A solo Individual Entrepreneur with Small Business Status and a handful of invoices a month pays a small fraction of what a VAT-registered LLC with employees pays for accounting in Georgia, and the gap is not a rounding difference. Market pricing for outsourced accounting here runs roughly from under 200 GEL a month at the simple end to well over 1,000 GEL a month once VAT, payroll and formal financial reporting enter the picture. What actually lands you in one band or the other, whether you need a paid provider at all as a solo IE, and the red flags that mean a quote is cheaper than it looks, is what this article works through.
The honest range, by entity type and status
Every serious accounting provider in Georgia prices by complexity rather than a flat rate, and complexity tracks entity type and registration status more than anything else. Whether you are registered as an Individual Entrepreneur with Small Business Status or as an LLC changes which of the bands below you start in, though it is far from the only variable, as covered in Individual Entrepreneur versus an LLC. This table reflects researched market ranges, not any one firm's rate card, since the actual number always depends on your specific transaction volume.
| Profile | Typical monthly market range |
|---|---|
| Small Business Status IE, not VAT-registered, light invoice volume | Roughly 100 to 350 GEL |
| Small Business Status IE, higher transaction volume or multiple clients | Roughly 300 to 600 GEL |
| Ordinary IE without the status, full income and expense accounts | Roughly 250 to 550 GEL |
| VAT-registered IE or simple LLC | Roughly 300 to 900 GEL |
| LLC with employees, payroll and pension obligations | Roughly 500 to 1,300 GEL |
| Virtual Zone, International Company Status or FIZ company, or an LLC crossing into a SARAS reporting category | Roughly 800 GEL upward, often quoted individually |
Our own pricing runs on the same logic, banded by monthly transaction count rather than a flat fee per entity type, on the accounting services page. We mention it here because the exact tiers are the kind of number that changes as the market does, and the service page is the one place we keep it current rather than repeating a figure here that could quietly go stale.
What actually drives the price
The rate on your tax filing stays the same regardless of who does your books. What the accountant actually has to do behind that filing is what varies, and it varies on a short list of factors that account for almost all of the spread in the table above.
- Transaction volume. Every bank statement row, invoice and expense is one line of work. A consultant billing three clients a month and a small agency processing sixty transactions are not the same job, even if both are technically IEs.
- VAT registration. The moment VAT applies, whether mandatory above the 100,000 GEL threshold or taken on voluntarily, bookkeeping shifts from simple to accrual-style recordkeeping, and the monthly filing gains a whole additional return.
- Payroll and pension. Employees mean monthly payroll calculations, pension contributions split between employer, employee and the state, and withholding declarations that a solo IE never has to think about.
- Number of shareholders and the entity type itself. An LLC carries corporate tax and dividend mechanics an IE never touches, since profit is taxed only on distribution, and more owners means more moving parts even before anything else changes.
- SARAS reporting category. Once a business crosses into one of the four reporting categories set out in SARAS financial reporting in Georgia, annual financial statements become a separate, more technical piece of work on top of the monthly cycle.
- Special regimes. Virtual Zone, International Company Status and Free Industrial Zone companies carry substance and reporting conditions an ordinary LLC does not, which is reflected in a higher band almost everywhere in the market.
- Foreign-currency and cross-border volume. Reverse VAT on services bought abroad, currency conversion at the correct rate, and invoicing clients in multiple currencies all add work that a purely domestic, GEL-only business does not generate.
Do you actually need a paid accountant as a solo IE?
Honestly, not always. If you hold Small Business Status, sit well below the VAT threshold, and invoice a handful of clients a month, the monthly filing through rs.ge is genuinely something a disciplined founder can do without paying anyone. The portal, which we walk through directly in the rs.ge portal guide, is the main obstacle, not the underlying accounting, since a Small Business Status IE below the VAT threshold is not required to keep formal accounts at all beyond the underlying tax source documents.
The calculation changes as soon as any of three things happen: VAT registration applies, employees enter the picture, or the sheer number of invoices makes a twenty-minute monthly task into a genuine afternoon. At that point the honest comparison is not "accounting fee versus free," it is your own time, priced properly, against what a provider charges to take the whole thing off your hands and carry the liability if something is filed wrong. For a fuller walkthrough of exactly where that line sits and how the monthly cycle works either way, see accounting in Georgia.
In-house versus outsourced: the real comparison
Hiring an in-house bookkeeper or accountant looks cheaper on a per-hour basis until the full cost is added up. A junior in-house bookkeeper's monthly salary in Georgia sits in a modest range by regional standards, but that figure is only the starting point.
| Cost element | In-house hire | Outsourced provider |
|---|---|---|
| Base monthly cost | A salary, plus employer pension contributions on top of gross pay | One fixed or transaction-based fee |
| Sick leave, holiday, turnover | Your cost and your risk to manage | The provider's problem, not yours |
| Software and reference materials | Usually an added cost | Bundled into the fee |
| Liability for a filing error | Sits with you as the employer | Often carried by the provider, worth confirming in writing |
| Scales down in a quiet month | No, salary is fixed | Often yes, on a transaction-based plan |
| Scales up with a VAT registration or new hire | Requires retraining or a second hire | Usually just a higher tier |
For a single IE or a very small LLC, an in-house hire rarely makes sense purely on cost, since the fixed salary and employer pension contribution outweigh what a light transaction volume actually requires. It starts to make sense once a business is large enough that accounting is close to a full-time job on its own, at which point the comparison is no longer about price but about wanting a dedicated person embedded in the business day to day. Employer pension mechanics and the wider cost of a first hire are covered properly in payroll in Georgia.
Hourly billing versus fixed and transaction-based pricing
Georgian accounting providers price in three broad ways, and the model matters as much as the headline number.
Hourly billing suits irregular, one-off work: a single messy month, a specific question, or a back-year cleanup. It is a poor fit for routine monthly filing, because an accountant billing by the hour has no particular incentive to get faster at a repetitive task.
Flat monthly retainers are simple to budget against but only fair when they are genuinely matched to your complexity. A flat fee quoted without ever asking about your transaction volume, VAT status or headcount is a fee that was not actually priced against your business.
Transaction-based tiers, the model most established providers use, price against the number of bank rows, invoices and expenses in a given month. It rewards a quiet month with a lower bill and adjusts automatically as a business grows, without a renegotiation every time volume shifts.
A genuine quote for ongoing accounting cannot be given honestly without knowing your entity type, VAT status, transaction volume and whether you have employees. A provider who quotes a flat number before asking any of that is either guessing or planning to revise the number upward once your first month of real documents lands on their desk.
Red flags in a Georgian accounting quote
Most of what separates a fair quote from an expensive mistake shows up before you ever sign anything, if you know where to look.
- A single flat number with no reference to transaction volume, entity type or VAT status. Pricing that ignores your actual complexity is pricing that will not hold once the work starts.
- No stated position on who is liable for a filing error. Late-filing penalties are automatic under Georgian rules, and a provider who will not say in writing whether they cover the cost of their own mistake is telling you something about how they will handle one.
- A quote well below the ranges in the table above with no explanation. Sometimes it is a genuine promotional rate. Often it is a rate that assumes far less transaction volume than you actually have, and the real bill shows up after the first month.
- Annual payment required upfront with no trial period. Reasonable for an established relationship, a poor sign from a provider you have never worked with.
- No mention of reverse VAT or the SARAS deadline where either clearly applies. If your business buys services from abroad or sits in a SARAS reporting category and the quote never raises either, the provider has not actually looked at your business yet.
- Everything communicated verbally, nothing in writing. A scope of work, a price, and what happens if a deadline is missed should all exist as text you can point back to later.
Choosing between providers, briefly
Price is only one half of a good decision, and it is the wrong half to lead with. What actually separates a provider worth paying from one that is merely cheap is competence, responsiveness and what they actually do for you month to month, which is a big enough question that it gets its own full treatment in how to choose an accountant in Georgia: the questions worth asking before you sign, the credentials that actually mean something here, and what a good provider does every single month that a bad one skips.
We price by transaction volume, not by guessing at your entity type, and we carry the liability if we file something wrong. See where your business actually lands before you commit to anything.
See what it costs
What adds to the number over a year
The monthly fee is not the whole annual bill. A handful of once-a-year or occasional costs sit on top of it for businesses that trigger them.
- SARAS annual financial reporting, due by 1 October for businesses in one of the four categories the Law of Georgia on Accounting, Reporting and Audit sets by assets, revenue and headcount, is usually priced separately from the monthly retainer because it is a genuinely different piece of technical work. The Service for Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Supervision is the body that receives these filings.
- Back-year filing, if you are switching providers and past months were never properly filed, is priced as arrears on top of the going-forward rate.
- One-off legal and corporate documents, such as board resolutions, loan agreements or a shareholder agreement, are typically quoted individually rather than bundled into a monthly fee.
- VAT Qualified Status, which extends reclaimable VAT beyond reverse charge to local Georgian purchases, is a one-time application fee separate from the ongoing VAT filing itself.
None of these apply to every business, which is exactly why a single invented "average annual cost" figure would be more misleading than useful. The honest approach is to work out which of these your specific business actually triggers, price the monthly retainer against the table above, and add the occasional items only where they genuinely apply.
Key takeaways
- Market pricing for outsourced accounting in Georgia runs roughly from under 200 GEL a month for a simple Small Business Status IE to well over 1,000 GEL a month for a VAT-registered LLC with payroll and SARAS reporting.
- Transaction volume, VAT registration, payroll and any special regime are what actually move the price. Entity type alone is a weaker predictor than most guides suggest.
- A solo IE below the VAT threshold with light invoice volume can genuinely self-file without a paid provider. The maths change once VAT, employees or volume make that untrue.
- In-house hiring rarely beats outsourcing on pure cost for a small business, once salary, pension contributions and continuity risk are added up honestly.
- A quote that does not ask about your transaction volume, VAT status or headcount was not actually priced against your business.
- Annual and one-off costs, including SARAS reporting and back-year filing, sit on top of the monthly retainer rather than inside it.
Frequently asked questions
How much does accounting cost in Georgia for a small business?
Market rates for a simple Small Business Status Individual Entrepreneur with light transaction volume typically run under 200 to 350 GEL a month. A VAT-registered LLC with employees typically runs 500 GEL a month upward, often well past 1,000 GEL once payroll and SARAS reporting apply. The specific number always depends on transaction volume.
What is the single biggest factor in accounting cost?
Transaction volume, closely followed by VAT registration status. A quiet IE with three invoices a month and a busy VAT-registered company processing sixty transactions are different jobs even when both are technically the same entity type, which is why pricing by volume is more common than a flat per-entity rate.
Do I need to pay for accounting if I have Small Business Status?
Not necessarily. Below the VAT threshold, with light transaction volume, a disciplined founder can genuinely file the monthly declaration through rs.ge without paying anyone, since formal bookkeeping is not required until a VAT obligation arises. The case for paying grows once volume, VAT status or the value of your own time changes the equation.
Is outsourced accounting cheaper than hiring in-house?
For a single Individual Entrepreneur or small LLC, yes, almost always. A salaried hire carries employer pension contributions, continuity risk and fixed cost regardless of how quiet a month is, where an outsourced, transaction-based fee scales with actual volume.
Why do accounting quotes vary so much between providers?
Because complexity varies enormously between businesses even within the same entity type, and a fair quote reflects that. A wide spread between quotes is often a sign that only some of the providers actually asked about your transaction volume, VAT status and headcount before naming a number.
What is a red flag in an accounting quote?
A flat number given before anyone asks about your entity type, VAT status or transaction volume. Also worth treating as a warning sign: no stated position on liability for a filing error, silence on reverse VAT or SARAS reporting where either clearly applies, and a rate well below the market range with no explanation for why.
Does VAT registration really change the price that much?
Yes. VAT registration moves recordkeeping from a light, close-to-cash-basis regime to full accrual-style bookkeeping, adds a monthly VAT return on top of the standard declaration, and introduces input VAT reclaim calculations. It is one of the two or three biggest single jumps in the pricing table.
What extra costs come up once a year rather than monthly?
SARAS financial reporting for businesses in a reporting category, due by 1 October, plus any back-year filing if you are switching providers, and one-off legal documents such as resolutions or a shareholder agreement. None of these are part of a standard monthly retainer.
Is hourly billing or a fixed monthly fee better?
Hourly billing suits one-off or irregular work, such as a back-year cleanup or a single complex question. For routine monthly filing, a transaction-based tier is usually fairer to both sides, since it tracks your actual volume rather than either overcharging a quiet month or undercharging a busy one.
Can I negotiate accounting fees in Georgia?
To some extent, particularly around which tier you land in and what is bundled versus billed separately. What is harder to negotiate honestly is complexity itself: a VAT-registered LLC with employees will cost more than a solo IE at any provider that has actually priced against your real transaction volume rather than a flat guess.
How do I know if a quote is actually fair for my business?
Compare it against the market ranges by profile above, and check that the provider asked about your transaction volume, VAT status and headcount before quoting. A number that ignores those inputs is not really a quote for your business, whatever figure it lands on.