Hire someone yourself, sign up with a bookkeeping service, or fill the seat with us. Here is what each one costs, how many days it takes, and who checks the work. Including where we are not the right fit.
Your employee, on your payroll. You write the posting, screen the applicants, train the person and check their work.
A company keeps your books for a monthly fee. You get reports from one contact. Nobody joins your team.
A named person in your team, picked by you from real candidates, with software agents on the routine work. The person checks every agent result.
Worked on a bookkeeper seat, at the $57,500 median posted pay of the bookkeeper postings we read in full. Typical of each category, not a claim about any named firm.
| Hire on your own | A bookkeeping service | OpenHeadcount | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | |||
| What it costs a yearfor a bookkeeper seat | Hire on your own$76,800$57,500 in pay, plus payroll taxes and benefits. The math | A bookkeeping service$6,600 to $30,000Published monthly plans from $549 to $2,499, before add-ons. | OpenHeadcountLess than the job you postedFrom the first bill. Priced from your posting, on the first call. |
| While the seat is empty | Hire on your own×About 90 days, the median time to fill an accounting role. The work lands on someone who already has a job. | A bookkeeping service~No seat to fill. You wait for onboarding instead. | OpenHeadcount✓$0 until you pick someone. Interviewing is free. |
| Cost as the work shrinks | Hire on your own×Fixed salary, whatever the workload. | A bookkeeping service~Set by the plan. It rises with your volume. | OpenHeadcount✓Freed hours are yours. With a dedicated person, every hour the agents take comes off the bill. |
| Payroll for the role | Hire on your own×Yours: withholding every payday, Form 941 each quarter, W-2 each year. | A bookkeeping service✓None. One invoice a month. | OpenHeadcount~Your pick. Hire: yours, like any employee. Dedicated person: none, one invoice a month. |
| Days | |||
| Days to a person at work | Hire on your ownAbout 90to fill the seat, then the new hire ramps up. | A bookkeeping serviceWeeksonce you are in their onboarding queue. | OpenHeadcountWithin the monthNamed candidates within the month. Never promised inside a week. |
| Books closed each month | Hire on your own~When your hire gets to it. Nobody sets the day but you. | A bookkeeping service~Set by the plan. Ask for the day in writing. | OpenHeadcount✓By the 10th, every month, checked before it reaches you. |
| The work | |||
| Who you talk to | Hire on your own✓Your employee. | A bookkeeping service~A contact at the service. | OpenHeadcount✓Your named person, in your Slack and your meetings. |
| Who directs the work | Hire on your own✓You. Any task you hand them. | A bookkeeping service×The service, inside the scope of the plan. | OpenHeadcount✓You. Open scope, like anyone on your team. |
| The routine work | Hire on your own×Done by hand, all of it. | A bookkeeping service~Their staff and their software. Ask how much is automated. | OpenHeadcount✓Software agents from week one: categorizing, matching, bills, invoices. |
| Who checks the work | Hire on your own×You, if you have the time. Often nobody, until year end. | A bookkeeping service~Usually a senior at the service. Ask who. | OpenHeadcount✓Your person checks every agent result. Anything that moves money waits for a person. |
| If it goes wrong | |||
| If the person leaves | Hire on your own×You start the search again. The books leave in their head. | A bookkeeping service~Reassigned, usually unannounced. | OpenHeadcount✓A replacement from our network. The agents keep the routine running. |
| If it is not working | Hire on your own×A lost quarter and a severance conversation. | A bookkeeping service~Cancel on the contract's terms. | OpenHeadcount✓First month: every hour bought back. After that, month to month. Guarantees |
| Your books | |||
| Where your books live | Hire on your own✓Your software. | A bookkeeping service~Your software, or sometimes theirs. | OpenHeadcount✓Your software. No switch required. |
| What you can see | Hire on your own~What you check yourself. | A bookkeeping service~The reports they send. | OpenHeadcount✓Your own login, plus an hours report every month: what the agents did, what the person did. |
Sources: $57,500 is the median posted pay of the 101 bookkeeper postings that stated pay, out of 271 US finance postings we read in full (the report). The $76,800 adds payroll taxes (10.7%) and benefits (23.0%), the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics averages for private companies with 1 to 49 workers (June 2025). The service range is the lowest and highest monthly plan on the published pricing pages of US bookkeeping services we checked on October 11, 2026. Illustrations, not quotes.
If two or more fit, what you have now is costing you more than its price. The third card is the honest one: the signs that we are not the right fit.
Then: hire through us, on your own payroll.
Then: a dedicated person, employed by us.
A hire prices every hour at the rate of the hardest one. A service bills its time. We sort the duties on your posting first: what an agent can do, the agent does, and the person spends their hours on the parts that need a person.
That is why the seat costs less on day one, and why the freed hours keep growing.
How we sort a posting →The worries that decide it, answered in writing.
A staffing agency earns more the longer the seat stays full. We earn when the routine work moves to software, so the seat gets smaller over time. And under Hire, if the software stops adding value, we leave and you keep the person. An agency cannot say that, because the person leaving is how it gets paid.
Fast to start, but a stranger every time, and the routine work is still done by hand and billed by the hour, so the cost never shrinks. If they leave, the next one starts the learning curve again.
You get a replacement. With a dedicated person, we put someone from our network in the seat. Under Hire, a placement is guaranteed for six months: a replacement, or the fee back as credit against the agents fee. Either way the agents stay and the routine work keeps running, so nothing leaves with the person.
Your person checks every agent result before it reaches you and owns the books. Anything that moves money waits for a person to approve it. In the first weeks your current process runs beside ours, so a mistake shows up in days, not at close. Your person fixes it, and the agents learn from the fix.
Your person owns the result and fixes it. We go through what we cover, in writing, on the first call.
Yes. Your books stay in your own QuickBooks or Xero, so your CPA keeps their own login and sees every entry, including the ones the agents made. Every month you also get an hours report of who did what, which you can pass on.
They work with your team during your business day, in your tools.
You do. Your books live in your own software the whole time. We work through a user you create and can switch off in one click. We never ask for your password, and your data is never used to train anything. How your books are handled.
Switch off our user. The agents fee is month to month, and a dedicated person is month to month. Under Hire, the person is your employee, so they stay if you want them. Your books never left your software, so leaving is a handover, not a rescue.
From the published pricing pages of US bookkeeping services we checked on October 11, 2026. The lowest monthly plan was $549 and the highest was $2,499, before add-ons. Your own quote may differ, so ask any service for its price in writing.
More answers in the full FAQ, or read the guarantees.
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