How To Start A Bookkeeping Business

Would a competant accountant really charge $25 per hour for their bookkeeping services?

The photo was taken in a local bottle shop – the staff weren’t paying attention to what they were doing. The wine was intended to be sold at twice the price (3 for $19.99)

A qualified accountant contacted us looking for bookkeeping work, and stated that their hourly rate was $25 per hour. A couple of thoughts spring to mind immediately:

1) A great accountant does not necessarily make a great bookkeeper.
Many accountants “learn bookkeeping” in the course of their studies, and then go on to complete their accountancy studies. Just as a being a carpenter does not necessarily make you a builder, a qualified builder does not necessarily mean that you are a competant carpenter

2) How confident does the “qualified accountant” feel to only charge $25 per hour for bookkeepeing services? Would you, as a business owner, be concerned that this accountant (who has the piece of paper to prove it) would really be capable of doing your bookwork?

Of course, there are some excellent, well qualified, and very experienced accountants that are semi-retired and just happy to do some bookkeeping. These people may not be concerned about having to make a living from doing some extra book-keeping for friends, family or associates.

Professional accountants have legal obligations to adhere to such as registrations, insurances and so forth that have to be paid for somehow. That’s on top of their living expenses and other outgoings. Plus they are looking to recover the costs of their studies, as well as placing a value on their experience. So they need to charge accordingly

Professional bookkeepers are now being brought into the same legalese with new legislation that’s been introduced that will have little effect for the small business owner apart from seeing an increase in bookkeeping rates to cover aditional overheads that the new legislation has created.

How long can a competant accountant survive charging $25 per hour? At 40 hours per week, that’s $1000. If they are self employed there’s holiday pay, super, insurances etc and also their contribution to the Government coffers. Not much left to buy a coffee with each week!