Most small businesses in the Orange County and Los Angeles area pay between $200 and $800 per month for bookkeeping services. That’s a wide range because “small business” covers everything from a solo consultant with one bank account to a multi-location operation with inventory, payroll, and dozens of vendor payments every month.

Total monthly expenses are the biggest factor. A business with a smaller expense footprint will land on the lower end. Once you’re dealing with higher monthly expenses across multiple bank accounts, several credit cards, and platforms like Shopify or Square feeding into your books, the scope increases significantly. Higher expense volume means more accounts to reconcile, more categories to manage, and more complexity to stay on top of.

What’s included also shifts the price. Basic bookkeeping that covers transaction categorization and monthly reconciliation starts around $200. Full-service bookkeeping that adds accounts payable, accounts receivable, financial statements, and regular reporting pushes toward $500 to $800 or higher. Payroll is usually priced separately, and so is sales tax filing.

If you’re looking at hourly rates instead of monthly packages, bookkeepers in the OC and LA area generally charge $35 to $75 per hour. The problem with hourly billing is that you never quite know what the monthly cost will be. Most businesses prefer a flat monthly fee so they can budget for it.

Industry matters more than people realize. A straightforward service business with clean transactions costs less to manage than a restaurant tracking daily sales, tips, and food costs. Medical practice bookkeeping in Orange County tends to run higher because of multi-entity structures, insurance receivables, and the compliance requirements that come with healthcare. Wholesale and import businesses add inventory accounting into the mix, which also increases the scope.

The cheapest bookkeeper isn’t always the best deal. If someone is charging $150 per month and producing financial statements that don’t reflect how your business actually operates, those numbers won’t help you make decisions. And if the books are messy, your CPA will charge more at tax time to sort through everything, which eats up whatever you saved.

One more thing to consider is what it costs you to do it yourself. Many business owners spend 8 to 15 hours a month on bookkeeping they could hand off for a few hundred dollars. That’s time not spent running the business or generating revenue. When you look at it that way, professional bookkeeping usually pays for itself.