can anyone tell me what CPAs charge?

[grasswire]

A client is starting a small business in Atlanta and needs a ballpark estimate of what a CPA will charge for a quarterly look-see. She's going to do her own books on quicken but needs quarterly oversight, and needs an idea of the cost for the business projections.

Does anyone have an idea?

[Rhiannon12866]

1. In my experience, it varies widely.

My friend's Dad charged little to nothing if it was somebody in a jam, same with my financial advisor. But the CPA who used to do my mother's taxes charged a great deal and it wasn't all that complicated. Needless to say, she doesn't go to him anymore... :(

[Hawkeye-X]

2. I can ask my friend who is a CPA...

but her e-mail time is slow...

[NaturalHigh]

3. Around here it's usually between $50 - $75 per hour.

A few on the higher end might go all the way to $100 per hour. I'm not sure how the prices here in Oklahoma might compare to Atlanta, though.

[grasswire]

4. I have no ideas how many hours a quarterly review would take...

....but I can't imagine it could possibly be more than a day. So, a reasonable estimate using your figures could be $800/quarter.

[OhioBlue]

5. my advice is to have her write up exactly what she wants

the CPA to do and then get some quotes.

It can vary widely - is she going cash or accrual? will she have employees? If so, is she going to do all of her own filings and payroll preparation? Is she going to prepare her own taxes or have the CPA prepare? Is she going to ask the CPA to prepare quarterly financial statements?

If it is just a small operation with her as the sole proprietor and no employees, the CPA cost should be relatively minimal. My SO is self-employed and his accountant charges about $200 per year - tho the bulk of that is in the federal and state tax prep. (I do his sales tax) Your client may not even need the quarterly "look see" after the first year if she's pretty up to date on her accounting.

In my small 2-4 person office, we budget $2k for accounting fees, but that includes all payroll functions, I-9 filings, workers comp, unemployment, and local, state and federal filings. Our CPA has employees that prepare all of that at a lower hourly rate than the CPA. She does do semi-annual reviews of our quickbooks and checking our accruals, makes recommendations on write offs (very minimal) and reports to our board. She also helps with our bi-annual audit.

[Lisa0825]

6. This is consistent with what my ex paid for his business nt

[Hello_Kitty]

7. She might not need a CPA for that.

There are lower priced bookkeeping services that can look over your books and give you projections.

[PBS Poll-435]

8. A Professional Review or an Audit?

nt

[PBS Poll-435]

9. I charge $175 per month for small businesses

Plus obvious expenses.