How Much Does a GAAP Conversion Actually Cost? Here’s How I Price It

If you’ve tried to get a straight answer on what a GAAP conversion costs, you’ve probably been met with ‘it depends.’ That answer isn’t wrong, but it isn’t useful either. So here’s something different: a transparent breakdown of exactly how I price a GAAP conversion, what variables move the number, and what real engagements have looked like at the low and high ends of the range.

I’ve built a pricing calculator to help you estimate a current project. But this post walks through the logic behind it, along with what I’ve seen in practice across clients ranging from early-stage SaaS companies to multi-entity multinationals preparing for a US listing.

How My Pricing Is Structured

My engagements are built around packages: Essential, Premium, and Elite. Each tier reflects a different level of service, scope, and deliverables. Within each package, the specific mix of work, the number of entities and GAAP frameworks, the need for technical memos, and the timeline all affect the final fee.

Here’s a realistic range across those tiers, based on actual signed engagements:

• Essential: $13,800 to $24,000. Typically a GAAP Summit workshop with preliminary US GAAP policy recommendations. The client’s finance team does the pre-work (chart of accounts mapping, current policy documentation), and I come in to analyze differences, run the workshop, and provide a structured set of next steps. No memos, no financial statement preparation.
• Premium: $18,000 to $35,000. A more comprehensive engagement where I handle both the documentation and the analysis, including a GAAP conversion matrix, a half-day GAAP Summit, and often one or two technical accounting memos. Good for single-entity conversions where the finance team needs a specialist to run the process.
• Elite: $36,000 to $60,000+. The full service, typically covering multiple entities or multiple GAAP frameworks, a complete conversion matrix, workshop, and two to three technical memos. Some Elite engagements also include preparation of US GAAP trial balances or financial statements and active auditor liaison.

A few things worth knowing about how these fees work: they are fixed fees, not hourly. You know the cost upfront. Payments are structured in monthly installments (typically three to six), so you’re not writing one large check at the start. And the fee covers the defined scope, with any material additions separately agreed.

What Moves the Price Within a Tier

Number of entities and GAAP frameworks

A single-entity conversion from one local GAAP to US GAAP is the baseline. Each additional entity or GAAP framework adds meaningful scope: you’re not just doing the analysis twice, you’re also managing the interplay between frameworks, consolidation logic, and entity-specific differences. The jump from one entity to two can add $5,000 to $15,000 depending on complexity.

Internal preparation

The biggest variable across every engagement is how much pre-work your finance team can do. An Essential engagement assumes your team will map the chart of accounts, document current GAAP policies, and come to the workshop prepared. A Premium or Elite engagement includes that documentation work on my side. Companies that invest in their internal prep consistently come in at the lower end of the range.

Technical accounting memos

These are the formal written analyses of a specific accounting area under your target GAAP: revenue recognition, lease accounting, share-based compensation, R&D capitalization, financial instruments, and so on. Each memo is a substantive piece of work that your auditors will rely on. They add $10,000 to $12,000 each to the total, and they’re almost always required for PCAOB audit or SEC filing readiness.

Number of periods covered

Most conversions cover one or two years of historical financials. Some, particularly those driven by a transaction, require three or more years. Each additional period adds scope, particularly if the trial balances need to be reconstructed from source data.

Timeline

Standard timelines run three to five months for most engagements. If you need the work done faster, there’s a surcharge for expedited delivery, which reflects the cost of compressing other commitments to prioritize your project.

Why the Range Is What It Is

The reason GAAP conversion pricing spans such a wide range, from around $14,000 to over $60,000, is that the underlying work genuinely varies that much. A US-headquartered software company converting a single UK subsidiary’s FRS 102 books to US GAAP for internal compliance purposes is a fundamentally different project from a five-country international media company converting to US GAAP with multiple local frameworks, three technical memos, and an audit timeline driving everything.

Both are real engagements I’ve done. Both were priced fairly for the scope. The difference isn’t margin, it’s complexity.

How to Estimate Your Project

The fastest way to get a ballpark is the pricing calculator. It takes about two minutes and gives you a range based on your specific inputs.

If you want to talk through the scope before getting an estimate, or if your situation is more complex than the calculator covers (multi-entity groups, multiple historical periods, PCAOB audit preparation, SEC filings), a thirty-minute scoping call will give you a clear picture of where your project lands and what the right package looks like.