Salary guide · Updated September 2026
Bookkeeper salary in Australia
Base salary by city, what drives the number, what 'fully loaded' actually costs, and how it compares to a bookkeeper hired through Nearhire.
National guide
Bookkeeper base salary by city, Australia
Bookkeeper salaries in Australia scale with cost of living and local demand. The table below shows base salary range (low, mid, high) and the fully loaded mid, the number a business should actually budget against once employer on-costs are added.
| City | Low | Mid | High | Fully loaded mid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | AUD 75,000 | AUD 85,000 | AUD 95,000 | AUD 104,000 |
| Melbourne | AUD 70,000 | AUD 80,000 | AUD 90,000 | AUD 98,000 |
| Brisbane | AUD 65,000 | AUD 75,000 | AUD 85,000 | AUD 92,000 |
Source for the table above: Robert Half Australia 2026, 2026.
New Zealand
Bookkeeper base salary by city, New Zealand
| City | Low | Mid | High | Fully loaded mid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auckland | NZD 67,000 | NZD 75,000 | NZD 85,000 | NZD 86,000 |
| Wellington | NZD 65,000 | NZD 70,000 | NZD 80,000 | NZD 81,000 |
What drives it
What moves a bookkeeper's salary
Experience. The gap between a junior bookkeeper doing data entry and a senior bookkeeper running full-cycle reconciliations, BAS prep and multi-entity ledgers is the single biggest driver in the range above.
Software. Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks proficiency is table stakes. Experience with a more complex platform (NetSuite, Sage Intacct) or multi-entity, multi-currency books pushes toward the top of the band.
Industry. Bookkeepers in professional services, construction and multi-location retail typically command more than a single-entity small business role, because the volume and complexity of transactions is higher.
City. Sydney and Melbourne sit above Brisbane and above New Zealand's main centres, tracking the general cost-of-living gap between those markets.
Fully loaded cost
What 'fully loaded' actually means
A base salary is not what a bookkeeper costs a business. Add superannuation (12% from 1 July 2025), state payroll tax (4 to 5.45% depending on the state), leave entitlements (annual, sick, and long service leave, roughly 13% combined) and workers compensation (about 1.5%), and the true annual cost runs about 22% above base. That's the "fully loaded" figure in the table above, and it's the number to budget against, not the advertised salary.
What a bookkeeper should cost you
What a bookkeeper should cost you
For a straightforward single-entity bookkeeping role, budget close to the mid of the local band, fully loaded: AUD 104,000 in Sydney, AUD 98,000 in Melbourne, AUD 92,000 in Brisbane. Multi-entity or higher-complexity work pushes toward the top of the range; a purely transactional, part-time scope can sit toward the low end.
Compare
A Johannesburg bookkeeper through Nearhire
A comparable South African bookkeeper hired through Nearhire runs indicatively around AUD 28,000 a year on a direct hire: the person's Johannesburg cost to company (base plus statutory on-costs) converted, with a one-off placement fee on hire on top; managed hire, one monthly fee, is about AUD 42,000. Against a Sydney fully loaded cost of AUD 104,000, that's a material gap, and it comes with a person doing the same reconciliation, AP and AR work on Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks, on a shared overlap with your Australian hours.
Indicative. Local bands from published 2026 recruitment-agency guides; Nearhire figure is an estimate confirmed on a call.
Progression
How salary tracks experience
A junior bookkeeper, one to two years in, doing data entry and basic reconciliations, sits toward the low end of the ranges above. A mid-level bookkeeper running full-cycle reconciliations, AP, AR and BAS-ready ledgers independently sits at the mid. A senior bookkeeper managing multiple entities, mentoring a junior, or handling a complex chart of accounts sits at the top, and starts to overlap with the base of an assistant accountant role. If a bookkeeper's day-to-day work is drifting into journal entries, accruals and balance sheet reconciliations under review, that's usually a sign the role has grown into an assistant accountant scope, and the salary should move with it.
By city
See each city's full page
Questions
Frequently asked
What is a bookkeeper's average salary in Australia?
Base salary sits between about AUD 65,000 and AUD 95,000 depending on city and experience, with Sydney at the top and Brisbane at the bottom of the three-city range covered here. Fully loaded (including super, payroll tax, leave and workers comp), the true cost runs from about AUD 92,000 to AUD 104,000.
Is bookkeeper salary the same as what it costs to employ one?
No. Salary is base pay only. What it actually costs a business is the fully loaded figure: base plus superannuation, payroll tax, leave entitlements and workers compensation, roughly 22% above base in Australia.
Do bookkeeper salaries differ much between Australian cities?
Yes. Sydney runs highest, Melbourne close behind, and Brisbane noticeably lower, tracking each city's cost of living.
How much cheaper is an offshore bookkeeper?
Indicatively, a South African bookkeeper through Nearhire runs around AUD 28,000 a year against a Sydney fully loaded cost of AUD 104,000. Confirmed on a call once the scope is set.
What software should a bookkeeper know?
Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks cover most Australian and New Zealand small and mid-size businesses. Larger or multi-entity operations may run NetSuite or Sage Intacct instead.
Next step
Talk it through with us
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