What an accounting firm costs, and what really moves the price.
Ranges observed on the Geneva market in September 2026.
Nobody publishes their rates, so everyone collects three quotes and ends up comparing things that are not comparable. Here is how a price is built, what to look for in an offer, and how to get a figure for your own situation.
The cost of a mandate almost never depends on your turnover.
A business producing forty receipts a month does not cost what a business producing four hundred costs. It is the first factor, and by far the most decisive.
Bank statements as PDFs, sorted invoices, access to your software: the work moves fast. A box delivered at year end: everything has to be sorted first, and sorting is billed like the rest.
Entering the data yourself and handing us the review and the year end costs less than delegating everything. Both are legitimate, and the right choice depends on the time you have, not on your size.
Quarterly VAT, monthly payroll, several companies, shareholders abroad: every extra deadline is time, and time is the only thing we bill.
These are the ranges published by Geneva providers in 2026. They are there to situate, not to choose.
- Traditional accounting firm: CHF 180 to 280 an hour.
- Independent bookkeeper: CHF 100 to 150 an hour.
- Monthly package from an online firm: CHF 100 to 350.
- Annual budget for a small structure: CHF 1,200 to 6,000.
- Annual budget for an SME with VAT, payroll and year end: CHF 5,000 to 15,000.
A threefold gap between two offers rarely means one of them is expensive. Most of the time it means they do not cover the same thing.
We bill by time spent, and every invoice itemises the hours.
No flat fee quietly absorbing your good years and renegotiated at the first bad one. You see what was done, by whom, and how long it took. When a month is heavier, you know why. When it is lighter, you pay less. It is the only method that stays honest when a file changes size mid-year.
Six questions are enough to make two quotes comparable.
- Is the annual closing included, or billed on top?
- Are the VAT returns included, and at what frequency?
- Is the company tax return included? And the owners’ own returns?
- What happens if the volume doubles during the year?
- Who handles letters from the tax office, and is that billed?
- Is the software included, and who owns the data if you leave?
An offer that answers those six questions clearly is almost always better than a cheaper one that does not.
Why do accounting firms not publish their rates?
Because a figure with no context is almost always wrong. Two businesses in the same sector, with the same turnover, can require three times more work than one another. What is abnormal is not the absence of a price list: it is the absence of any explanation of what moves the price.
Flat fee or time spent: which costs less?
Over time, time spent. A flat fee is calculated on the least favourable assumption, because the firm has to cover its risk. It is reassuring in the first year, then it gets renegotiated as soon as the file moves. Time spent requires trust and readable invoices: that is why we itemise the hours.
Are the quote and the first meeting chargeable?
No. The online estimate and the meeting that scopes the mandate are free. What is billed is the work: technical advice on a specific point, the analysis of a file, bringing a late set of books up to date.
What does a late set of books cost?
More than a current one, always. Catching up is billed by time spent as well, and that time depends mostly on what is missing. A year to reconstruct without supporting documents costs several times what ongoing bookkeeping would have cost.
A figure for your situation, not a range.
Eight questions, three minutes. You get a written estimate with the detail of what it covers, with no commitment and no sales follow-up.