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Bookkeeping Services in Seattle, WA

Washington charges no state income tax, so most owners expect a short filing calendar. Then two separate business and occupation returns arrive, both charged on gross receipts rather than profit, one from the State and one from the City. Our bookkeeping services Seattle businesses rely on keep both filings clean, from under $250 a month.

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seattle Bookkeeping

What Do Seattle Bookkeeping Services Include?

Seattle bookkeeping covers monthly categorization, bank reconciliation, payroll support and reporting, plus one filing most cities never require: a City of Seattle business license tax return, entirely separate from the State return. Clients who want the whole function handled choose full-service bookkeeping in Seattle WA, which folds payroll and month-end close into the same fixed fee. Underneath sits the same outsourced bookkeeping process we run nationally.

What Does a Bookkeeper in Seattle Cost?

A bookkeeper in Seattle earns an average of $62,510 a year, or $30.05 an hour, across 17,860 jobs in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey published in May 2025. Across Washington the average is $60,090 a year and $28.89 an hour. Add the employer share of Social Security and Medicare at 7.65 percent, which is $4,782, and one in-house hire passes $67,000 before unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation premiums, software or health cover. Owners comparing outsourced bookkeeping services in Seattle find the gap closes once those employer costs are counted.

In-house Seattle bookkeeper vs GATP Solutions, true annual cost
Cost line In-house Seattle bookkeeper GATP Solutions
Base pay $62,510 a year Fixed fee from under $250 a month
Employer payroll taxes 7.65 percent of wages Included
Paid Leave premium 1.13 percent of wages, shared Filed for you
WA Cares withholding 0.58 percent, employer remits Filed for you
City and State B&O returns Two separate filings Filed for you
Accounting software Separate subscription Included
Cover during leave Close stops Team coverage

A Seattle bookkeeper on salary costs the same in a slow month as in a busy one. Fixed-fee bookkeeping Seattle businesses can budget for does not move when volume spikes.

What Makes Bookkeeping in Seattle Different?

Seattle runs two business tax systems at once, the City’s and the State’s, and both are charged on gross receipts rather than profit. Washington then adds two payroll withholdings that new employers routinely miss.

Seattle Shield B&O Changes

From 1 January 2026 the City raised its business license tax threshold from $100,000 to $2 million and added a $2 million standard deduction above it. Rates rose at the same time, to .00342 for retail, wholesale and manufacturing and .00658 for service and other activities. The catch is procedural: a business under the threshold owes nothing but still has to file a return reporting $0 due.

Washington State B&O Tax

The State charges its own B&O tax on gross receipts, and it is not a profit tax. Because it is based on gross income, businesses cannot deduct expenses such as labor, materials, taxes or other costs of doing business. A Seattle shop can post a loss and still owe B&O on every dollar it took in. That surprise is why accounting and bookkeeping services in Seattle WA get called in after a first return.

Seattle Payroll Expense Tax

The JumpStart payroll expense tax is paid by the employer, with no individual withholding. For 2026 it reaches businesses with $9,074,409 or more of Seattle payroll in 2025 that also have an employee earning $194,452 or more, at rates from 0.746 to 2.557 percent. Most small employers sit under that line, which is why the threshold is worth watching before a growth year crosses it.

Paid Leave and WA Cares

Two state withholdings ride on the same quarterly report. Paid Family and Medical Leave is 1.13 percent of gross wages in 2026, up to the $184,500 Social Security cap, with up to 71.43 percent paid by the employee. Employers with fewer than 50 employees do not owe the employer share unless they took a small business assistance grant, but must still collect and remit the employee premium. WA Cares adds 0.58 percent of gross wages, which the employer collects from the employee rather than paying any share of.

Our Seattle Bookkeeping Services

Monthly Bookkeeping

Categorization, reconciliation and a closed set of books every month, on a fixed date. Remote bookkeeping services in Seattle WA run on the bank feeds you already have.

Cleanup and Catch Up

Behind by months or years, our bookkeeping cleanup services in Seattle WA rebuild the ledger one period at a time until the balances tie. Catch up bookkeeping Seattle owners need before a loan or a sale runs on the same clean up workflow.

QuickBooks Setup and Repair

QuickBooks support services in Seattle WA cover chart of accounts design, broken bank feeds and undeposited funds. QuickBooks cleanup services in Seattle WA correct prior-year damage before it compounds.

B&O and Sales Tax Returns

We prepare the City and State returns on their own calendars and handle ongoing sales tax compliance on Washington sales, including the nil returns.

Payroll Support

Paid Leave, WA Cares and quarterly wage reporting handled alongside the books, so payroll and the ledger never disagree at year end.

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Seattle Industries We Support

We work across Seattle and King County, including Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Renton and Tacoma. Most of our bookkeeping for small Seattle businesses runs under 200 transactions a month.

E-commerce Sellers

Amazon and Shopify pay one net deposit after fees, but the State charges B&O on the gross sale, so every settlement has to be split before it is booked. E-commerce accounting gets that split right.

Real Estate and Property Management

Per-property profit and loss, deposits held in trust, and owner draws that need separating from income. Property management accounting keeps each building reportable.

Healthcare Practices

Insurance remittances rarely match the amount billed, so revenue has to be reconciled against deposits rather than invoices. Healthcare accounting closes that gap monthly.

Why Seattle Businesses Choose GATP

Fixed fee, not hourly. Bookkeepers in Seattle Washington usually bill by the hour, which prices up the exact months you need most help. If you have been comparing bookkeeper services Seattle WA firms advertise, the real difference is who carries the filing risk.

A Named Bookkeeper

One dedicated bookkeeper, not a shared inbox and a ticket number.

Certified on Both Platforms

QuickBooks and Xero certified, so we work in the file you have rather than migrating you.

Live in Five Business Days

Access and the first reconciliation inside a week of the call.

Filings Included

The City and State returns are part of the fee, not a year-end extra.

Our Guarantees

Accuracy Guarantee

If we make a bookkeeping error, we fix it and cover the penalty it caused. You should not pay twice for our mistake.

Bank-Grade Security

Encrypted document exchange and role-based access. Your bank credentials stay with your bank, never in an email.

Save 40 to 60 Percent Against In-House

Measured against the loaded cost of a salaried hire, not against a headline wage.

Seattle Bookkeeping: Frequently Asked Questions

How much do bookkeepers charge in Seattle?

Our fixed fee plans start under $250 a month. An in-house bookkeeper in the Seattle metro averages $62,510 a year, or $30.05 an hour, before the 7.65 percent employer payroll tax, which puts the salaried route near $67,000 loaded. Local firms that bill hourly cost you most in your busiest months.

For a small Seattle business with clean bank feeds and modest volume, yes, and our plans begin below it at under $250 a month. Transaction count, the number of accounts, whether payroll runs and whether the B&O returns are included are what set the figure. Ask what happens when volume doubles, because that is where a cheap quote moves.

Pay for the scope, not the hours. A monthly close with reconciliation, reporting and the Washington filings is a different job from data entry, and pricing it hourly rewards slow work. Compare a fixed fee against the loaded cost of a hire: $62,510 plus employer taxes, software and cover during leave.

No, but it has moved the work. Categorization and bank matching are largely automated now, and we use that. Judgement is not: whether a gross Amazon settlement is split correctly for B&O, whether an owner draw is income, whether a nil City return still needs filing. Automation gets the entries in. A person keeps them right.

Catch up means the books were never done, so we build the missing months from source documents. Clean up means they were done wrong, so we unwind and correct what is already recorded. Catch up is faster per month. Clean up takes longer because every correction has to be traced before it is reversed, and most files need both.

Yes. The City raised the threshold from $100,000 to $2 million on 1 January 2026, so businesses under it owe no tax but still have to file a return reporting $0 due. The tax bill goes away, the filing obligation does not, and that is where the penalties now come from.

Yes, and most clients keep theirs. We keep the books clean and the filings current through the year, then hand your CPA a closed set at year end instead of a shoebox in March.

Start Outsourced Bookkeeping in Seattle With GATP

Send us your last three months and we will tell you what shape the books are actually in, before you commit to anything. You get a fixed monthly price, a named bookkeeper, and both Washington returns handled on their own calendars.

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