Report 1
The benchmark
- The going rate for this role in your state, from real postings, not surveys.
- What it really costs once payroll taxes and benefits are added.
- Which of its tasks AI already does, line by line.
Every way starts from the job you posted, comes with the agents, and gets a price on the first call, in writing, before anything starts. This page has all of it: who employs the person, every cost on its own line, how it starts, and the guarantees.
Whichever you pick, we find, screen and train the person, you direct the work, and every hour the agents take comes off what you pay.
Your employee, on our standard offer letter.
Your person, our payroll.
Keep your person, add our agents.
The person's pay and our fees are never mixed into one number, so you always see what goes to the person and what comes to us.
| Cost | Hire onto your payroll | Hire through OpenHeadcount | Already hired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interviewingmeeting the candidates | Hire onto your payrollFreeYou pay nothing until you pick someone. | Hire through OpenHeadcountFreeYou pay nothing until you pick someone. | Already hiredNot neededYou already picked. |
| The person's pay | Hire onto your payrollYours to setPaid by you, through your own payroll, like any employee. | Hire through OpenHeadcountAt cost, no markupTheir pay plus payroll tax, agreed before they start. One line on our monthly invoice. | Already hiredAs todayUnchanged, on your payroll. |
| Payroll tax, benefits, filings | Hire onto your payrollYours, like any employee. | Hire through OpenHeadcountNone on your sideWe employ them, so they are ours. | Already hiredYours, as today. |
| Finding the person | Hire onto your payrollFree if you keep the agents10% of first-year pay, due when you hire or in monthly payments. All of it is credited against your agents fees over two years. | Hire through OpenHeadcountFree if you keep the agents10% of first-year pay, due when you hire or in monthly payments. All of it is credited against your agents fees over two years. | Already hired$0No placement fee. |
| Replacing the person | Hire onto your payrollFree in the first 90 daysIf they leave or are not the right fit, we find someone new at no charge. | Hire through OpenHeadcountFree in the first 90 daysIf they leave or are not the right fit, we find someone new at no charge. | Already hiredNot neededYou found them yourself. |
| The agents | Hire onto your payroll$0 until they take hoursThen priced from the duties they take, quoted on the call, and never more than the hours they take off. Month to month. | Hire through OpenHeadcount$0 until they take hoursThen priced from the duties they take, quoted on the call, and never more than the hours they take off. Month to month. | Already hired$0 until they take hoursThen priced from the duties they take, quoted on the call, and never more than the hours they take off. Month to month. |
| When the agents take hours | Hire onto your payrollYour payroll goes downEach month our hours report sets next month's hours, on our standard part-time hourly offer letter. | Hire through OpenHeadcountYour bill goes downEvery hour the agents take comes off that month, as a credit line. | Already hiredYour payroll goes downSame monthly step-down once they are paid hourly. Salaried, the freed hours go to new work. |
| Commitment | Hire onto your payrollAgents fee month to month. The person is your employee. | Hire through OpenHeadcountMonth to month after the first month. | Already hiredAgents fee month to month. |
The agents fee is set from the duties in your posting. You get your number on the first call, in writing, before anything starts. What each guarantee covers.
They go on your payroll and you direct them like any employee. You pay for three things, and each one stays a separate line: our placement fee, the agents by the month, and the person's own pay.
A person works only for you, in your tools and with your team, alongside our agents. We employ them, so this is your list and ours.
Month to month. Your books stay in your own software the whole time.
What your own hire makes you file and do for this role, against what hiring through OpenHeadcount makes you do.
Plus the pay itself, payroll taxes and benefits. A $52,000 bookkeeper job costs about $69,500 a year. The math
Nothing to withhold, file or insure for this role. The person is employed by OpenHeadcount, so payroll, benefits and cover are ours.
Payroll provider fees are left out on both sides.
Most firms make more the longer you pay them. Here the bill drops as the agents take hours. Drag it. Hired through OpenHeadcount, the hours come off our bill as a credit line. Hired onto your payroll, our hours report sets next month's hours lower, so your payroll goes down instead.
Your own hire: a bookkeeper posted at $52,000, $69,500 a year with taxes and benefits, $5,792 a month.
We do the rest, from your posting to your first close, inside the month. Tick yours off as you go.
Nothing to pay until you pick someone. Your books stay in your own software the whole time.
Get candidates for this roleYou, or anyone on your team, can interview our candidates for free.
If your new hire isn't the right fit in the first month, you get your money back. Your other applicants are still there.
Not the right person, or they leave? Switch to another one from our network, any time. The agents stay and the work keeps running, so nothing leaves with the person.
After the first month, everything is month to month. Your books live in your own software the whole time, so there is nothing to move.
Then we leave and you keep the person. The hire is yours, on your payroll, directed by you. A staffing firm cannot say that, because the person leaving is how it gets paid.
It should. As the agents take hours off the job, we buy those hours back: off our bill, or off your payroll through next month's hours. You see the hours every month.
On time, or we pay you back: bills entered within 2 business days, invoices out the same day, collections chased before the due date, month-end before the 10th, payroll at every cutoff. If we miss any of them, you get back double any late fee or penalty it causes, plus 10% of our revenue for that month for every day we're late.
The written version of every promise goes in the agreement you sign. Read every guarantee and its conditions.
You are handing someone access to your finances. That deserves specifics rather than a promise.
Your person and the people who check their work each sign in with a second code on top of a password, work only inside your own software, and your data is encrypted when it moves and when it is stored.
A confidentiality agreement is signed before any access is given. How your books are handled
No shared logins, no exceptions, including the people who check the work.
We work inside your own QuickBooks, through a user you create and can switch off in one click. We never ask for your password.
Never used to train AI models, never shared with other clients, and only accessed from company-managed devices.
A confidentiality agreement is signed before any access is given.
What people ask us before they start.
Your pick. Hire onto your payroll and they are your employee: you pay them and direct them like any employee, and we place them, supply the agents and train them on it. Hire through OpenHeadcount and we employ them, so payroll, benefits and cover are ours, while you still direct the work.
No. The person works only for you, in your tools and with your team, and you direct the work. The difference from your own hire is who runs payroll: we do.
Two reasons, and neither is that the people are cheap. The routine work runs on software, so the hours you buy go to the work that needs a person. As the software takes more, you buy fewer hours. And through OpenHeadcount you are not paying for a full week when you need part of one: no payroll tax and no benefits on your side.
Yes, if it does not work out. If your new hire isn't the right fit in the first month, you get your money back. Your other applicants are still there, so you can pick again.
Switch to another candidate from our network, any time. 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. If a miss on our side costs you a late fee or penalty, you get back double it, off your bill automatically. See our guarantee.
Yes. Your books stay in your own QuickBooks, 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. The weekly hours are agreed at the start and step down each month as the agents take over, in every way.
The person you pick, plus the people who check their work. Each one signs in with a second code on top of a password and works only inside your own software, and your data is encrypted when it moves and when it is stored.
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 so is hiring through OpenHeadcount after the first month. On your own payroll the person is your employee, so they stay if you want them. Your books never left your software, so there is nothing to move.
Usually not. Bank feeds, bills, invoices and month-end all run remotely once someone has access to your software. Where part of the role really is physical, a local part-time person covers those hours. Check your posting.
The repeatable parts of the job: categorizing transactions, matching bank and card lines, chasing the documents a close is waiting on, flagging the exceptions a person needs to look at. They do the work rather than suggest it, and a person checks the result. The agents never make the judgment calls. The software we work in.
More answers in the full FAQ, or compare the ways to fill a role.
Built on nearly four years of US finance and accounting job postings, tracking how pay and the work are changing. Tell us where to send it, and we build these two for your business, free.
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