Who this is for
The year-round half of the work.
Most of what makes a business return expensive and slow is not the return. It is the three weeks of sorting that has to happen first, because twelve months of transactions were never categorised.
Keeping the books through the year removes that entirely. It also means you can answer the question “how did we do last quarter?” without guessing, which turns out to matter more than the tax saving.
- Businesses whose bookkeeping is currently a shoebox or a shared inbox
- Owners doing their own books at 11pm and resenting it
- S‑corps that need clean records for payroll and distributions
- Businesses that want quarterly figures they can actually rely on
- Anyone who dreads the annual catch-up more than the tax bill
- New businesses setting things up properly from the start
Ongoing, monthly or quarterly
What to expect
- Books reconciled Monthly or quarterly
- Reports to you P&L and balance sheet
- Questions answered As they come up
- Year-end handover Straight into the return
Scope and fee are agreed after we have seen the volume of transactions.
What the work covers
What the bookkeeping covers.
Transactions categorised
Bank and card activity coded consistently, month after month, rather than reconstructed in March.
Accounts reconciled
Every account tied back to its statement, so the books match reality rather than approximating it.
Reports you can read
A profit and loss statement and a balance sheet, in plain layout, with someone to explain them.
Payroll figures kept straight
Wages, withholding and owner compensation recorded so the entity return has nothing to untangle.
1099 tracking through the year
Contractor payments tracked as they happen, so January is not a scramble for addresses and tax IDs.
A year-end that is already done
The tax return starts from finished books, which makes it faster and cheaper than the alternative.
Before your appointment
What we need to take the books on.
Setting up takes one session. After that it runs quietly in the background.
Access and history
- Read-only access or statements for business bank and card accounts
- Existing accounting file, if you have one — any software
- Last filed business tax return
- Current depreciation schedule for equipment and vehicles
Ongoing
- Payroll reports, if you run payroll
- Loan statements showing interest and principal
- Invoices raised and bills paid, however you keep them
- A note of anything unusual — an asset sold, a new loan, an owner draw
Missing something? Come in anyway. Reconstructing a missing document is ordinary work for us, and it is faster to sort out across a desk than over email.
Common questions
Bookkeeping, answered.
Do I have to switch accounting software?
No. We work with what you already use. Switching mid-year creates more problems than it solves, so if a change makes sense we do it at a year boundary.
My books have not been touched in eighteen months. Is that too far gone?
No, it is common. A catch-up is a defined piece of work with an agreed scope, and once it is done the ongoing bookkeeping is a fraction of the effort.
Is this different from the tax return?
Yes. Bookkeeping is the year-round record keeping; the return is the annual filing built on top of it. Doing both here means the return starts from books we already trust.
Do you do payroll as well?
We work with your payroll figures and keep them recorded correctly. If you need payroll run for you, tell us and we will point you at the right option for your size.
Get next April back.
Tell us roughly how many transactions a month you run and we will explain what taking on the books would involve.