I am a qualified bookkeeper with sage line 50. Also part CIMA qualified. I have 6 years experience in charity book keeping. Please can somebody advice on what may be the going hourly rate
do you mean employed or self employed?. For a start out self employed bookkeeper with no or few employees looking to kick start their client base I would suggest between £12-£15 per hour if acting for a small business rising to £25 for a larger company. Having said that I think a lot of people on this forum probably charge a fixed fee. No idea if you are asking about employed work though. There will be regional differences, I'm based in Coventry.
So are you saying Rob that if it is a large company that you are doing work for on a self-employed basis then charge more at £25 per hour? Is that how I have read your answer?
Interesting if it is as I may have one coming through in the coming months. How large do you base 'Large' on, what sort of turnover are you looking at???
I think you have to 'sus' it out a bit but I find the bigger the organisation the less likely they are to baulk at the idea of a higher charge, smaller businesses may be frightened off, but having said that a fixed fee for the smaller businesses will often result in a much higher hourly rate. The client needs to perceive your service as good value and a small business may see £50 per month as good value when it takes no more than an hour or so to complete the work. The bigger the company I find the harder to set a fixed price as more issues tend to crop up, so you need to 'sell' your fee, you are expensive because you are excellent at what you do, you will turn the work around fast, you are always on the end of the phone to sort problems out...in essence you take away their pain!
many thanks for your reply. Currently I am employed by a charity in kent with a turnover of over 1M and with 40 employees. i am the only accounts person and was looking to benchmark my salary ( my current rate is £14.50 per hour)