Most Zenbooks clients invest between $1,500 and $6,000 per month
Here is exactly how that's calculated.
This page tells you what we charge, what drives the fee up or down, and what real clients pay. We publish itemized invoices and year-over-year fee histories from named clients because we think you deserve to make this decision with real numbers.
The "Not a fit if" section near the bottom is honest, and the controller-first guidance below is the same advice we give clients who could pay us more.
Zenbooks
- No recruitment fees
- Only pay for the services you need
- None of the expenses tied to full-time staff
- Affordable ways to scale up
- In it for the long haul, unlike staff who may move on
- Frees up your budget for other business needs
Full-Time Staff
- Group benefits
- Year-end bonuses
- Costly severance packages
- Expensive training courses
- Office space requirements
- Career/promotion needs
Zenbooks
vs. Full-Time Staff
Why hire a full-time finance team when Zenbooks provides the expertise you need at a fraction of the cost? With us, you gain a dedicated team of professionals who can quickly pivot to meet your evolving needs–all the expertise, none of the overhead.
What moves your fee up or down
Five factors explain almost all of the variation in what Zenbooks clients pay.
1. Transaction volume. The number of monthly bank and credit card transactions we reconcile. A $2M agency with 200 monthly transactions and $2M e-commerce business with 2,000 transactions, don't have the same price.
2. Payroll headcount and frequency. Payroll fees scale with the number of employees and how often you run payroll.
3. Number of legal entities and currencies. One Canadian corporation is the baseline. Adding a Holdco, a US C-corp, a partnership, or a trust each adds compliance work, intercompany reconciliation, and tax filings.
4. Sales tax jurisdiction count. GST/HST in one province is straightforward. Add QST, add US state nexus (especially economic nexus thresholds in 30+ states), or add cross-border VAT, and the work scales accordingly.
5. Advisory cadence. Monthly check-ins are the baseline. Weekly Virtual CFO cadence, quarterly board reporting packages, or active investor reporting all add capacity to your engagement.
What drives fees down: clean, current books already in Xero or QuickBooks Online, a single Canadian entity, a single sales tax jurisdiction, low transaction volume.
Four rules of thumb from our own client base
These are stated directly because we'd rather you have a useful estimate than a useless range.
Rule 1. Virtual controller services typically cost roughly the same as your monthly bookkeeping fee. If you're paying $1,000/month for bookkeeping, expect $1,000/month on top for controller work, not in place of it.
Rule 2. True fractional CFO advisory adds $2,500 to $4,000/month on top of an existing controller engagement. CFO work without a functioning controller layer underneath is catch-up bookkeeping at CFO rates, which is the most expensive way to solve a bookkeeping problem.
Rule 3. Onboarding cleanup (catching up on prior-period bookkeeping, fixing payroll errors, restoring CRA access, organizing the chart of accounts) is quoted separately and typically lands between $1,500 and $7,500 as a one-time fee, depending on how many months are behind and how complex the structure is.
Rule 4. Overall accounting fees typically land between 1% and 3% of revenue, depending on the level of service. Roughly 1% covers compliance and bookkeeping, 2% covers a virtual controller engagement, and 3% covers full Virtual CFO advisory. A $3M business paying $7,500/month (3% of revenue) should be receiving CFO-level work; if it's not, the engagement is mispriced. This rule of thumb holds most reliably for businesses above $1M in revenue, where accounting fees scale proportionally with complexity rather than being anchored by a fixed minimum cost.
For a deeper breakdown of why we make the controller-versus-CFO distinction this way, read our full guide: How much does a fractional CFO cost in Canada?
Your Plan Options
Every Zenbooks business relationship begins with understanding your unique requirements and crafting a tailored package that fits. Below is a guide to give you an idea of pricing ranges based on common service needs.
- Monthly record keeping
- Compliance & filing requirements
- Monthly financial statements
- Monthly Q&A with senior accountant
- Year-end close
- Monitoring of 5 key goals
- A/R & A/P monitoring
- Budgeting support
- 13-week cash projections
- Cost control strategies
- Proactive tax advisory
- Enhanced CRA/IRS representation
- Cash flow projections
- Financial forecasts
- Custom management reporting
- Capital management
- Profit maximization strategies
Stay stress-free and fully compliant with our Enlightened Tax package. You’ll get a dedicated accountant, proactive planning with two connects per year, digital receipt management, seamless CRA payments, and audit support.
- Regular tax planning
- Proactive agenda topics
- Fully managed CRA experience
Get flexible payroll services tailor-made to your business’s size and needs. Our sliding scale pricing ensures you only pay for what you need and use, with expert support to keep payroll simple, compliant, and stress-free at every stage.
Sterling Sky
(digital marketing consultancy, US/Canada cross-border)
Year one (2018): $575/month at ~$1M USD revenue, 5 employees
Year seven (2024): $4,219/month at ~$5M USD revenue, 40+ employees
What changed the pricing: cross-border entity setup, payroll growth from 5 to 40+, addition of advisory cadence, expanded tech stack (Xero, Dext, Wagepoint, Plooto)
Year
Monthly pricing ($)
2018
$575 per month
2019
$1,251 per month
2020
$2,316 per month
2021
$2,663 per month
2022
$2,846 per month
2023
$2,105 per month
2024
$4,219 per month
Menos
(cross-border e-commerce, Shopify app developer and agency)
Year one (2019): $350/month at ~$156K revenue, sole founder, single Canadian entity
Year seven (2025): $6,271/month at $12M+ revenue, multi-entity Canada/US, growing team
What changed the fee: caught up two years of overdue filings during onboarding, established a US corporation with cross-border tax planning and transfer pricing agreement, added Holdco for lifetime capital gains exemption planning, integrated Shopify, Amazon, and PayPal sales data into Xero via A2X, layered in Avalara for US sales tax compliance, moved from monthly check-ins to weekly Virtual CFO cadence, added Dext for receipt automation and Wise for cross-border FX
Year
Monthly pricing ($)
2019
$350 per month
2020
$484 per month
2021
$3,429 per month
2022
$5,308 per month
2023
$5,611 per month
2024
$6,005 per month
2025
$6,271 per month
2021: US expansion, Holdco setup, transfer pricing agreement, weekly Virtual CFO cadence introduced
Kehops
(Canadian reverse sourcing platform for corporate team-building and events, founder-led, funded startup)
Starting fee (December 2024): $2,445/month plus tax, ~14 full-time employees, pre-seed and seed rounds completed via convertible notes, Quebec corporation
What's included at this fee: monthly bookkeeping, vController services, accounts payable management via Plooto, biweekly all-inclusive payroll, corporate tax all-inclusive package, Dext receipt automation
What drove the fee at this engagement size: 14-employee biweekly payroll with seasonal layoffs and Records of Employment, books abandoned for several months requiring full catch-up, FY2024 T2 corporate tax return and first Compilation Engagement Report due, GST/QST filings, complex capital structure (preferred shares plus convertible notes) requiring proper documentation, co-founder buyout in progress requiring CRA and Revenu Quebec clearance requests, quarterly financial statements for board reporting, advisory on convertible note conversion and BDC financing requests.
Services
Monthly pricing ($)
vController Services
$400.00
Monthly bookkeeping
$1,050.00
Accounts payable management
$262.00
All-inclusive payroll management
$478.00
Corporate tax all-inclusive package
$228.00
Dext subscription
$27.00
Subtotal (pre-tax)
$2,445.00
GST/HST
$317.85
Total monthly fee
$2,762.85
On conflict of interest: Eric and Philippe know each other personally. Disclosed to the board, file led by a separate team, engagement approved unanimously.
On cash flow flexibility: When funding was delayed, services were paused without penalty and resumed when cash returned.
How fees change over time
Fees are reviewed semi-annually internally and more closely during the first few months as we get a better picture of your situation. Increases are tied to documented changes in scope (transaction volume, headcount, entity count, advisory cadence). The Sterling Sky and Menos fee histories above show what this looks like in practice: fees grow alongside the business, drop when scope tightens, and step up at structural inflection points (new entity, new country, new advisory cadence).
Our fee increases year over year if there is no scope change, would usually be consistent with inflation to remain sustainable with wage costs.
What's the cheapest plan you offer?
Do you bill hourly?
Do you offer project-based engagements?
What happens if my transaction volume spikes for a month?
Do you require a contract length?
What does onboarding cost?
How do you handle scope creep?
What happens if I hit a cash crunch?
Do you offer discounts for non-profits or early-stage startups?
Business Clarity That Helps You Breathe Easy
Achieve your business goals and peace of mind with Zenbooks. As both your finance team and business advisor, we empower you every step of the way.
