What's the cost of having separate bookkeeper, CPA, and financial planner?

The visible bill. Standalone bookkeeping at $300 to $600 per month is $3,600 to $7,200 per year. A CPA charging $1,500 to $3,000 for an individual return with Schedule C, plus an additional $300 to $700 for quarterly estimates support, brings total tax fees to $1,800 to $3,700. A flat-fee financial planner runs $1,800 to $3,600 per year for ongoing service; AUM-based planners typically charge 0.75% to 1.25% of investment assets. For a contractor with $150,000 of investments, that is $1,125 to $1,875 per year. Total visible cost: $6,500 to $12,750 annually. Add specialized services (estate planning, business valuation, retirement plan administration) and the figure climbs.

The first invisible cost: data handoffs. When the bookkeeper, CPA, and planner work at separate firms, information flows through you. The CPA needs the year-end P&L and asks you. The planner needs current-year income for retirement contribution planning and asks you. The bookkeeper needs to know about a Roth conversion the planner recommended. Each handoff takes time, creates error risk, and slows decisions. A reasonable estimate of your time spent coordinating: 20 to 40 hours per year, worth $1,500 to $3,000 at a $75 hourly equivalent.

The second invisible cost: missed planning windows. Tax-saving opportunities that require coordinated action (S-corp salary documentation before year-end payroll, retirement contribution timing aligned with current-year income projection, equipment purchases before December 31 for Section 179) routinely fail when no single party owns the calendar. A reasonable estimate: $2,000 to $5,000 per year in missed savings for a typical 1099 contractor at $150K-plus.

The third invisible cost: duplicated work. The bookkeeper categorizes transactions for monthly reporting. The CPA recategorizes some of them at year-end to align with IRS schedule lines. Both parties do related work, but neither sees the other's. The 'cleanup' fee a CPA charges to fix bookkeeper output is the most visible form of this duplication, typically $300 to $800 per year.

The integrated alternative. A single firm handling bookkeeping plus tax prep, with a coordinated relationship to a financial planner, typically prices the bundle at $5,000 to $10,000 per year for the same 1099 contractor profile. The bundle savings is the duplication cost removed. The planning savings is added on top because year-round books enable proactive moves that a March-only CPA cannot make.