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If financial terms like income and expense, debits and credits, and balance sheet make you cringe, you probably aren’t alone. Most small business owners don’t have a degree in accounting. And unless you have the budget to hire an in-house accounting department, you might not know what your options are in terms of making sure your bookkeeping gets done properly and on time.

Online bookkeeping services are a hybrid of bookkeeping software and professional accounting. You get the benefit of the assistance of a pro bookkeeper with the flexibility of managing what you want to manage.

What Are Bookkeeping Services?

Bookkeeping services provide a mix of the personal touch of a bookkeeper and the ease of use of online bookkeeping software. They can often help you with as much or as little as you need, like:

• Manage payables and receivables
• Keep business financial records
• Manage employee pay
• Make deposits
• Create financial forecasting reports
• Manage sales tax
• Help with quarterly tax reporting 

A bookkeeper can also give you insight into your cash flow (and you can get started with instant insights with Nav’s Cash Flow Tool). 

These services are usually virtual, as well, so it doesn’t require you to trudge to an accountant’s office to start their services. The best online bookkeeping services will provide you with as many services as you need — and none that you don’t need. 

Check out the top bookkeeping services below that could benefit your business.

The 10 Best Bookkeeping Services

There are several online bookkeeping services available, but we’ve identified the best in terms of pricing, features, and quality of service. 

• 1-800Accountant
• Bench
• Bookkeeper.com
• Bookkeeper 360
• Ignite Spot Accounting
• inDinero
• KPMG Spark
• Merritt Bookkeeping
• Pilot
• QuickBooks Live

Best Online Bookkeeping Services of 2022 Reviewed

We’ve looked at dozens of companies offering bookkeeping services and narrowed it down to what we think will work best for small businesses. Each may offer slightly different services and features, so choose the one that best suits your business needs.

1. 1-800Accountant

1-800Accountant offers full-service accounting services, including tax preparation and advisory to small businesses.

Plans offered

The Business plan starts at $125/month for tax planning and advice but to get business or personal tax preparation you’ll need a Corporation plan at $225/month. Bookkeeping services are available on the Enterprise plan with costs $375/month.

Features and benefits available

• Dedicated accountant
• Year-round tax advice
• Proactive tax planning
• Quarterly reviews
• Payroll services
• Financial reports
• Tax prep and advisory services

2. Bench

Bench provides a hybrid of affordable professional bookkeeping services and accounting software. A professional bookkeeper will set up your accounts and send you financial reports regularly. You have access to one-on-one assistance whenever you need it.

Plans offered

Bench’s Essential plan is $249 a month and includes monthly bookkeeping and a dedicated bookkeeping team. Premium ($399) includes annual income tax filing.

Features and benefits available

• Dedicated bookkeeping team
• Year-end tax ready financial statements
• Mobile app
• Account reconciliation
• Tax support
• Catch-up bookkeeping
• Cash flow tracking
• Financial statements and reports
• Expense tracking

3. Quickbooks Live

Quickbooks offers a full slate of financial tools and services, from accounting software to payroll, payments, and live bookkeeping. Pick and choose what you need. Quickbooks Live is its full-service bookkeeping service. (Note you can use Quickbooks without a bookkeeper. Learn about accounting software options here.)

Plans Offered

There are a lot of different Quickbooks accounting software plans. Quickbooks Live is the bookkeeping service. It advertises a start-from price of $200 but the fine print indicates that the first month of full-service bookkeeping is $500. The ongoing monthly fee will be based on average monthly business expenses and is $200 for monthly average $0 – $10,000 per month, $300 for $10,001 – $50,000 per month, $400 for $50,001 or more.  You’ll also have to pay for a QuickBooks Online subscription on top of that.

Features and benefits available

• Past financials catch-up 
• Personalized set-up from a bookkeeper
• Organized and up-to-date financials
• Payroll
• Financial reports
• Tax software and live assistance
• Payment processing
• Batch expense processing
• Invoicing
• Sales tax calculation

4. Bookkeeper.com

Bookkeeper.com is an all-in-one small business solution for bookkeeping and accounting services. If you have multiple needs, such as help with payroll and taxes, in addition to your day-to-day accounting, this could be a good fit.

Plans offered

Bookkeeper.com has three plans, plus custom pricing: Small Business is $399 a month for up to 100 transactions per month; Small Business Plus is $599 a month for up to 200 transactions per month and Small Business Advanced starts is $799 a month for up to 300 monthly transactions. Beyond that, custom pricing is available. Accounting software subscription is not included in the cost.

Features and benefits available

• Dedicated Bookkeeper and Account Manager
• Secure Portal with Document Storage
• Cash or accrual accounting method
• Month end close with bank/credit card reconciliation
• Balance sheet, profit & loss, statement of cash flows

5. Bookkeeper360

Bookkeeper360 puts a team of CPAs, advisors, and technology experts at your fingertips to help you better manage your finances. This bookkeeping solution focuses on startups and growth-stage companies.

Plans offered

You can choose hourly fees ($125/hour), monthly pricing starting at $349/month (normally $399/month) or weekly starting at $499/month (normally $549/month). All these plans are for businesses with up to $20,000 in expenses using the cash accounting method. Accrual and larger transaction volume pricing are both higher. 

It works with Quickbooks or Xero but you’ll need your own subscription to those services.

Features and benefits available

• Dedicated accountant or accounting team
• Monthly reconciliation
• Profit and loss statement
• Balance sheet
• CFO advisory (additional)
• Tax preparation and planning (additional)
• HR and payroll solutions (additional)
• Inventory management (additional)
• Multi-entity reporting (additional)

6. IgniteSpot Accounting

IgniteSpot Accounting boasts a more personalized approach to outsourced accounting services. Its bookkeeping packages include certified virtual bookkeepers and a dedicated accountant for your business. IgniteSpot is best for small businesses that are looking to grow.

Plans offered

No setup fees and no long-term contracts. Prices start at $950/month for a maintenance plan and go up to $11,500 average/ month for the Ultimate Service Plan.

Features and benefits available

• Accounts management and payment
• Accuracy checks on reporting
• Quickbooks-certified online bookkeepers
• Producing balance sheets
• Creating income statements
• Credit card management
• Bank reconciliation
• AR and AP

7. inDinero

InDinero focuses on providing startups in the growth stage with accounting services to help them move toward an exit strategy. This service may be helpful in aiding you in considering your startup’s financial options.

Plans offered

The Essential Plan offers cash-basis accounting and starts at $300 a month. The Growth Plan is the next plan up, includes accrual-based accounting and starts at $900 per month. You also have the option to build a Custom Plan that offers controller support, and fractional CFO services.

Features and benefits available

• CPAs on staff with years of experience
• Self-guided tax software with professional tax review option
• Fractional CFO services available 
• Fundraising planning and support
• Exit support
• Budget analysis and planning
• Cash management
• Day-to-day bookkeeping
• Financial reports

8. KPMG Spark

KPMG Spark is a fully online bookkeeping service that offers easy onboarding and integration with your bank. 

Plans offered

KPMG starts with a Basic plan at $395/month for businesses that handle fewer than 100 transactions per month and 1-3 bank accounts. There’s also a $595/month Essential plan for businesses that do between 100 to 200 transactions per month, 4-6 bank accounts and tracking for up to two projects. The Professional plan is $795/month for businesses with 201-300 monthly transactions, 7-9 bank accounts, and project accounting for 3-4 projects.

Features and benefits available

• Daily revenue and expense categorization
• Cash-basis accounting
• Real-time bank and credit card reconciliation 
• Multiple users
• Invoicing/payments
• Online accounting
• Expenses
• Payroll

9. Merritt Bookkeeping

Merritt Bookkeeping is a no-frills Quickbooks virtual bookkeeping services firm that offers fixed, flexible pricing and an easy user interface to small business owners. They also offer a 90-day money back guarantee and are very proud of their public reviews. 

Plans offered

Merritt offers a single plan: $190/month for all their services. They handle most bookkeeping tasks and integrate to your bank accounts directly so you don’t have to send them monthly reports. They also have a simple user interface so you can see accounting reports without having to wade into QuickBooks yourself. Merritt may be a great solution for entrepreneurs and freelancers who want a bookkeeper at an affordable price.

Features and benefits available 

• Uses QuickBooks Online
• Automatic bank statement retrieval
• 90-day money back guarantee
• Automatic bank statement collection
• QuickBooks management
• Creates reports and inputs into easy-to-use dashboard
• Handles 1099s

10. Pilot

Pilot is a finance, accounting, and tax services firm built for VC backed startups. It integrates with a number of fintech tools (like Gusto, Expensify, etc.) to make it easier to use its services.

Plans offered

Pilot offers three plans: Core for small businesses, Select for growing businesses, and Plus for larger businesses. Core starts at $599/year and Select starts at $849/year, and both plans increase in price based on how much you have in monthly expenses over $15,000. Plus is completely customizable. Pilot also offers add-on services like CFO support and other business accounting functions. 

Features and benefits available

• Dedicated financial experts
• Burn rate calculation
• Accrual-basis bookkeeping
• Accounts payable
• Accounts receivable
• Tax preparation and tax filing
• Accounting services
• CFO support
• P&L
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow statements

What A Bookkeeping Service Does

You’ll notice that many of the above go beyond just offering accounting software to provide experienced bookkeeping services for small businesses. A bookkeeper can help with as much or as little as you need: from accounting and payroll setup so that you can manage it yourself to paying your employees, managing payroll tax and sales tax, and providing financial reports like your balance sheet and income statement on a regular basis.

How A Bookkeeping Service Benefits Your Business

You likely have more important things to do in running your business than dealing with financial reporting, invoices, and cash flow. Working with a bookkeeping service frees you up to focus on what you do best: running your business.

A bookkeeper can also provide you with reports on cash flow or show you what’s going on with your chart of accounts so you can streamline costs and stay on top of your business financials. They can also invoice your clients on your behalf, collect monthly payments, and manage your payroll service. While you pay for these services, you’ll save in time you can put toward growing your company.

If your small business needs financing, whether it’s business credit cards or small business loans, you may need up-to-date financial statements and/or business bank account statements. Staying on top of these crucial financial tasks can help your business qualify for financing.

Bookkeeping Services vs. Accounting Services: What’s the Difference?

You may have heard of both bookkeeping and accounting services and wondered if they were the same thing. While some activities will fall under both, generally in-house or outsourced bookkeeping teams focus on managing the day-to-day financial tasks of a business, like managing income and expenses, sending invoices, and processing payments. They may also help with payroll or managing your accounting software.

Accounting services may look at more long-term strategy and planning. A professional accountant (or Certified Public Accountant) can help with business tax planning, file your corporate tax return, and make suggestions to help you improve cash flow.

Both bookkeeping and accounting services can be outsourced or hired as full-time employees, though many small businesses prefer outsourcing to a bookkeeping professional or an accounting firm because they only pay for the services they need help with rather than a full-time salary and benefits.

Bookkeeping Services vs. Accounting Software

It might be confusing whether you need a bookkeeping service or accounting software, but the answer depends on the size and scope of your business. The truth is that many small businesses use both. 

A bookkeeping service can manage your accounting software for you, which takes a lot of administrative work off your to-do list. Many businesses choose accounting software to organize their financial records for its ease of use since you can connect your bank account and automatically upload a lot of financial information instead of doing it all manually. Many bookkeepers also offer filing services, but their jobs are made easier and more accurate when a client uses accounting software. It reduces the possibility of making mistakes when entering information. 

Many small businesses enjoy having a dedicated team to handle all of their monthly bookkeeping, and using accounting software is a smart addition. Don’t miss the accounting software resources put together by Nav experts.

Virtual (In-House) Bookkeeper

You don’t have to hire someone to come into your office to have an in-house bookkeeper — many are virtual. Using virtual bookkeeping allows you to outsource the day-to-day tasks that are a challenge to keep up with while also having a direct contact to ask questions of. Virtual bookkeepers will manage your business’s financial details and make sure your tax information is accurate, which makes the financial side of business a lot easier.

How Much Should You Be Paying for Bookkeeping Each Month?

Purchasing online bookkeeping software and managing it yourself is obviously more affordable than hiring a part-time bookkeeper. Just the accounting software can cost as little at $15 a month and move up to $75 or more, depending on your use.

Having access to a professional bookkeeper will, naturally, cost a bit more money, and will depend on what financial or payroll services you need assistance with. The bookkeeping services we’ve reviewed run approximately $300-500 monthly, with additional services raising that cost.

Nav’s Final Word: Bookkeeping Services

If managing the financial aspects of your business is a headache, it may well be worth it to pay for a helping hand with bookkeeping and tax preparation. Leveraging a combination of accounting software and access to professional bookkeepers is an affordable way to ensure your accounts are always up to date.