Updated Checked by the Tax-Services.ca editorial team How we check
Nobody can give you one honest number for bookkeeping fees in Canada, and we couldn’t find an official source that publishes one. What we can tell you is what sets the price: how many transactions you have, whether you run payroll, and how tidy your records are when the bookkeeper starts. If a quote doesn’t ask about those three things, it’s a guess.
What decides your bookkeeping fees?
Bookkeepers price the work, not the business. A sole proprietor with 40 transactions a month and no staff is a small job. A shop with daily sales, two employees and a GST/HST account is a different one, even if the revenue looks similar on paper.
Five things move the price more than anything else. First is volume: every bank line has to be matched to a receipt or an invoice. Second is payroll, because each pay run means deductions, remittances and year-end slips. Third is sales tax, which brings returns on a fixed schedule. Fourth is the state of your books. Twelve months of unsorted receipts cost far more to fix than a clean month costs to keep up. Fifth is how fast you want reports.
Location and experience matter too, but we couldn’t confirm any regional figures, so treat anyone who quotes them as selling something.
How does payroll change the work?
It changes it a lot. Take one employee paid $3,000 every two weeks in Ontario. The payroll remittance calculator shows $961.03 to send the CRA each period: $732.62 held back from the employee, plus $228.41 that you add as the employer. The full cost of that one pay run is $3,228.41.
Every one of those figures has to be booked, remitted on time and reported on a T4 slip by the last day of February. Multiply by 26 pay periods and you can see why payroll is the first thing a bookkeeper asks about. The calculator leaves out workers’ compensation and other payroll levies, so your real cost is a little higher.
Which dates does a bookkeeper work to?
Ask which of these deadlines the fee covers. A bookkeeper who prepares the books but never watches the dates is doing half the job, and you’ll find out which half in the week a penalty letter arrives.
| Item | Date or rule (2026) |
|---|---|
| Self-employed income tax return | Due June 15 |
| Balance owing for a self-employed person | Due April 30 |
| Corporation T2 return | Six months after the tax year ends |
| T4 slips | Last day of February |
| Personal instalments | March 15, June 15, September 15, December 15 |
| Business records | Keep six years |
What should a quote spell out?
Get it in writing, and check for these lines.
- The number of bank accounts, cards and payment platforms covered.
- Whether payroll and sales tax returns are included or billed extra.
- What happens to the fee when you have a busy month.
- Who owns the file and how you get it back if you leave.
- Any cleanup of old records, which should be a one-time job with its own price.
A flat monthly fee is easy to budget, but only if the scope is clear. Hourly billing is fair when your needs swing. Neither is better on its own. The trouble starts when the scope is vague, because that’s where extra charges appear.
What will a bookkeeper need from you?
The fee depends partly on how much digging they have to do, so make their job easier. Bank and credit card statements for every account, even the ones you barely use. Copies of invoices you issued and bills you paid. Payroll records if you have staff. Last year’s return and your GST/HST filings, if any. The CRA’s page on where to keep your records and for how long says records generally need to be kept for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, so don’t toss anything you handed over just because a copy now sits in someone else’s file.
Picture Marcus, who runs a two-chair barbershop in Regina. He sends statements and a photo of each week’s cash tally on Monday morning, and his bookkeeper needs about an hour a month. Compare that with the owner who shows up in March with a banker’s box. Same business, very different invoice.
Where do people overpay or underbuy?
Usually in three places. They hire someone to catch up two years of records and expect the monthly price to apply. They pick the lowest quote and then find that payroll wasn’t in it. Or they never ask what software the bookkeeper uses, and end up locked into a file they can’t open.
The reverse happens too. Owners who do everything themselves often skip reconciling for months, then lose a weekend in March. Sole proprietor with modest volume? The self-employed tax calculator shows what a year of profit costs you in tax and CPP. On $100,000 of profit in Ontario it comes to $28,337.87 in income tax and both halves of CPP. A neat set of books is what lets you claim every expense that lowers that figure.
If your income is uneven, the tax instalments calculator shows whether you’ll owe quarterly payments. A bookkeeper who has current numbers can feed it, and you avoid interest on short payments.
How do you know a bookkeeper is worth it?
Ask for a sample monthly report and read it slowly, the way you’d read a lease. A report you can’t follow will stay unread all year, and a set of books nobody reads can’t warn you about anything until the tax bill lands. Can you tell how much cash you have, what you owe and what sales tax is due? If you can’t, the report isn’t doing its job, whatever the price.
Ask how they handle a missing receipt, and how quickly they answer. Then ask for the name of one current client in your line of work who’d talk to you. Small firms often say yes. And test the first month: a good bookkeeper will find a question about your records within days, not weeks.
Keep a note of the time you save. If you used to spend six hours a month on the books and now spend one, that’s five hours you can spend on customers or on a day off, and it’s a number you can weigh against the bill. Even a few bucks a month of fee can pay for itself if it keeps you out of a late-filing penalty. Just check the time saving is real before you renew, not only on day one.
Our sources
The dates and the six-year record rule come from the Canada Revenue Agency‘s 2026 deadline pages for businesses and self-employed people. Payroll figures come from the payroll remittance calculator on this site, which uses 2026 CRA payroll rules. We didn’t find an official source for typical bookkeeping fees, so this page gives none. Dates move to the next business day when they land on a weekend or holiday.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a standard monthly fee for bookkeeping?
No official body sets one, and we couldn't find a reliable published figure. Ask for a written quote based on your transaction count, payroll and sales tax filings.
Does payroll cost extra?
Often it does, because each pay run brings deductions, remittances and T4 slips. Check whether the quote lists it.
Should I choose a flat fee or hourly billing?
A flat fee suits steady work with a clear scope. Hourly billing suits uneven months. What matters is that the scope is written down.
How long do I keep business records?
The CRA says to keep records for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.
Can I do my own books and hire help only at year end?
Yes, but catching up a year of records usually takes longer than keeping them monthly. Ask for a separate price for cleanup work.
- Self-employed taxes in Canada: income, CPP and GST
How tax works when you are self-employed in Canada: reporting income and expenses, paying both halves of CPP, instalments and when to register for GST