Accounting & bookkeeping

Books you can file from, and read from.

Monthly bookkeeping, cleaning up accounts that drifted, rebuilding years that were never done, and the reports on top. We prepare and review accounts — we are not auditors and we do not issue audit opinions.

What we do

Six jobs, and they are not the same job.

People tend to ask for “accounting” and mean one of these. They cost different amounts and take different amounts of time, which is why the questionnaire asks which one you are actually after.

  • Monthly bookkeepingThe ongoing one. Transactions classified, bank and card accounts reconciled, payables and receivables kept current, and a close each month on a calendar that is actually met. You get the same set of statements every month rather than a scramble in March.
  • Year-end preparationClosing the year properly so a return can be built from it: accruals, adjustments, depreciation, owner transactions separated from company ones, and a tie-out between the accounts and the bank.
  • Clean-up of accounts that driftedThe books exist but nobody trusts them. Duplicated entries, transactions in the wrong account, a suspense account nobody has touched in two years, balances that do not match the bank. We work through it and tell you what we changed and why.
  • Reconstruction of years never recordedNo bookkeeping at all for one year or several, and returns waiting on it. We rebuild from statements, invoices and whatever else exists, in order, and you end up with years that are filed and books that continue from there.
  • Restructuring the chart of accountsWhen the accounts were set up for a business you no longer are. A chart that matches how you actually operate, so the reports mean something and the tax lines fall where they should. Done once, and everything after it is easier.
  • Variance analysis and reportingWhy this month is not last month, and why the result is not the budget. Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow in a format you can read, plus whatever set of numbers your bank, your board or your partner actually asks for.
Worth being explicit about

What this is not.

Two different things get called “accounting”, and mixing them up wastes everybody’s time. We do one of them.

What we do
  • Prepare the accounts
  • Review and correct what is there
  • Rebuild what was never recorded
  • Produce the statements and the reports
  • Hand the result to whoever prepares the return — often us
What we do not do
  • Audits, or anything that ends in an audit opinion
  • Reviews or compilations issued under audit standards
  • Certifying accounts to a third party as an independent auditor
  • Signing off on someone else’s figures without having done the work

If a bank or an investor is asking you for audited financial statements, you need a licensed audit firm, and we will tell you so rather than sell you something adjacent to it.

How it usually goes

From wherever you are now.

How it arrives
  1. A spreadsheet somebody kept up for a while
  2. Bank statements in a folderand some only on paper
  3. Personal and company spending in the same account
  4. Balances that do not match the bank
  5. A year, or three, never recorded at all

No return can be built from this, which is usually how people find out.

How it leaves
  1. Every account reconciled to the bank
  2. A chart of accounts that fits the business
  3. Statements for each closed period
  4. A monthly close on a fixed calendarsame dates every month

And the returns behind it can be filed without reconstructing anything.

Tools

What we work in.

QuickBooksXeroExcelOdooSAPPower BI

Yours, normally. If you have no system yet we will recommend one and set it up, and we will say plainly when a spreadsheet is still the right answer for the size you are.

What we need from you

To give you a real number.

  • Read access to the accounting system, if there is one
  • Bank and card statements for the period involved
  • Roughly how many transactions a month, and how many accounts
  • Who signs off, and what the numbers are for
Questionnaire

What do you actually need?

Six questions. They separate the ongoing work from the one-off clean-up, and size both, so the quote reflects your volume rather than an average.

The questionnaire needs JavaScript. If you cannot enable it, write to us and we will go through your case with you directly.

Frequently asked

What people ask before starting.

How is this priced?
Ongoing bookkeeping is monthly, and the figure follows volume: transactions, accounts and how many entities. Clean-up and reconstruction are quoted as a one-off, because the work is finite. Both come to you in writing before anything starts.
Our books are a mess. Do you have to fix them before taking us on monthly?
Usually yes, and we quote it as its own piece of work so you can see the two separately. Starting a monthly service on top of accounts that do not reconcile just moves the problem forward a year.
Can you do the tax return too?
Yes, and it is the usual arrangement: the same team that closed the books prepares the return, so nothing gets lost in the handover. You can also keep your current preparer and we will hand them accounts they can work from.
Is this an audit?
No. We prepare, correct and rebuild accounts. We do not perform audits and we do not issue audit opinions. If somebody is asking you for audited statements, that is a licensed audit firm, not us.
Who keeps control of the accounts?
You do. It stays in your system, under your ownership, and you can revoke our access at any time. Nothing is held hostage if you decide to move on.
We are outside the United States. Does that matter?
Not for the bookkeeping itself. It matters for what gets filed on top of it, which is where the U.S. entity and personal returns come in. If that applies to you, tell us in the questionnaire and we will look at both together.

Tell us the state the books are in.

However bad you think it is, we have seen it and it is quotable. Six questions in the form above, or a call if you would rather explain it out loud.