What does it cost to work with CSI? Here, we explain pricing factors for different services, add-ons, and situations. We update this regularly, but prices are subject to change.
Our average accounting fee comes out to approximately $750 per month. However, depending on your activity and complexities, your fee can range from $600 to $1,000+ per month.
Need an incentive to bundle? Clients who work with us for both accounting and payroll save $105 per month.
Every business has different monthly accounting needs, so each monthly accounting quote is different. However, your customized fee depends on these variables:
Think of this as the volume of work.
How many business transactions do you have on an average month? Your monthly accounting fee can largely depend on how much financial activity your accountant has to work with.
Think of this as the difficulty of the work.
Examples of factors that can be considered complexities include owning multiple business locations, requiring sales tax management, and having multiple bank accounts.
Here are the secondary services that our monthly accounting clients can add on:
Why does the monthly accounting industry cost what it costs? This image shows the key factors that influence this.
To provide the best service while keeping fees minimized, CSI doesn't follow every industry norm.
For example, on the service side, we keep automation and AI usage at a reasonable level and don't outsource bookkeeping or tax work overseas, unlike most other monthly firms.
Instead, we invest in our staff and technology, and we follow compliance laws closely. We also take advantage of virtual service and standardize our offerings as much as possible.
After onboarding, your monthly accounting fee moving forward includes:
We charge an onboarding fee for the work that's required to get started with our service. This fee varies since it’s based on your monthly accounting fee. The formula to find your upfront cost to work with us is:
Onboarding Fee = (Monthly Fee * 2) + $1,000
Learn more about what the onboarding fee includes.
Nothing extra! Costs associated with year-round tax strategy and annual business tax filing are included in your monthly accounting fee.
Check out our taxes pricing page for more information.
Back work may be necessary to get a business’s books caught up when they're transitioning from one accounting service to another. It's also part of how CSI can guarantee audit-proofed books at no additional cost. The formula to determine the price is:
Back Work Price = Number of Prior Months to Work On * Monthly Fee
To determine how far back we need to go, we find the last verifiable tax return or financial statement that was prepared by a party outside of your company. If the last completed item was a tax return, then your books are likely accurate through the end of December for that filed year.
If you need assistance with paying for back work, we offer payment plans.
No, not if you use Xero! Xero is our preferred software, but it's not the only one we can work with! However, to incentivize clients to use Xero, we cover the cost of the subscription.
If you've been using another accounting system but would like to switch to Xero, we can also help you convert your accounting data to save you the cost of the software subscription.
Unlimited one-off advice is included in your monthly accounting fee. Consulting services for monthly accounting clients are generally more complex projects that require work beyond initial advice.
Consulting is an additional service that incurs an additional cost. Costs will vary by project and will be outlined in a separate agreement if you decide you want to explore a consulting service.
Software integration is a consulting project that we can give an example cost for. It takes between a few hours for simple integrations and upwards of 30 hours for complex ones. For these reasons, there can be a price range of about $1,000-$2,500.
Here are some situational or optional things that you would face additional charges for, such as selling a building or obtaining a loan.
Out of our current payroll-only client base, an average month of payroll fees can range from a little under $100 to $500+. The average payroll client sits at a fee of around $275 per month.
Need an incentive to bundle? Clients who work with us for both accounting and payroll save $105 per month.
Payroll services charge for different basic payroll specifications. Here are the most critical factors in pricing a basic payroll package:
Fees will be added per state that we need to process per pay period. If your employees all live in the same state, you will only need to pay taxes to one state.
The more often you pay your employees, the more often we process your payroll. This means higher fees per pay period. Our offered pay frequencies include weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, and monthly.
Payroll fees are heavily influenced by the number of employees on payroll. There will typically be a small fee per employee per pay period.
There are a variety of optional add-on services that go beyond a basic payroll package. These come at additional costs.
Here are the add-ons that we provide:
A basic payroll package includes:
These, plus any optional add-ons or situational factors, make up a payroll fee.
Nope! Depending on which add-ons and situational factors you have, our pricing is comparable to what the big guys charge you. Here's a satisfied client who says our customer service is better anyway, and that's made a huge difference in value.
Here are some situational or optional things that you would face additional charges for, such as handling paycheck garnishments or retirement plan reporting.
We don't offer one-off business tax services, but the costs associated with year-round tax strategy, preparing your taxes, and filing your taxes are all included in your monthly accounting fee.
Proper tax strategy consists of three things: tax planning, projections, and preparation. Bookkeeping solutions and tax solutions can't capture the full picture the way that monthly accounting does.
All year long, tax strategy (done through monthly accounting) monitors your situation to help reduce the stress of tax season and legally minimize what you owe.
Years ago, we charged separately for monthly accounting and annual business taxes. That meant that our clients needed to pay a larger fee during tax season, throwing off their monthly cash flow. This is still the norm for most accounting solutions.
Now, we've spread out the cost of filing annual business taxes. Instead of an annual fee spike, our clients have monthly balance. Fees are consistent, with no filing fees due at tax time.
These graphs are examples that both reflect our average fees in 2025. Fees will vary.
If you didn't get your taxes filed this year (and maybe even the years before that), then you'll need us to handle your back work and back taxes.
When there's a gap in your accounting, back work is necessary to get your books caught up while transitioning from one accounting service to another. It's also part of how CSI can guarantee audit-proofed books at no additional cost.
Back Work Fee = # of Prior Months to Work On * Monthly Fee
If you need assistance, we offer back work payment plans.
Nothing extra for business taxes! Costs associated with year-round tax strategy and annual business tax filing are included in your monthly accounting fee. That means it is not a separate service and will cost whatever your customized monthly accounting fee comes out to.
As for your individual taxes, that's where the tax savings live! Individual taxes for business owners is an optional add-on service for our monthly accounting clients and varies in cost depending on how many forms your taxes require. It will range from about $600 to $1,000+.
Standalone annual tax filing isn't offered at CSI. It's only included as part of our monthly accounting service. However, if you're curious about how our pricing compares to filing with an annual tax accountant, let's look at the costs.
An annual tax preparer will typically charge between $500-$2,500 just to file annual business taxes. With CSI, that cost is included in your monthly fee, and we include year-round tax planning to legally minimize what you owe.
Back work and taxes may be necessary to get a business’s books caught up when they are transitioning from one accounting service to another. It is also part of how CSI is able to guarantee audit-proofed books at no additional cost. The formula to determine your back work price is:
Back Work Fee = Number of Prior Months to Work On * Monthly Fee
To determine how far back we need to go, we find the last verifiable tax return or financial statement that was prepared by a party outside of your company. If the last completed item was a tax return, then your books are likely accurate through the end of December for that filed year.
If you need assistance, we offer back work payment plans.
Do you know what not getting your back work done costs you more over time? With penalties and interest, it only gets bigger... and you lose all of the benefits that can come with having current financial records.
Luckily, we have a free eBook that talks about everything back work and back taxes-related all in one place. You don't even need to submit your information to get it! Get your free copy of Beyond the Deadline here.
To find time to grow your business, you need to get accounting and payroll off your plate and under one roof. Using multiple providers for these services means poor communication, extra work, and frustration.
There's a better solution. Outsource your accounting and payroll with one experienced company, just like thousands of our satisfied clients did.