How much does a bookkeeper cost in Canada?

A bookkeeper employed in Canada earns a median of $28.02 an hour, according to Job Bank's wage data for bookkeepers, with most earning between about $19.55 and $45.07. That's what a bookkeeper is paid as an employee. A bookkeeping firm or a freelancer charges you more than that per hour, because their rate has to cover their software, insurance, unbilled time and profit. Most small businesses pay a firm either by the hour or a fixed monthly fee, and the fee depends mainly on how many transactions you have and how tidy your records are.

We couldn't find a reliable published survey of what Canadian bookkeeping firms charge, so this guide doesn't quote a price range for firms. It explains how they price, what pushes the price up, and how to get quotes you can compare.

What bookkeepers earn, by province

These are hourly wages for bookkeepers (NOC 12200), from Job Bank, based on Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey for 2023 to 2024. "Low" and "high" are the bottom and top of the usual range, not the absolute extremes.

Where	Low	Median	High
Canada	$19.55	$28.02	$45.07
Alberta	$20.00	$30.00	$50.96
British Columbia	$19.44	$28.00	$47.45
Manitoba	$17.00	$25.00	$40.85
New Brunswick	$16.00	$25.00	$40.00
Newfoundland and Labrador	$17.00	$25.00	$40.00
Nova Scotia	$17.00	$24.04	$38.00
Ontario	$19.23	$28.50	$46.15
Prince Edward Island	$17.30	$25.00	$39.42
Quebec	$20.25	$28.02	$43.75
Saskatchewan	$18.00	$27.16	$43.27

The data is a couple of years old, and wages have generally gone up since. Treat it as a floor for what someone will cost you, not a quote.

The three ways bookkeepers charge

By the hour

Common for freelancers and for one-off work. You pay for the time spent, so a quiet month costs less than a busy one. The catch is that you don't know the bill until it arrives, and a disorganized month (missing receipts, unexplained transactions) costs more because it takes longer.

A fixed monthly fee

Common for firms. You agree on a monthly price for a defined scope, such as recording transactions, reconciling your accounts, and preparing GST/HST figures. The price is usually set by tiers of monthly transactions or revenue. It's predictable, but read what's included: payroll, invoicing customers, paying bills, and year-end work are often extra.

A flat fee for catch-up work

If you're months or years behind, most bookkeepers quote a separate one-time fee to bring the books up to date before the monthly work starts. It's usually priced per month of backlog or per account. It's often the most expensive part of hiring someone.

What drives the price

• Number of transactions. A café with 1,500 card sales a month takes far longer than a consultant with 20 invoices.
• Number of accounts. Each bank account, credit card and loan is another statement to reconcile every month.
• Payroll. Running payroll and making source deduction remittances is a separate job with deadlines and penalties, and most bookkeepers charge for it per employee per pay period.
• Inventory. Counting and valuing stock adds time.
• GST/HST filing frequency. Monthly filers need their books closed every month. Annual filers can sometimes be done less often.
• How you hand over records. Receipts photographed and statements downloaded on time cost less to process than a shoebox in March.
• Accounts payable and receivable. Paying your bills and chasing your customers is more work than recording them.
• Who does it. A bookkeeper with a CPA designation, or a firm with an accountant reviewing the work, usually charges more than a sole bookkeeper. Bookkeeping isn't a regulated occupation in Canada, Job Bank notes, so check experience and references.

A worked example: hiring part-time vs a monthly service

A small renovation company has one chequing account, one credit card, about 120 transactions a month, files GST/HST quarterly, and has no employees. A bookkeeper estimates 6 hours a month.

Hiring someone part-time as an employee, at Ontario's median wage of $28.50:

• Wages: 6 × $28.50 = $171.00 a month
• Plus the employer's CPP and EI, vacation pay, payroll admin, and the software they'll use
• Plus your time training and supervising them, and finding cover when they leave

For 6 hours a month, few people would take the job, which is why most small businesses use a freelancer or a firm instead.

A freelancer or firm: the hourly rate will be higher than the wage, because it covers their costs. Multiply their rate by their estimate of hours, then ask what's excluded. That's the number to compare.

Doing it yourself: if your books are this simple, many owners do the monthly work themselves with software and pay an accountant only at year-end. How to do bookkeeping for a small business covers the monthly routine.

Signs it's time to hand it off

Plenty of owners keep their own books for years. These are the usual signs it's no longer worth your time:

• You're more than two months behind, and every month you don't catch up makes the next one harder.
• Your GST/HST returns are late, or you're guessing at the figures.
• You've hired staff. Payroll has fixed deadlines and penalties for missing them.
• Your accountant's year-end bill keeps growing because they're fixing your records before they can start their own work.
• You don't know whether you made money last month until the bank balance tells you.
• The hours you spend on it would earn more if you spent them on paid work. If you bill $90 an hour and spend six hours a month on books, that's $540 of your time.

If none of these apply, software and an hour or two a month may be all you need.

Bookkeeper or accountant?

A bookkeeper keeps the day-to-day records. An accountant, usually a CPA, prepares year-end financial statements and tax returns and gives tax advice. Most small businesses need a bookkeeper (or software) during the year and an accountant once a year. They're separate bills. Bookkeeping vs accounting explains who does what.

How to get a quote you can compare

Before you call anyone, have this ready:

• Your rough number of transactions a month (count last month's bank and card statement lines)
• How many bank accounts, cards and loans you have
• Whether you have employees and how often you pay them
• How often you file GST/HST
• How far behind you are, if at all
• What you want them to do: record and reconcile only, or also send invoices, pay bills and run payroll

Then ask every bookkeeper the same questions:

• Is the price monthly or hourly, and what's the estimate?
• What exactly is included, and what costs extra?
• Is catch-up work quoted separately?
• What software do they use, and do you own the data if you leave?
• Who does the work, and who checks it?
• When will your books be done each month?

Where Spark fits

Spark Books is free for owners who keep their own books. You upload bank and card statements, and it sorts each transaction into a Canadian chart of accounts with the GST/HST split out, prepares the GST/HST return figures and builds a year-end package for your accountant.

If you'd rather have a person do it, the paid Spark Bookkeeping plan is $350 a month. A Spark bookkeeper, working for Spark from South Africa, keeps your books. They see only your books, never a loan application, and only once you've agreed.

Be clear about what it doesn't cover. Spark doesn't run payroll or track inventory, there's no live bank feed (statements are uploaded), it doesn't serve Quebec yet, and it doesn't file your returns with the CRA. If you need any of those, a local bookkeeper or firm is the better fit.