Guide · Hiring
What a fixed-fee bookkeeping scope should include.
A fixed fee is only as fixed as the scope behind it. If the scope does not say which accounts, which months, what you get and what happens when the work grows, the fee is a starting number. Here is what a written scope should say before you sign — from any provider, including us.
A written fixed-fee bookkeeping scope should name the entities, accounts and periods covered; list the deliverables and when each arrives; state the volume it assumes and what happens above it; say what is excluded (tax filing, audits, payroll filing); confirm who owns the file and the access arrangement; and set out how scope changes are quoted and approved before the work continues. TechBrot delivers a scope like this within 3 business days of a discovery call.
TechBrot Inc. · independent bookkeeping and advisory firm led by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor — not a CPA firm and not affiliated with Intuit Inc.
Intuit certifications
Every engagement is reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor (QuickBooks Online Level 2, Payroll) — verification on request. Intuit’s ProAdvisor program becomes ProPartner Accountants in early 2027; the certifications continue.
Fixed-fee bookkeeping scopes, in five questions.
What should a fixed-fee bookkeeping scope include?
The entities, accounts and periods; the deliverables and their dates; the volume assumed; the exclusions; file ownership and access; who reviews the work; how changes are approved; the fee and terms; and how the engagement ends.
Why does the scope matter more than the price?
Because the fee is fixed only for the work the scope describes. A vague scope turns ordinary work into billable changes.
What is a volume assumption?
The transactions, accounts or entities the fee is built on. Without one, any busy month can be treated as extra work.
How should scope changes be handled?
Quoted and approved in writing before the extra work proceeds — not billed afterwards at an hourly rate.
Does TechBrot provide written scopes?
Yes — within 3 business days of a free discovery call, covering every item on this list.
The fee is fixed only if the scope is.
Fixed-fee pricing moves the risk of a job running long from you to the provider — but only for the work the scope describes. Everything outside it is either excluded or a change, and a vague scope makes almost anything a change.
Read the scope before the price. Two quotes at the same number can describe very different work.
Scope language that should make you ask.
“Standard bookkeeping services”
A label, not a scope. Ask which accounts, which periods and which deliverables.
No volume assumption
If the fee does not say what volume it covers, every busy month can become a change.
Changes billed at an hourly rate
A fixed fee with hourly overruns is an hourly engagement with a floor.
Work in the provider’s own system
If the books live somewhere you cannot take them, leaving becomes a project.
Ten things a written scope should say.
- Who and what: the legal entities and every bank, card and loan account covered.
- When: the periods — which months or years — and for monthly work, the close date each month.
- Deliverables: reconciliations, statements, schedules, summaries — and the date each one arrives.
- Volume assumed: the transactions, accounts or entities the fee is built on, and what happens above it.
- Exclusions: what is not included — tax filing, audits, payroll or sales-tax filing, collections.
- Access and ownership: whose QuickBooks file the work happens in, and that access can be removed.
- Review: who reviews the work before it reaches you.
- Changes: how work beyond the scope is quoted and approved in writing before it proceeds.
- Fee and terms: the fixed fee, when it is billed, and any minimum term.
- Ending it: notice, and what is handed over when the engagement ends.
The scope TechBrot writes.
TechBrot delivers a written fixed-fee scope within 3 business days of a free discovery call, covering everything above. Work happens in your own QuickBooks file; if new in-scope work appears, it is re-quoted and approved in writing before it proceeds. How we run engagements is on how we work; the published ranges are on the pricing page.
Questions about bookkeeping scopes.
Is a fixed fee always cheaper than hourly billing?
Should a scope include tax filing?
What if my transaction volume grows?
Who should own the QuickBooks file?
How long does a scope take to prepare?
Want to see one?
Get a written fixed-fee scope for your books.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call. If the fit is right, you get a written fixed-fee scope — everything on this list — within 3 business days. No obligation.
Tell us what’s wrong with the books. We’ll tell you whether cleanup, catch-up or monthly bookkeeping fits.
Call (877) 751-5575. If we miss you, a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor returns your call within one business day. Written fixed-fee scope within 3 business days. No hourly billing.