Bookkeeping is the day-to-day recording of what comes in and goes out. Accounting is what happens on top of it: the year-end accounts, the tax return, the advice. Most small businesses buy both from the same firm, which is fine, but it helps to know what you are paying for.
What a bookkeeping service normally covers
Recording sales and purchases, reconciling the bank, chasing missing receipts, handling payroll if you have staff, filing periodic sales tax or VAT returns, and producing a monthly profit and loss statement.
What is usually extra: year-end accounts, tax filings, budgeting, cash flow forecasts and anything involving a conversation about strategy.
What it costs
Rough monthly figures for a small service business:
Hourly rates sit around $50 to $120 (£40 to £95). Fixed monthly fees are usually better value and easier to budget for.
What is worth keeping yourself
Photographing receipts at the moment of purchase. Sending invoices the same day the job finishes. Chasing late payers. None of it requires training, and all of it costs more when someone else does it slowly with incomplete information.
Questions to ask before signing
The most common mistake
Handing over a shoebox of receipts once a year. It is the most expensive way to buy bookkeeping, and it means you spent twelve months running the business without knowing whether it made money.
Monthly is the minimum. Weekly is better if you invoice often.