How much does a Xero cleanup cost?
In Australia, a one-off Xero cleanup typically lands between A$500 and A$3,000+ at bookkeeper hourly rates (A$50–150/hr). Extrua Reconcile does it fixed-price from A$350 — and sizing your file first costs nothing (the Books Diagnostic is free). What moves the number is how far back the drift goes and how tangled the file is; here are the factors, so you can judge any quote.
What actually drives the cost
- How far back it goes. A few months behind is small; multiple years of accumulated drift is a different job.
- Volume. More transactions, invoices and payments mean more to trace and reconcile.
- Number of accounts & clearing accounts. Each bank or clearing account is another stream to reconcile against the truth.
- Payment-processing tangle. Batched payouts routed through a clearing account are the most time-consuming thing to unpick.
- Diagnosis vs full execution.A read-only report of what’s wrong is a smaller, fixed piece than carrying out every fix.
What the market charges (mid-2026)
Hourly bookkeepers run A$50–150/hr in Australia (experienced contractors typically A$97–104/hr). A one-off rescue or catch-up engagement usually lands between A$500 and A$3,000+ — a 10-hour backlog at typical rates is about A$1,250. Quarterly BAS work runs A$150–520. Against that, sizing the job should cost you nothing: Reconcile’s Books Diagnostic is free.
Why fixed-scope beats hourly
Cleanup work quoted by the hour leaves you exposed — the messier the file, the bigger the bill, and you don’t know the number until it’s done. Scoping the file first and quoting a fixed price puts the risk on the provider, not you. That’s how Extrua Reconcile works: a free, read-only Books Diagnostic first — so you know exactly what’s wrong before spending anything — then a clear, fixed price: a one-off cleanup from A$350 for your own business, or A$150/mo (up to 5 client files) if you’re a practice — not an open-ended hourly meter.
Want a number for your file?
Free, read-only, no card — Reconcile looks at your file and tells you what’s drifted and what it’ll take.
FAQ
Why can't anyone give a flat price for a Xero cleanup?
Because the work scales with the mess. A few months behind is a small job; two years of duplicated income and a clearing-account graveyard is a big one. A good provider sizes the file before naming a number — with Extrua Reconcile that first look is a free Books Diagnostic, so you know what's wrong before you're exposed to an open-ended hourly meter.
What makes one cleanup cost more than another?
How far back the drift goes, how many transactions and bank/clearing accounts are involved, how tangled the payment processing is, and whether you need a diagnosis only or full execution.
Is a diagnosis cheaper than a full cleanup?
Yes — and with Extrua Reconcile the diagnosis is free: the Books Diagnostic reads a copy of your file and reports what's wrong and what it'll take, before you commit to anything.
Free · read-only · no card