Cleanup · Monthly Close · Bookkeeper Coordination · Tax-Ready
Books you can build a strategy on.
Every tax decision, every cash-flow call, every fractional CFO model starts from one place: your books. When they’re wrong, everything downstream is a reconstruction project. We get them clean, keep them close-ready, and make them the foundation — not the bottleneck.
What’s included
Bookkeeping with the tax return in mind.
We don’t keep books for their own sake. Every account, every classification, every close is set up so the return, the strategy, and the cash-flow picture all reconcile to the same truth.
- Books cleanup & catch-upOne month behind or three years behind. Reconstruct, reconcile, and re-classify to a chart of accounts that maps cleanly to the tax return.
- Monthly closeBank, loan, payroll, and merchant reconciliations; accruals where they matter; a close you can actually make decisions from.
- Chart of accounts designStructured so owner pay, distributions, contributions, and fixed assets land where the return and the strategy need them — not wherever the software guessed.
- Owner & equity trackingDistributions, contributions, loans to/from the company, and basis-relevant activity tracked deliberately, not buried in “Ask My Accountant.”
- Bookkeeper coordinationKeep the bookkeeper you have. We set the standards and the close checklist; they maintain it; we review at the cadence that protects the return.
- Software setup & migrationQuickBooks Online primarily; Xero and others supported. Honest guidance on whether a platform change is worth the disruption.
- Year-end handoffBooks delivered tax-ready to the preparation engagement — no scramble, no surprises, no reconstruction billed back to you in April.
Who this is for.
Owners whose books are “close enough” until they aren’t — usually surfaced by a planning conversation, a financing request, or a return that took far too long. S-Corps and partnerships that need owner pay and equity tracked correctly; founders who want one source of truth across bookkeeping, tax, and cash flow; businesses growing past the point where a shoebox and a spreadsheet hold. Most clients who add bookkeeping do so because strategy or preparation revealed the foundation wasn’t there yet.
How it works
Four-step engagement.
Diagnostic
We review your current file, last return, and how the books are kept in a free 45-minute session. Identify what’s broken, what’s salvageable, and whether cleanup, monthly close, or coordination is the right model.
Scope & Cleanup
Engagement letter with quoted scope. If catch-up or cleanup is needed, it’s priced as its own line — never buried in a retainer. Books reconstructed to source and re-mapped to a tax-aware chart of accounts.
Close Discipline
A monthly close checklist and reconciliation standard. Whether we run it or your bookkeeper does, the standard is the same and reviewed on a set cadence.
Forward Use
Clean books feed the next thing: a tax strategy that’s real, a return that isn’t a reconstruction, a cash-flow model you can trust. The point of bookkeeping here is everything it makes possible.
Pricing.
Monthly bookkeeping, a one-time cleanup, and a coordinate-with-your-bookkeeper model are genuinely different work, so they’re scoped and quoted separately.
Quoted in advance, in writing, before you sign anything.
Scopedper engagement
Every project is scoped so the potential tax liability savings and financial clarity justify the cost of our fees — and if we don’t believe the math works in your favor, we’ll tell you before you engage.
“I really appreciate everything you have done for us. We are definitely good to move forward with you. I can’t speak highly enough of everything you have done — and I am excited to keep moving forward.”
FAQ
Common questions.
Do you replace my current bookkeeper?
Not necessarily. Many engagements are coordination, not replacement — we set the chart of accounts, monthly close standards, and reconciliation discipline your existing bookkeeper then maintains. When a bookkeeper isn’t the right fit or there isn’t one, we take the function on directly. We scope which model fits before any engagement letter.
What does “tax-ready books” actually mean?
Books reconciled to source (bank, loan, payroll, merchant); a chart of accounts that maps cleanly to the tax return; owner pay, distributions, and contributions classified correctly; fixed assets and loans tracked; and intercompany or personal items separated. Without that, tax strategy is guesswork and the return is a reconstruction project.
Can you clean up a year (or more) of messy books?
Yes. Catch-up and cleanup is one of the most common ways clients start with us — often because a planning or preparation conversation revealed the books couldn’t support it. Cleanup is quoted as its own scope; we never bury it inside a return or retainer fee.
What accounting software do you work in?
Primarily QuickBooks Online. We can work in Xero and other common platforms, and we’ll tell you honestly if a platform change would save you money or pain rather than defaulting to whatever you already have.
Do I still need bookkeeping if a preparer already files my taxes?
A preparer files what the books say. If the books are wrong, the return is wrong — and no strategy can be layered on top of numbers nobody trusts. Bookkeeping is the input; preparation and advisory are what you do with it.
What does bookkeeping cost?
Scoped per engagement and quoted in advance, in writing. Monthly bookkeeping, a one-time cleanup, and a coordinate-with-your-bookkeeper model are priced differently because the work is genuinely different. We scope it before you commit.
Related services
What clean books unlock.
Tax Advisory & Planning
Strategy is only as good as the numbers under it. Clean books are the precondition for advisory that’s real.
Explore advisory →Fractional CFO
Forecasting, pricing, and cash-flow decisions need a close you trust. Bookkeeping is step one of the CFO function.
Explore fractional CFO →Tax Preparation
Books delivered tax-ready mean no April reconstruction — and a return that reflects strategy, not scramble.
Explore tax preparation →Tired of nobody trusting the numbers?
The first conversation is free, candid, and useful — even if you don’t hire us.
Schedule Your Free Strategy Session