How much does an accountant or bookkeeper cost for an online store?

Bookkeeping prices published by firms that serve small businesses and online brands, as listed on their own pricing pages on October 7, 2026:

Above those entry tiers, Finaloop and Pilot move to custom quotes.^[3][1] Catch-up work is usually separate: Bookkeeper360 lists prior bookkeeping from $1,000 per project,^[4] and Bench quotes catch-up beyond a year as a flat fee based on how far behind you are.^[2]

For an hourly reference point, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay of bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks at $24.36 an hour (May 2025).^[5] That is what the person earns, not what a firm bills. One published hourly rate: Bench lists a fractional bookkeeper working inside your own QuickBooks at $55 an hour plus a one-time $1,200 onboarding.^[2]

When an accountant or CPA firm quotes rather than publishes a price, the useful question is how they price:

• Per engagement. A fixed fee for a defined job, such as a year-end return or a set of financial statements.
• Hourly. Common for advice, notices and one-off projects.
• A monthly retainer covering bookkeeping, tax planning and the return together.

For context on what the work pays, the median pay of accountants and auditors was $40.23 an hour in May 2025, against $24.36 for bookkeeping clerks.^[6][5] Whether you need a CPA for the work at all is a separate question; see CPA, accountant or bookkeeper for which you actually need.

The accountant cost you pay is set less by the title and more by the hours your records take. A preparer working from reconciled books spends their time on the return, not on rebuilding a year of payouts.

A tax preparation fee pays for the return itself. Published examples for business returns, fetched October 7, 2026:

• Pilot: single-member LLC returns from $1,000 a year, partnerships and S corporations from $2,000 a year, sold with its bookkeeping.^[1]
• Bookkeeper360: business tax from $1,000 a year; business and personal together from $1,500 a year.^[4]
• Bench: full-service tax at $300 a month on a 12-month commitment, or bookkeeping and tax together at $649 a month.^[2]

Anyone with an IRS Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) can be paid to prepare returns; CPAs, enrolled agents and attorneys hold credentials on top of that.^[7] The IRS advises avoiding preparers who base their fees on a percentage of the refund.^[8] Tax prep charges also rise with the state of the books: a preparer who has to reconstruct sales from deposits bills for that time.

Bookkeeping cost follows the work, and for a seller the work grows with four things:

• Order volume. More orders mean more payouts, refunds and fees to reconcile. That is why our plan prices are set by monthly orders and channels.
• Sales channels. Each marketplace or storefront has its own settlement report, fee structure and payout timing. Two channels is noticeably more work than one; five is more again.
• Inventory locations. Stock in a warehouse, a 3PL and a marketplace fulfillment center has to be counted in each place for cost of goods sold to be right.
• Months behind. Any months not yet recorded are a one-time catch-up before the monthly price starts.

Other things that add work: imports with freight and duty to spread across products, multiple currencies, several bank and card accounts, and payroll.

Bookkeeping can be priced three ways:

• A fixed monthly fee for a defined scope, usually in tiers by orders, revenue or channels. Easy to budget; check what the tier includes.
• Hourly billing. Fair for irregular work, harder to predict, and it can rise in exactly the months your store is busiest.
• Catch-up as a one-time project, priced per month behind or as a quote for the whole period.

Your tax preparer's fee for the return is separate from bookkeeping. Clean, reconciled books mean they spend their time on the return rather than on rebuilding figures.

Whatever you pay, the monthly service should leave you with:

• Every payout from every channel reconciled to the bank, with sales recorded gross and fees, refunds and reserves broken out.
• Bank and card accounts reconciled to their statements.
• Inventory and cost of goods sold kept current, with landed cost on stock you buy.
• A monthly profit and loss and balance sheet, closed on a set date.
• At year end, books your tax preparer can work from, including a tie-out from each Form 1099-K to your sales.

When you compare quotes, compare these deliverables line by line, so you are pricing the same work.

The comparison is not bookkeeping against nothing. It is bookkeeping against the cost of the decisions made without it: a reorder placed on a margin that included no freight, an ad budget set on deposits rather than sales, a tax preparer billing to rebuild a year of payouts, or a catch-up project covering twelve months instead of one. Keeping the books current each month is what keeps a catch-up small.

• Is the price fixed monthly, and what moves me into the next tier?
• Do you reconcile marketplace settlements line by line, or only the bank deposits?
• Do you track inventory and cost of goods sold, including stock at fulfillment centers?
• What day are the books closed each month?
• Who works on my books, and what credential do they hold?
• If I am behind, how is the catch-up priced, and is it in writing before work starts?

If you sell on one or more marketplaces and want the payouts, fees, inventory and cost of goods sold kept current every month, that is what our monthly e-commerce bookkeeping does, with books your tax preparer can work from at year end. We publish our plans and our catch-up rate on one page, with what each plan includes and what moves you between them: see our prices. If you are behind, catch-up bookkeeping is priced per month behind at the same published rate.