An alternative to hiring a billing specialist
Finished jobs, hours and shipments turned into accurate invoices the same way every time, without the hire.
Instead of hiring a billing specialist, you can hand the work to Dull: a done-for-you back-office service that turns your finished jobs, timesheets and shipments into accurate invoices, checked against each customer’s rates, and sends them from your own system, for a flat monthly fee, month to month, with a fixed quote on a 15-minute call. Most businesses are live in about a week.
Below: what the job involves, what a hire really costs, how the options compare, and what stays with you.
What a billing specialist actually does
- Turn completed work, hours or shipments into invoices.
- Apply the right rates, contract terms and discounts for each customer.
- Post charges and payments to customer accounts.
- Fix billing errors and issue corrections.
- Run month-end or cycle billing.
- Answer customer questions about invoices.
What hiring a billing specialist really costs
BLS tracks billing specialists as billing and posting clerks (SOC 43-3021), about 404,000 US workers in May 2025.
| Cost | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Median salary | $48,500 a year ($23.32 an hour) | BLS, May 2025, SOC 43-3021 |
| Average salary | $51,070 a year | BLS, May 2025 |
| Benefits and payroll taxes | about $20,800 a year | BLS employer costs, June 2026 |
| All-in cost of a median hire | about $69,300 a year, or $5,780 a month | Median salary ÷ 0.70 |
| Time to fill the seat | a median of 39 days, before training | SHRM, 2026 |
| Dull | Flat monthly fee, month to month, quoted on a 15-minute call | How Dull pricing works |
BLS reports that wages make up 70.0% of what private employers spend per worker, and benefits and legally required payroll taxes make up the other 30.0% (Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026). Dividing the median salary by 0.70 gives the all-in figure. It still leaves out job ads, recruiter fees, equipment, software seats and the hours you spend training, so the real cost of a hire is higher. Pay also varies by city: the BLS page has state and metro figures.
This isn’t a like-for-like comparison, and we won’t pretend it is. A full-time employee works about 2,080 hours a year and can pick up anything you hand them. Dull’s pilot covers one process, up to 300 standard records a month. If the seat is bigger than that, tell us on the call and we’ll tell you honestly whether we can cover it.
Your options compared
| Option | Monthly cost | Time to start | Who checks the work | Commitment | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hire an employee | about $5,780 all in | median 39 days to fill, then training | You | Employment | Steady full-time volume, or work that needs someone on site |
| Temp agency | about $6,060 to $6,670 | usually faster than hiring | You | Per assignment | Short gaps, like covering leave |
| Offshore virtual assistant | about $571 to $900 hired directly, before agency fees | days to weeks to find and train | You | Varies | Broad, changing tasks when you have time to manage |
| Outsourced bookkeeper | varies by firm and volume | varies | The bookkeeper | Usually monthly | Accurate books, reconciliations and month-end close |
| Dull | Flat monthly fee, quoted on a 15-minute call | about a week | A person reviews every exception; you get a Friday summary | Month to month | One repeatable process you want off your plate now |
Temp cost is the median hourly wage plus a typical agency markup of 50% to 65% (American Society of Employers), over 2,080 hours a year. The virtual assistant range is the middle half of full-time asking rates in a 2026 survey of 1,385 Filipino VA applicants (Outsource Accelerator).
- Hiring gets you a dedicated person who learns your business and can take on anything. You also carry the salary, benefits, recruiting, training, and the gap when they’re out or leave.
- A temp agency covers the seat fast with no recruiting on your side. You pay the markup, and you still train and check the work, sometimes again with each new temp.
- An offshore virtual assistant is the cheapest per month. You find, train and manage them, check the work yourself, and handle time zones and turnover.
- A bookkeeper keeps your books accurate and closes the month. Daily invoicing, entry and chasing are a different job, so ask whether they’re included and what they cost.
- Dull is a set price, live in about a week, with a person reviewing every exception and a weekly report. It covers defined, repeatable work, not everything a full-time employee would do.
What Dull handles and what it doesn’t
What we handle
- Invoices built from your job, timesheet or shipment records, the same way every time.
- Rate checks against your price lists and contract terms before anything is sent.
- Invoices sent from QuickBooks, Xero or your billing system, with sales tax applied as it’s set up in your system.
- Credits and corrections prepared for you to approve.
- A Friday summary: invoices sent, totals billed and anything held.
For example, picture a commercial cleaning company billing 40 contracts a month, each with its own rate and extras. At month end every contract becomes an invoice, extras are added from the job records, and a contract with a missing rate is held with a question instead of going out wrong. Medical and dental billing are different: they involve patient records, which aren’t part of the standard pilot.
What we don’t do
- Paying bills, sending payments or moving money. You approve and pay.
- Payroll, tax filings or anything that needs a licence.
- Approval decisions, like credit limits, refunds, write-offs or payment plans. We prepare them; you decide.
- Medical or dental patient records (HIPAA) and card numbers. They aren’t part of the standard pilot: if your work involves them, tell us on the call and we’ll go through what’s needed before anything starts.
- Phone calls with your customers. The pilot works by email and in your systems.
How the switch works
- A 15-minute call. Tell us which seat is empty or which work is piling up. We’ll tell you straight whether we can take it on.
- We learn your rules. You give us a login with only the access the job needs, about 20 examples of finished work, your “always” and “never” rules, and one person who answers our questions.
- Shadow first. We run alongside your current process on real records, and you check our output against yours before we take anything over.
- Live in about a week. Then you get a summary every Friday: what got done, what’s waiting on you and anything blocked. It’s month to month, so if we stop being worth it, you cancel.
When hiring is the better choice
Hire if billing involves negotiating with customers, interpreting complex contracts case by case, or medical or dental claims that need patient records and payer follow-up by phone.
Related
Covering more than one seat? See the alternative to hiring an accounts receivable clerk, the alternative to hiring a collections specialist, the alternative to hiring an order entry clerk, and what Dull costs. See how our own cleaning company runs billing: how CleanSL8 runs its back office with Dull.
Frequently asked questions
The median US billing and posting clerk earned $48,500 in May 2025, according to BLS. With benefits and payroll taxes that is about $69,300 a year, or $5,770 a month. Dull charges a flat monthly fee, month to month, usually well below the all-in cost of a full-time hire. You get a fixed quote on a 15-minute call.
Not in the standard pilot. Medical and dental billing involve patient records (HIPAA). If your work involves them, tell us on the call and we’ll go through what’s needed before anything starts.
Yes. We build invoices from the records you already keep, whether that’s a job system, timesheets or a spreadsheet, and check them against your rates.
You do. We prepare them with the reason attached, and nothing involving money goes out without your sign-off.
Your own, such as QuickBooks, Xero or your billing system. Nothing new to buy or install.