How Much Does Bookkeeping Cost?
Bookkeeping cost depends on who does it: a freelance bookkeeper typically charges €15-35 per hour, an outsourced firm costs €200-600 per month, and an in-house bookkeeper salary ranges from €25,000-45,000 per year. For small businesses that mainly need invoice filing, AI per-invoice pricing from $0.40 per processed invoice can cut the monthly bill dramatically.
| Bookkeeping option | Typical cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance bookkeeper (hourly) | €15-35 / hour | Flexible, but you pay for time — not results. Batched weekly or monthly. |
| Outsourced bookkeeping firm | €200-600 / month | Predictable monthly cost. Often a retainer with a minimum invoice volume. |
| In-house bookkeeper (salary) | €25,000-45,000 / year | Full-time commitment. Only makes sense above a certain transaction volume. |
| Accounting software only | €10-50 / month | You still do all the data entry yourself. Time cost is the hidden price. |
| AI invoice processing (Nika) | {price} per processed invoice | Pay only for invoices filed. No hourly billing, no monthly minimum. |
How Nika compares
A freelance bookkeeper at €25/hour who spends 4 minutes on an invoice costs roughly €1.67 per invoice in labour alone. Nika processes the same invoice from $0.40 — a fraction of the human hourly cost — and files it the same day instead of batching it into a weekly or monthly pile. For a business with 200 invoices a month, the difference between an hourly model and per-invoice pricing compounds quickly.
Verdict
If you need tax advice, representation before the tax authority, or human judgement on complex transactions, a human bookkeeper or accountant is the right spend. If your bookkeeping cost is mostly the labour of getting invoices from your inbox into your records, per-invoice AI pricing removes that cost line almost entirely. The most cost-effective setup for most small businesses is Nika for invoice filing plus a human accountant for quarterly review.
Questions
What is the cheapest way to do bookkeeping?
Doing it yourself with free or low-cost software appears cheapest on paper, but the hidden cost is your time — 2-5 minutes per invoice adds up fast. Per-invoice AI processing from $0.40 per invoice removes the time cost without the monthly retainer of an outsourced firm.
How much should a small business budget for bookkeeping?
A small business with 100-300 invoices per month typically spends €200-600/month on outsourced bookkeeping, or the equivalent hourly cost of a freelancer. With per-invoice AI pricing at $0.40 per invoice, the same volume can cost a fraction of that — with no monthly minimum.