The honest answer is “it depends”, but that is useless to you, so here are the real ranges, what drives them, and how to tell whether a fee is high or just high for what you are getting. We publish how our own pricing works on the pricing page; this guide is about the market.
What businesses actually pay
For an Australian business with a trading entity, revenue of $1M and up, and a couple of related entities, annual accounting fees sit roughly in these bands. They move with location, firm size and how much advice is included.
| What you are buying | Typical annual range | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance only | $3,000 to $8,000 | Financial statements, tax returns, BAS. Nothing proactive. |
| Compliance and bookkeeping | $8,000 to $25,000 | The above plus Xero reconciled weekly, BAS prepared from clean books, numbers ready every month. |
| Compliance, bookkeeping and advisory | $15,000 to $50,000 | Monthly reporting, tax planning before 30 June, structure review, a team you can call. |
| Virtual CFO | $25,000 to $90,000 | Everything above plus forecasts, board-style reporting, funding and growth decisions. |
Project work sits outside these: a restructure, a valuation, due diligence on a purchase or a sale. Expect anything from $3,000 for a simple restructure to $20,000 and up for due diligence on a significant acquisition.
What drives the fee
- Number of entities. Every company and trust is a set of accounts, a return and ASIC compliance. A group of four entities is not four times the work of one, but it is more than double.
- Transaction volume and complexity. An ecommerce business with three sales channels and inventory is more bookkeeping than a consultancy invoicing six clients a month.
- State of the books. If the bookkeeping is behind or wrong, someone has to fix it before anything else can be done. Good firms quote this separately so you can see it.
- How much advice you want. This is the real difference between a $5,000 accountant and a $30,000 one. The first lodges what happened. The second changes it.
- Who does the work. Partner-only firms are expensive for routine work. Firms with no senior review are cheap and risky. The efficient model is a team with the right person on each task.
Hourly versus fixed versus agreed up front
Hourly billing is still common and is the worst model for you. The firm is rewarded for taking longer, you are penalised for asking questions, and you find out the cost after the work is done. If you are on hourly, ask for an annual estimate in writing and you will usually be offered a fixed fee instead.
Fixed fee is better: one number for a defined scope. The catch is the scope. Read what is excluded, because that is where the extra invoices come from.
Agreed up front is what we do: one agreed fee for the recurring work, re-scoped when the business changes, plus quoted projects you approve before they start. The point is that you never receive an invoice you did not already know about.
Is a cheaper accountant actually cheaper?
Only if the expensive one is not doing anything with the money. The test is simple: over the last two years, has your accountant saved you more than their fee, in tax, in a decision, or in a problem avoided? A $5,000 accountant who lodges on time and does nothing else costs $5,000. A $25,000 accountant who planned a $60,000 tax saving, caught a Division 7A issue and restructured you two years before a sale was free.
What a quote should include
Before you sign with any firm, the proposal should list: every entity, every lodgement, the bookkeeping scope and cadence, what reporting you get and how often, when tax planning happens, who is on your team, what is excluded, and how changes are priced. If any of those is missing, ask. If the answer is vague, that is the answer.
What we charge
We do not publish a price list because the range is wide and a number without a scope is meaningless. We do give you a clear indication on the first call, and the full fee in writing within the week. How it is built is on the pricing page.