What we actually do, and who each level is for.
Four levels. Start on any of them, move up if and when it’s worth it to you. Every one includes what it’s right for and what it isn’t, because the wrong level costs you more than the right one.
Get set up
For people working for themselves. Nobody hands you a handbook when you go out on your own, so this is the infrastructure nobody set up for you.
A separate account structure and categories that match how you actually earn. Your platforms connected so the money is counted once and counted right. Mileage and expenses captured without you remembering to. Quarterly estimates calculated, so the number isn’t a guess. A year-end package your preparer can use. And coaching, if you’d rather run it yourself with somebody checking the work.
Quarterly, or monthly if you’d rather always know where you stand. Quarterly means you find out four times a year, which for most self-employed people lines up with when anything actually has to happen.
You work for yourself. Your income arrives from platforms or clients rather than a payroll. Nobody has ever set this up for you and you’d like it done once, properly.
You have employees — that’s level three. Or you’re more than a year behind, in which case cleanup comes first and we’ll quote that separately.
Keep the books
Monthly bookkeeping and the close, for a business with customers, bills and a bank account that has to tie.
Bank and card reconciliation. Accounts payable and receivable. Sales tax filed. Vendor tracking, W-9s collected before the first payment, and 1099s out on time. Inventory and fixed assets where you have them. A chart of accounts built so you can see margin by whatever actually drives it, rather than one built for the tax return. Year-end packaged so your CPA has what they need and doesn’t have to call you.
Monthly, closed by the fifteenth business day of the following month. Same standard at every level, so you can plan around it rather than wonder.
You’re doing the books yourself at eleven at night, or paying somebody who isn’t keeping up. You want them accurate, current and off your desk.
What you actually want is somebody to go through the numbers with you and help you interpret what they mean for the company. Clean books won’t do that on their own — that’s level four.
Take care of your people. Cover yourself.
Everybody paid right, and the exposure off you. This is the half most bookkeeping firms list as a line item and never actually look at.
Multi-state withholding and registration. Workers’ comp class codes reviewed and premium audits supported. PEO selection, migration and reconciliation. And contractor classification — how your people are classified now, whether your records survive a five-year lookback, and where a reclassification would land you.
Full payroll, run through our own platform. Pricing and the detail of what it covers are being finalized. If you need it before then, ask on your call and we’ll tell you honestly where it stands.
You pay people — especially as contractors, or across state lines. Florida is auditing classification right now and a signed agreement is close to worthless as a defense.
You have one or two employees on a straightforward payroll in a single state, with no contractors. You probably don’t need us for this and we’ll say so.
See what’s coming
Fractional controller. Not somebody reporting at you — a partner who knows where you’re taking this.
We own the close, on a date you can plan around. Budget against actual every month. Thirteen weeks of cash laid out ahead of you, built off real invoice and bill timing rather than an average. Multi-entity consolidations. A chart of accounts built so margin is visible by whatever actually drives it. And a standing call where we go through it together.
Work invoiced but missing from revenue. Revenue never invoiced. Invoices with no cost attached. Cost sitting in work-in-progress with no job number — the most common way job costing breaks silently.
You’re making decisions you can’t see clearly — a hire, a price, a job — and a full-time controller costs more than the problem does.
What you actually need is a CFO — raising capital, a sale or an acquisition, a board and investors to answer to. That sits above where we stop, and we will tell you so rather than stretch a controller engagement to cover it.
Where we stop
We don’t file your tax returns, represent you before the IRS, audit or attest to anything, or raise capital. Your CPA does the first two and should — and if you don’t have one, we’ll point you at two we work with.
The ceiling is controller-level and it is deliberate. When you have outgrown a controller and need a CFO, we will tell you rather than quietly selling you one.
The parts that break quietly
Every one of these produces financials that look fine and aren’t. They’re usually why somebody calls.
Industries where the books have to do something different
Not a list of logos. These are the ones where standard bookkeeping gives you technically correct financials that tell you nothing.
Three Chapters to Cleaner Books
Free Review
We take an honest look at where your books stand today. No charge. No pressure. Just clarity on what needs to happen next.
Clean It Up
If there’s catch-up work needed, we handle it. If you’re current, we set you up on a clean, reliable monthly process.
Ongoing Partnership
Monthly close, monthly reports, and a bench behind the work when you need it.
Not sure which level you’re on?
Then let’s find out. A free review of where your books actually stand, what’s missing, and which of the four you need right now. A straight answer either way, including if the answer is that you don’t need us yet.
A status line on a schedule, news or not
Nothing leaves here without a final check