Bookkeeping services, catch-up and cleanup for $1M to $15M businesses

For a business your size, monthly bookkeeping should cover at least this much.

• Recording every sale, deposit, bill and expense, and putting each one in the right category
• Reconciling every bank account, credit card and loan to its statement, which means matching the books to the statement and explaining every difference, down to the penny
• Keeping track of who owes you money and who you owe, so those reports match what's actually outstanding
• Recording payroll and, where the business keeps accrual books, putting income and expenses in the month they belong to even when the cash moves in a different month
• A profit and loss statement and a balance sheet every month, plus a plain read on where your cash stands

With a modern setup, bank activity and receipts flow into the books automatically for review instead of being typed in, and bills route for approval so each one gets a second set of eyes before it's paid. That's how a very small team can keep the books of a growing business current.

Owners use the two words for the same thing, but they're different jobs, and plenty of businesses need both.

There's no set price for either one, because the work depends on how many months, accounts and entities are involved. We look at your books in the first step and tell you what the work involves.

• The cash balance in your accounting software doesn't match the bank, and nobody can explain the difference
• Accounts haven't been reconciled in a while, or nobody is sure when they last were
• There's a big balance sitting in "uncategorized" or "ask my accountant"
• Your receivables report shows customers who already paid, or your payables report shows bills you already paid
• Loan balances in the books don't match what the lender says you owe
• Personal and business spending are mixed together
• Your books need a pile of adjustments every year before the return can be done
• You can't say whether last month made money until well into the next one

One of these on its own might be a quick fix. Several at once usually means a cleanup.

Closing the books means finishing the month. Every bank, credit card and loan account is reconciled to its statement. What customers owe you and what you owe vendors are checked against reality. Payroll and the month's other adjustments are recorded, and job costs or inventory are updated where the business has them. Then someone reads the profit and loss statement against prior months and asks why anything looks off before you see it.

When that's done, the month is locked so the numbers don't shift after you've read them. A clean close is boring, and that's the goal.

Lenders want regular financial statements, and books that tie to the bank answer a lot of their questions before they ask, which makes you easier to lend to.

At year end, whoever prepares your return gets a finished year to work from, and you see your profit while there's still time in the year to plan around it.

If you ever sell, a buyer and their accountants will go through your numbers in detail. We think owners who can back up their earnings with clean monthly books are in a much stronger spot in that conversation than owners rebuilding the history after the fact.

And pricing a job, hiring or borrowing only works if the numbers underneath are right. Plenty of profitable businesses still run short of cash, and clean books are where you start to see why (more on that in profitable but no cash).

Everything else we do sits on clean books. Our process starts with an assessment of your books, systems and reporting, including conversations with you and anyone on your finance staff, and ends with a written list of priorities and the scope we recommend. Then we build the foundation, which means clean books, a tight monthly close, management reports you can use, and written playbooks so the work doesn't depend on one person. After that, we lead alongside you with regular meetings, on call in between, and a longer view of where the business is going.

That's where the books start paying off. A fractional controller keeps the books and the close right every month, and a fractional CFO uses them for cash, margin, pricing and the bigger calls. If you're not sure which one you need, read fractional controller vs CFO.

In one engagement, a multi-entity fabrication business moved off older desktop software. We tested the move in a separate environment, tied it out to their historical numbers, finished the cutover in under two weeks, and we've closed their books every month since. If you're still on QuickBooks Desktop, our QuickBooks Desktop to Online page walks through the move.

We work month to month, with no long-term contract and no fee to end it.

Most of our engagements run $2,500 to $10,000 a month, depending on scope, how often we meet and how complex the business is. Here is how that compares with hiring the same work yourself.

A catch-up or cleanup is priced after we've looked at the books. For more on the CFO side, see what a fractional CFO costs.

We work with owners in skilled trades and construction, industrial and specialty construction, healthcare, associations and membership organizations, nonprofits and foundations, and wealth management and financial services.

What do bookkeeping services include?

At minimum, recording and categorizing every transaction, reconciling every bank, credit card and loan account to its statement, tracking who owes you and who you owe, and monthly financial statements. Ours usually go further, with a monthly close and a sit-down on what the numbers mean, because that's what the books are for.

How much should you pay someone to do your bookkeeping?

For a $1M to $15M business, most of our engagements run $2,500 to $10,000 a month, depending on scope, how often we meet and how complex the business is. A full-time controller costs $145K to $195K a year, and our controller work starts at $36K a year.

Can ChatGPT do bookkeeping?

AI tools help with sorting transactions, spotting things that look odd and explaining what a report means, but a tool can't be accountable for the numbers. Someone still has to check the books against the bank, catch what doesn't fit, close the month and stand behind the result when the bank, your tax preparer or a buyer asks.

Do I need to switch accounting software?

Not to start. We look at your system in the first step, and if it's holding you back, we'll say so and show you what a move looks like.

Do you work with businesses near me?

We're at 101 S Ohio Avenue in Sidney, Ohio, and meet Ohio clients in person on a regular cadence. If you're in the Miami Valley, see our Dayton and west-central Ohio page. More answers are on our FAQ.

If your books are behind, messy, or fine but not telling you much, tell us a little about your business and we'll set up a 30-minute call.