Part-time bookkeeping costs: In-house vs. Virtual

The hourly rates for part-time bookkeeping in the USA are about $21.90 per hour. The state-by-state averages for hourly rates in bookkeeping vary wildly across the various states. Since in-house bookkeeping requires you to come in to the office located in the USA, we will use these average rates with the understanding that rates vary across the various states.

For virtual bookkeeping, though rates can be as low as $7.50 per hour, we will use a rate of $10 per hour that enables regular updates.

What is the minimum number of hours required for part-time bookkeeping?

Since an in-house bookkeeper has to come into the office, there is overhead in getting ready and driving to work every day. So, we will assume a minimum of 2 days or 16 hours per week. It’s just too hard to find someone who will work for less hours than that. On the other hand, a virtual bookkeeper can easily accommodate a much lower minimum number of hours. It can be as low as 5 hours per month. However, we will use 20 hours per month as the minimum. This number of hours enables full-service bookkeeping on a daily basis.

With in-house bookkeeping not only do you have to pay a higher rate per hour but you also have to pay for at least 2 days per week. And, that’s even if you cannot keep them busy for the 2 full days per week! And, do you have to pay them for their extended lunch and coffee breaks? Of course. It’s not their fault that you cannot keep them busy. Office space, desk, computer and phone? Yes, yes, yes and yes! And then you have the payroll taxes. If you hire the part-time bookkeeper as an employee, you have to pay another 7.45% towards their Social Security and Medicare. You do not have to pay payroll taxes if you hire them as a contractor. So, while part-time bookkeeping costs are much less than full-time bookkeeping costs, they can still get expensive. Especially when you do not have enough work to keep them busy!

With virtual bookkeeping, you do not need to commit to any number of full days per week. In fact, you do not even have to commit to a full day’s worth of work.  You only pay for the hours you use.  There are significant savings when you compare virtual bookkeeping to in-house bookkeeping. 

In a nutshell, even if you only use a part-time bookkeeper and pay by the hour, virtual bookkeeping can still save you about 90% off your bookkeeping costs. In other words, virtual bookkeeping costs only about 1/10th – that is ONE-TENTH – an in-house bookkeeper. You may pay more or less than $21.90 per hour! If you pay more, your savings could be a lot more. If you pay less, even then you can still easily save more than 80%. Virtual bookkeeping allows the bookkeeper to update your books daily and yet charge you only for the hours you use.

Part-time bookkeeping costs: in-house vs. virtual