Typical monthly bookkeeping pricing
- Low-transaction proprietor under 50 transactions/month: Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 3,000/month.
- Small business with 50-200 transactions/month: Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 8,000/month.
- SME with payroll, GST and TDS: Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 20,000/month.
- Multi-location or ecommerce with 500+ transactions/month: Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 50,000/month.
What affects accounting cost
- Sales and purchase invoice volume.
- Number of bank accounts and payment modes.
- Payroll complexity and multi-state professional tax.
- Software used: Tally, Zoho, QuickBooks or Excel.
- Whether GST filing is included.
- Backlog or cleanup work.
One-time versus ongoing engagement
- Accounts cleanup for backlog: Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 60,000 depending on years and complexity.
- Annual financial statement preparation: Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 25,000.
- Chart-of-accounts/process setup: Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 10,000.
Questions before quoting
- How many transactions per month?
- Which software is in use?
- Is GST filing included?
- Is TDS and payroll in scope?
- Are old years pending?
How to use this page safely
Accounting Services Cost in India can depend on financial year, entity type, turnover, location, portal status, notice dates, transaction volume, documentation quality and whether prior filings were done correctly.
Use this page as preparation guidance. Before filing, responding, registering or appealing, share exact forms, notices, portal screenshots, amounts, due dates and prior acknowledgements with a qualified professional.
A strong WorkIndex quote should clearly state scope, assumptions, documents required, expected timeline, exclusions, and whether follow-up, correction filing or notice-response support is included.
How to compare WorkIndex responses
- Ask whether the expert has handled this exact service type, industry and portal workflow before.
- Confirm whether the quote includes filing only, advisory only, or also reconciliation, correction, response drafting and follow-up.
- Prefer experts who ask for records before final pricing instead of quoting blindly.
- For urgent matters, include statutory deadline, notice/order date, current portal status and financial exposure.
- Keep acknowledgement, computation, challan, report, working papers and communication trail after completion.
Keep these ready before requesting quotes
- PAN, Aadhaar, GSTIN, TAN, DIN, CIN, LLPIN, UAN or registration number as applicable.
- Portal login access or screenshots from Income Tax, GST, MCA, EPFO, ESIC, Startup India or other relevant portals.
- Previous filings, acknowledgements, challans, certificates, orders, notices, audit reports and working papers.
- Bank statements, invoices, contracts, payroll records, books export, rent agreements, transaction reports or board/investor documents relevant to the case.
- A short written summary of what happened, what deadline exists, what help you need and whether support can be remote or must be local.
How to get better quotes faster
- Mention whether you need a one-time filing, urgent correction, registration, audit, monthly retainer, appeal, or advisory review.
- Add approximate transaction count, employee count, turnover range, number of filings/years pending, and any notice deadline so experts can size the work properly.
- For accounting and bookkeeping pages, share the software used, number of bank accounts, monthly invoice count, GST status, payroll size and whether old cleanup is needed.
- For audit and diligence pages, share the review period, location count, materiality level, report format expected and who will consume the report: founder, investor, bank, board or tax department.
- For tax and GST disputes, upload or summarise the section/form/order number, demand amount, date of service, due date and current portal status before asking for a fee quote.
FAQs
Is monthly retainer better than per-transaction pricing?
Monthly retainer works better for recurring work; per-transaction can work when volume is small and stable.
Can I negotiate a lower rate for consistent volume?
Often yes, if scope, records and timelines are clear.
Does WorkIndex show pricing before contact?
Experts can quote after seeing scope and transaction volume.
What is included in basic accounting?
Usually bookkeeping and basic reports; GST, payroll, TDS and MIS may be separate.