How Pricing Works
Pricing
These are starting prices. Every engagement is confirmed after a short file review — the work scales with how clean your books already are, not just transaction count.
We’re a bookkeeping firm, not a CPA or law firm. Good Books is a QuickBooks Online Expert / ProAdvisor practice. We produce clean, tax-ready books and tell you plainly what needs attention.
What counts as a transaction. One transaction is one line in your books — one thing we open, categorize, and reconcile. It is not one sale. When forty people tap a card at your reader, your processor doesn’t send forty deposits; it sends one, and that deposit is one line. We count the work, not the crowd.
Caps are a guardrail, not the product. You’re paying for expertise and reporting, not a per-transaction meter. Over your cap, overage bills at the tier’s rate. Run over two closes in a row and we move you up a tier — no quietly camping on a plan you’ve outgrown. Monthly tiers are counted monthly. Quarterly tiers are counted per quarter and assessed at quarter close.
Monthly or quarterly. Some tiers close every month, some every quarter. Quarterly close is the same work on a longer cycle — fewer close cycles a year, so it runs about $40/mo under a monthly tier at the same volume. It fits businesses whose activity is lumpy: a few busy stretches, quiet months in between. If you need a number every month to make decisions, take a monthly tier. Every card says which it is.
When your numbers land. Monthly tiers close by the 15th business day after month end. Quarterly tiers land 8–12 business days after quarter close — and always before the federal estimated-tax date for that quarter, where one applies.
Onboarding is a one-time fee for every new monthly client. It covers getting your books current (last 60 days), connecting bank and card feeds, building or cleaning your chart of accounts, and setting opening balances. Anything older than 60 days is a separate catch-up project, quoted after a file review.
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Tier 1 — Controller Lite
Price: $1,450/mo · Onboarding: $1,000
Best for: Owners whose books are clean but who need real reporting and a managed close.
Included:
Managed month-end close with review (we own the deadline).
Monthly reporting package: P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, plus a 1-page owner summary in plain English.
Up to 4 KPIs tracked month over month.
One 45-minute monthly review call.
Oversight of the bookkeeping beneath it (in-house or yours, if it meets our standard).
Guardrails: Requires current, reconciled books (ours or a file that passes our review). Up to 2 entities = +$400/mo each. Reporting is management-basis, not audited or GAAP-attested. No tax filing, no capital raising, no board/investor-facing CFO work.
Not included: Bookkeeping data entry (add a bookkeeping tier or bring your own), tax prep, forecasting models beyond 13-week cash, payroll processing.
Tier 2 — Controller Standard
Price: $2,400/mo · Onboarding: $1,500
Best for: Growing businesses making real decisions on the numbers — hiring, financing, expansion.
Included:
Everything in Lite.
13-week rolling cash-flow forecast, updated monthly.
Up to 8 KPIs + a simple dashboard.
Budget-vs-actual reporting against a budget we help you set.
Two calls a month (close review + forward-looking).
AP/AR oversight and approval-workflow design (we design and monitor; you approve payments).
Guardrails: Up to 500 transactions/mo across the underlying books before bookkeeping overage applies. Forecast accuracy depends on your inputs being on time. Same scope ceiling: no tax filing, no CFO-of-record, no audit sign-off.
Not included: Tax returns, fundraising/deal support, custom financial modeling, valuations.
Tier 3 — Controller Plus
Price: from $3,600/mo · Onboarding: from $2,000 (quoted after scoping)
Best for: Multi-entity or multi-location operations that need a finance function without the hire.
Included:
Everything in Standard.
Consolidated multi-entity reporting.
Custom KPI dashboard and quarterly deep-dive.
Lender/grant-ready statement packages on request (one included per quarter; extras at add-on rate).
Standing access for owner/leadership questions within scope.
Guardrails: Scoped per engagement. Hard ceiling stays: controller-level only. The line we don't cross — fundraising, M&A, tax filing, audit attestation, fractional-CFO services — stays off our plate by design. We'll tell you when you've outgrown a controller and need a CFO.
Not included: Anything above the controller line (see above).
Controller add-on: extra lender/grant statement package — from $650 each.
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Quoted per project after a file review — but published ranges set expectations and filter tire-kickers.
Books Catch-Up (behind by months): from $75/hr, or flat-quoted after review. Typical small-business catch-up of 3–6 months runs $900–$3,500 depending on mess, volume, and how many accounts.
Full Cleanup (books exist but don't tie out): flat-quoted after review, typically $1,200–$5,000+.
Guardrails: All catch-up/cleanup is separate from monthly service and quoted only after we see the file — no blind flat fees. Books must be brought current within 60 days of starting monthly service, or monthly service doesn't begin. You provide statements and access; reconstruction from incomplete records is billed at $95/hr.
Not included: Tax filing, prior-year return prep, forensic/fraud investigation.
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Price: $350, credited toward onboarding if you sign within 30 days.
Best for: Owners who suspect their books are off but don't know how bad, or want a second opinion before switching bookkeepers.
Included:
File review of your current QBO (or other) books.
A written findings report: what's clean, what's broken, what it's costing you.
A recommended path and a real quote.
30-minute walkthrough call.
Guardrails: One file, one entity, up to 12 months reviewed. Read-only access required. Findings are observations, not a tax or legal opinion. Fixing what we find is a separate engagement.
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Price: $149/session or $497 for a 4-session setup package.
Best for: Freelancers and creators who want to run their own books but set them up right.
Included: Live screen-share setup, QBO/Self-Employed configuration, category and workflow design, a recorded session you keep, and a custom one-page cheat sheet.
Guardrails: Coaching only — we guide, you do the work in your own file. No ongoing management, no liability for entries you make. Tax questions go to your tax pro.
Comic Creators & Convention Vendors
Table Start
$145/mo · Onboarding $195 ·
Closed quarterly
≤ 180 transactions per quarter, counted at quarter close, overage $1.50 · 1 account · QBO Simple Start+.
On estimated taxes. June 15 covers April and May. Both months are closed by then, so you’ll have real numbers for that payment even though the quarter isn’t done. September 15 is different — that deadline lands before the quarter ends, so you’ll get a planning number for it and the closed quarter after.
Add Show Close for $85 per show — a P&L for one weekend, in your hands within 10 business days.
For solo creators doing a few shows a year plus some online orders.
Not included: sales tax filing, multi-entity, perpetual inventory.
Convention Circuit
$495/mo · Onboarding $395 ·
Closed monthly · Most popular
≤ 200 txn/mo, overage $1.25 · up to 3 accounts · QBO Essentials+.
Show-by-show P&L is the centerpiece - every show, included, no add-on
You send con dates monthly.
Not included: multi-state sales tax filing, balance-sheet inventory valuation.
Publisher Stack
$950/mo · Onboarding $750 ·
Closed monthly
≤ 350 txn/mo, overage $1.00 · up to 4 accounts · QBO Plus+
Crowdfunding revenue recognition
(Kickstarter/BackerKit/Patreon), up to 10 contractors per title P&L.
Show-by-show P&L included.
Not included: entity work, IP/royalty accounting, tax filing.
Only want to think about this once a year?
One tax-ready file, once. No monthly close, no reports to read, no meter running.
$795 · once a year
Up to 600 transactions · 2 financial accounts, $95 each beyond · prior years quoted separately after a file review.
New to QuickBooks? We run your year in QuickBooks Ledger and it’s included. Already have a subscription? We’ll work in your file — keep whatever plan you’re on.
When you get it. Send complete records by February 15 and your file is ready by March 15. After February 15 we’ll still take you — turnaround is quoted, or $95/hr to jump the queue. Send before December 31 and you’ll have it in January.
Not included: tax filing, sales tax filing, payroll, multi-entity, perpetual inventory.
Move up and it’s not wasted. The full $795 comes off your first quarter, and anything left over rides into the next one. Good through April 15, or 30 days after we deliver your file — whichever is later. Try us once. If it’s working, you’re not paying twice to keep going.
Show Close — $85 per show
A profit-and-loss for one show. Not a close of your books — just a straight answer on whether that weekend paid.
Send us the weekend’s numbers and you’ll have it within 10 business days. Most creators send it Monday and have it before the next weekend.
Final as delivered. Anything that lands later — a refund, a chargeback, an invoice that showed up after the con — goes into your period numbers, not a revised show sheet.
Cash you log, we use. Cash you didn’t log, we reconstruct at $95/hr — so log it. The free Convention Money Starter Kit does it for you.
$85 on Table Start · $125 on One Clean Year · already included in Convention Circuit and Publisher Stack.
Freelancers & Gig Workers
Solo File
$185/mo · onboarding $250 ·
≤ 60 txn/mo, overage $1.50 · 2 income sources
(extra $25/mo) · QBO Self-Employed/Simple Start.
Not included: tax filing, S-corp setup, and payroll.
Business of One
$345/mo · onboarding $350 ·
≤ 150 txn/mo, overage $1.25 · up to 4 platforms (extra $30/mo) · QBO Simple Start+.
Includes the S-corp flag — we tell you when the conversation's worth having, your tax pro runs it.
Not included: tax filing, entity formation, and payroll.
Barbershops & Salons
Full monthly bookkeeping
Booth-renter vs. employee income split
Tip handling done right (reported tips and tipped wages reconciled to your payroll provider — recordkeeping, not filing)
Worker classification checklist for up to 10 workers (extra $20/worker).
≤ 200 txn/mo, overage $1.25 · cash logged by you, reconstruction $95/hr · QBO Essentials+.
Not included: running payroll, tax filing, legal opinions.
Add-on menu (any niche)
Sales Tax Nexus Review (one-time): from $400.
Sales Tax Filing (quoted after Nexus review)
Additional bank/credit account: $40/mo each beyond your tier.
Additional 1099 contractor beyond tier count: $15/contractor/yr.
Catch-up / historical cleanup: quoted per project after file review.
Loan- or grant-ready 3-year statement package (one-time): from $650.