Bookkeeper Fees in Brisbane (2026)

• Hourly or a package. Hourly billing at $45–$120 per hour suits a Brisbane sole trader whose paperwork arrives in fits and starts. Once the work settles into a steady monthly rhythm, a fixed package is easier to budget for: $250–$750 per month for a small operation, or $750–$1,500 per month once there are more suppliers, customers and accounts. Ask what each package caps and how work beyond the cap is charged.
• A spare-room office. Of all Greater Brisbane dwellings, 73.4% are separate houses, and 41.1% of homes have at least four bedrooms, above the Queensland share of 38.8% (ABS 2021 Census). Run a business out of a spare room in one of them and it still needs its own card and bank account. A bookkeeper who has to pick business costs out of a household card is doing billable sorting rather than bookkeeping.
• Feeds and transaction count. Every bank account, credit card, merchant terminal and payment app feeding the ledger has to be reconciled, so the number of feeds drives the quote as much as turnover does. Matching bank lines and routine keying-in sit outside the list of tax agent services the TPB publishes, so an unregistered bookkeeper may do that part. Closing accounts you no longer use trims the monthly work.
• Staff and Single Touch Payroll. Putting on staff moves you into the $1,000–$2,500 per month band. The TPB lists payroll that calls for applying tax law, STP reporting included, as a BAS service, so it belongs with an agent registered for that work. Headcount, pay frequency and the number of award conditions in play all add time.
• Who signs off the BAS. Keying in invoices is bookkeeping, but confirming the numbers on your activity statement is paid work reserved for registered BAS and tax agents. Doing BAS work for a fee without registration exposes a provider to significant civil penalties, the TPB says. Ask the Brisbane bookkeeper whether they are registered themselves or whether a registered agent on their team prepares the statement.
• Rentals beside the business. Over a third of households across Greater Brisbane rent (35.1%, versus 33.1% statewide), and 36.1% are paying off their homes (ABS 2021 Census). Any landlord who also runs a business should mention the property when they ask for a quote: keeping a property's income and costs in a separate file is extra work, and the property side of your return belongs with a registered tax agent, not a BAS agent.
• Catching up the backlog. Books left untouched for a few quarters are quoted as a one-off rescue, $500–$3,000 in our table, before any monthly fee starts. The band is wide because six missing months of a cash-heavy cafe and two months of a tidy consultancy are very different jobs. Hand over complete bank statements and any letters from the ATO at the first meeting so the quote reflects the real gap.

Engage a bookkeeper once you have GST registration, staff, or more than a few dozen transactions a month; a clean file also cuts your accountant's year-end fee.

A sole trader with a handful of monthly transactions can keep clean books in software and hand a reconciled file to an accountant at year end.