeping describes how often it happens. CentsIQ is both: virtual delivery on a fixed monthly close cycle.

What software do you use?

QuickBooks Online. If your books currently live in spreadsheets, desktop QuickBooks, or another platform, we will tell you what a migration involves before you commit to anything.

How long does it take to catch up books that are behind?

It depends on how many months are open and how clean the source records are. A few months of a simple single-account file can often be caught up in one to two weeks; a year or more with multiple accounts takes longer. We scope it after reviewing the file, not before.

Do you file my taxes?

Yes, but tax filing is a separate engagement — it is not part of monthly bookkeeping and is only in scope when your agreement says so explicitly. Monthly bookkeeping produces the clean, reconciled financial statements a return is built from. If you already have a CPA or tax preparer, we work directly with them.

Do I need a bookkeeper if I use accounting software?

Software imports transactions; it does not verify that they are coded correctly or that your accounts actually reconcile. Bank feed rules routinely miscategorize items, and unreconciled accounts produce financial statements that look complete but are wrong.

Can I cancel?

Yes. Monthly bookkeeping is month to month with no long-term contract.

Ready to Get Started?

If you are tired of doing it yourself — or not doing it at all — monthly bookkeeping means you always know where you stand, and your books stop being something you dread. One flat monthly fee, no hourly surprises, no contracts. Clear books, every single month.