How much does a bookkeeper cost for a trade business in Australia?

It varies widely with scope and whether you are billed hourly or on a fixed package. Tradie-specialist bookkeepers commonly offer weekly or monthly packages scaled to whether you are a one-person business, have a small team, or need payroll and BAS handled as well. Ask what is included, who lodges the BAS, and whether catch-up work on messy historical books is quoted separately.

Can I do my own bookkeeping as a sole trader tradie?

Yes, and plenty do. The things that make it work are a separate business bank account from day one, capturing receipts as they happen rather than in a shoebox, invoicing promptly, and setting money aside for tax as each payment lands. The things that break it are mixed personal spending and leaving months of catch-up.

Bookkeeping for tradies: what to do yourself, and when to get help

Q: Do tradies need a bookkeeper?

Not necessarily. A sole trader with a handful of jobs a week, no employees and tidy records can often manage with good software and a set routine. The picture changes once you have payroll, subcontractors, a growing pile of receipts or a BAS you are anxious about — at that point a bookkeeper usually costs less than the mistakes and the lost evenings.

Q: What is the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant?

Broadly, a bookkeeper keeps the day-to-day records straight through the year — coding transactions, reconciling the bank, payroll and often BAS. An accountant works at the year level on your tax return, structure and strategy. Many trade businesses use both, and the accountant's job is far cheaper when the bookkeeping underneath it is clean.

By Yamate · Last updated August 2026

Most tradies do their own books at the start, and for a one-person business with tidy habits that is a perfectly reasonable call. What decides whether it keeps working is not how good you are with numbers — it is whether the records are captured as the work happens. The businesses that end up paying someone to untangle three years of receipts are almost never the ones that were bad at maths. They are the ones that left it.

1 · What bookkeeping actually involves

The word covers more than most people expect, which is part of why it gets put off. In a trade business it is roughly these jobs, on repeat:

Coding transactions — deciding what each payment in and out actually was, so fuel is fuel and materials are materials.
Bank reconciliation — making sure what your records say matches what the bank says, every period.
Chasing money owed — knowing who has not paid, and following it up.
Receipts and records — capturing and keeping them. The ATO generally requires records to be kept for five years.
BAS — if you are registered for GST, preparing and lodging it, usually quarterly.
Payroll and super — if you have employees or an apprentice, wages, PAYG withholding, super and pay reporting to the ATO.

The first four are within reach of anyone willing to build the habit. Payroll and BAS are where the risk goes up, because mistakes there involve other people's money and a regulator.

2 · The four habits that make DIY work

Not skills — habits. In rough order of how much trouble they save:

A separate business bank account, from day one. Every bookkeeper's most expensive job is separating personal spending from business spending after the fact. Do not put the weekly shop through the business card.
Capture receipts when they happen. Photograph it at the counter. A receipt in a glovebox is a deduction you will probably lose.
Invoice the day the job finishes. Not Sunday night, not at the end of the month. Getting paid starts with sending it.
Set money aside as it lands. A percentage of every payment into a second account, the day it arrives — see how much tax to put aside and the set-aside calculator. Once you are registered for GST that pot covers GST as well.

The compounding bit. Every one of these is easier to do in the moment than to reconstruct later. Bookkeeping that is done as you go takes a few minutes a day. The same bookkeeping done at BAS time takes a weekend, and done at year end takes a professional.

3 · When it stops being worth doing yourself

There is no turnover figure where this flips — it depends on complexity and on what your time is worth on the tools. These are the honest triggers:

Trigger	Why it changes the answer
You take on an employee or apprentice	Payroll, PAYG withholding, super and pay reporting to the ATO all arrive at once, and getting them wrong affects someone else's pay and entitlements
You register for GST	Quarterly BAS becomes a deadline with consequences rather than an annual tidy-up
You use subcontractors	Contractor-versus-employee treatment, and in the building and construction industry the Taxable Payments Annual Report
You are behind, and the gap is growing	Catch-up work is the most expensive kind, and it gets worse monthly
You are doing books at 9pm instead of quoting	An hour spent quoting is usually worth more than an hour spent coding transactions
You dread BAS	Anxiety about a lodgement is usually a signal that the underlying records are not trusted

Two or more of those at once is a fair sign it is time.

4 · Bookkeeper, accountant, or both

They are different jobs and the distinction saves money once you understand it.

	Bookkeeper	Accountant
Rhythm	Through the year — weekly, monthly, quarterly	Mostly at year end, plus advice as needed
Typical work	Coding, reconciling, payroll, BAS, chasing debtors	Tax return, structure, deductions, strategy
What it costs you to skip	Records that nobody trusts	Tax paid badly, or a structure that does not suit

Many trade businesses use both, and the important part is that the accountant's bill drops sharply when the bookkeeping beneath it is clean. Paying an accountant to do catch-up bookkeeping is the most expensive way to buy it.

If you want a bookkeeper who already knows how trade businesses run — progress claims, retentions, materials, ute expenses, the lot — it is worth looking for one who specialises rather than a generalist. Tradies Bookkeeping is a good place to start. Bettina has spent over twenty years doing this for Aussie tradies — invoicing, chasing money owed, payroll, BAS and dealing with the ATO — and prices it as straightforward weekly packages, whether you are a one-person show or running a team. They also take on the rescue jobs, which is worth knowing if your books are already behind.

Two questions worth asking any bookkeeper. Are they a registered BAS agent, if you want them lodging your BAS? And what happens to your data and access if you part ways? Both are easier to ask at the start than at the end.

5 · What good software does, and what it does not

Software is not a substitute for a bookkeeper and a bookkeeper is not a substitute for software — they solve different halves. Software's job is to stop the mess forming: quotes that become invoices without retyping, invoices that go out from the phone before you have left the driveway, a record of who has not paid, receipts attached to the job they belong to, and a running estimate of what is actually yours after tax.

What software cannot do is make a judgement call about how something should be treated, know that a payment was really a personal drawing, or take responsibility for a lodgement. That is what you are hiring a person for.

The best setup for most growing trade businesses is both: software that captures things correctly the first time, and a bookkeeper who works on top of clean data rather than archaeology.

Quote, invoice and chase payment from the phone →

Yamate handles the quoting, invoicing, chasing and job records for solo tradies and small crews, and shows your GST, tax and profit per job as an estimate as you go. It is not tax advice, it does not lodge your BAS, and you still lodge your own returns. Founder plan $19/mo if you sign up before 30 September 2026, $29/mo after; Company plan $79/mo for ten people, $15/mo per person after that. 30-day free trial, everything unlocked, no card needed. No lock-in, cancel anytime. Prices in AUD.

FAQ

Do tradies need a bookkeeper?

Not always. A sole trader with a handful of jobs a week, no employees and tidy habits can manage with good software and a routine. Payroll, subcontractors, a quarterly BAS you are anxious about, or months of catch-up all shift the answer toward yes.

How much does a bookkeeper cost?

It varies with scope and whether you are billed hourly or on a fixed package. Tradie-specialist bookkeepers commonly quote weekly or monthly packages scaled to one-person, small-team, or full payroll-and-BAS. Always ask what is included and whether catch-up work on old books is separate.

What is the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant?

A bookkeeper keeps the records straight through the year. An accountant works at year level on your return, structure and strategy. Many trade businesses use both, and clean bookkeeping makes the accountant cheaper.

Can I do my own books as a sole trader?

Yes. Separate bank account from day one, capture receipts as they happen, invoice promptly, and set tax aside as payments land. Mixed personal spending and months of catch-up are what break it.

How long do I need to keep records?

The ATO generally requires business records to be kept for five years. Digital copies are acceptable, which is a good argument for photographing receipts rather than keeping paper.

Does bookkeeping software replace a bookkeeper?

No — they do different halves. Software stops the mess forming and captures things correctly the first time. A bookkeeper makes judgement calls, handles payroll and BAS properly, and takes responsibility for lodgements. Growing trade businesses usually end up with both.

Going out on your own Your first BAS Do I need to register for GST? Tax to put aside Hiring your first employee Chasing unpaid invoices Tax & setup guide

General information for Australian businesses, not tax, legal or financial advice. Record-keeping, GST, payroll and reporting obligations depend on your circumstances — check ato.gov.au and your own accountant or registered BAS agent before acting. This page describes the position as read in August 2026.