Most freelance bookkeepers price off a salary figure and quietly underprice by 40–60% because they forget self-employment tax, software/subscription overhead, and the hours lost to admin, onboarding, and chasing receipts. This calculator works backwards from the take-home pay you actually want.
| Billable hours per year | — |
| Gross revenue you must bill | — |
| Estimated tax at your rate | — |
| Business expenses recovered | — |
| Resulting take-home (check) | — |
This tool does math on the numbers you enter. It is not tax or financial advice and contains no built-in tax tables — enter your own effective rate (a tax professional can help you estimate it). Figures are estimates for planning only.
| Typical low | $25/hr |
| Common average | $40/hr |
| Specialized / certified high | $75/hr |
Benchmarks are gathered from public salary and marketplace data and refreshed periodically. Treat them as orientation — your required rate from the calculator above is the number that matters for your situation.
The most common pricing mistake is dividing a target salary by 2,080 hours. That ignores three things every freelancer carries: self-employment tax, business expenses (accounting/payroll software, professional liability insurance, ProAdvisor or certification fees, secure document storage), and the large share of the week that is never billable. This calculator builds all three in, then solves for the rate that leaves you with the take-home you entered.
US freelance bookkeepers commonly bill in the $25–$75/hour range, averaging near $40, with certification (e.g. QuickBooks ProAdvisor), payroll work, and clean-up projects pushing the top end. Your own number depends on the take-home you need and your billable hours — use the calculator above instead of copying an average.
Many bookkeepers move recurring clients to a fixed monthly retainer once the workload is predictable. To set the retainer, compute your required hourly rate here, multiply by the realistic monthly hours, and add a small buffer for month-end and year-end spikes.
Yes. Tools you pay for to deliver the work (accounting/payroll software, storage, insurance) are business expenses. Enter the annual total in the expenses field so your rate recovers them before profit and tax.