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What does your bookkeeping actually cost?

Most owners underestimate it, because the real number isn't a fee — it's a salary plus employer NI plus pension, or it's your own evenings. Put your figures in and see the annual total.

Include chasing receipts, coding, reconciling and the VAT return.
What you'd bill, or what you'd pay someone to do the work you're not doing instead.
If they also do admin or customer service, drop this below 100.
Your current annual cost
£0
Assumptions and what this doesn't include
  • Employer National Insurance at 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year (2026/27 secondary threshold).
  • Employer pension at 3% of qualifying earnings — the band between £6,240 and £50,270.
  • Employment Allowance is up to £10,500 for 2026/27, but you can't claim it if your only employee paid above the secondary threshold is a director. Tick the box only if you're eligible and it genuinely absorbs the NI.
  • This excludes recruitment, holiday and sickness cover, equipment, software licences, training and the cost of managing someone.
  • It also excludes the cost of errors — a wrong VAT treatment or a missed accrual doesn't show up on any payroll report.
  • These figures are an estimate to help you think, not a quote and not advice on your circumstances.
Why the comparison isn't quite fair — in both directions. An employed bookkeeper is in your office and does other things. We're not, and we don't. But we're a Chartered Management Accountant reviewing the numbers rather than a part-time hire, and there's no holiday, no sick pay and no recruitment when it goes wrong. Worth weighing both.
What the number usually shows

The cheapest option is rarely the one with the smallest invoice

Two things tend to surprise people. The first is that employing someone costs roughly 20% more than the salary once employer NI and pension are added — and that gap widened in April 2025 when the rate went to 15% and the threshold dropped to £5,000.

The second is that doing it yourself isn't free. Ten hours a month is a working fortnight a year, spent on the part of the business that generates nothing.

Neither of those means outsourcing is automatically right. If your books are simple and you enjoy the control, keep doing them. The number is worth knowing either way.

Our bookkeeping starts at £199 + VAT a month, fixed, and if you're VAT registered the VAT comes back. Management accounts and Virtual FD work are quoted after a free initial review, because what they cost depends on the size and state of the business. See where we work.

Want to know if the books are right, not just what they cost?

The free Bookkeeping Health Check scores your books out of 100 and tells you exactly what's wrong. No login, nothing uploaded, no obligation.

Run the free Health Check → Or book a 30-minute initial review