Monthly bookkeeping

How much does monthly bookkeeping cost?

Three tiers by monthly transaction volume, all closed by the 5th business day. Most single-location client files land in Tier 1 or Tier 2; multi-entity or multi-location operations are usually Tier 3.

Why the 5th business day

A close date only means something if it's the same date every month. The 5th business day gives enough runway for the prior month's bank and card statements to post, without letting "we'll get to it" stretch into the third week, which is how most unattended QuickBooks files quietly become a catch-up job. If a filing deadline or a lender request needs numbers sooner in a given month, just tell us. That's a scheduling conversation, not a renegotiation of the offer.

How to tell which tier a file needs

Count the file's connected bank and card accounts, then estimate monthly transactions across all of them. A few months of statements gives a close-enough number. One account under roughly 75 transactions a month is Tier 1. Multiple accounts, class or location tracking, or up to roughly 200 transactions a month is Tier 2. Past that, or with more than one entity or location reporting separately, it's Tier 3.

If a file sits between tiers we'll tell you which one it actually needs before your firm is billed for it. We'd much rather quote the tier that matches the work than the one that rounds up.

What arrives on close day

Every close ships the same three things regardless of tier: a profit and loss statement for the month and year to date, a balance sheet as of the close date, and the reconciliation reports proving every account ties to its statement. Tier 2 and 3 add a class or location breakdown of the profit and loss, split the same way the client actually operates.

Nothing arrives as a raw export your reviewer has to interpret line by line. Each close comes with a short written note flagging anything that moved unusually from the prior month, so the review starts where it needs to instead of scanning everything.

Reports come two ways: a QuickBooks-native view your firm can reopen and drill into, and a static export for anyone outside the file, like a lender or a landlord or a business partner, who needs the numbers without needing accountant access to see them.

Who this is for

Client files that are already current and just need keeping that way, which is the opposite problem from cleanup or catch-up. If you're not sure a file qualifies as current, we check that first. Starting a monthly cadence on top of an unreconciled balance just produces a close that's wrong the same way every month.

It's not the right fit if your firm wants to keep doing the categorizing and only needs a second pair of eyes on the reconciliation. We take the file or we don't, because splitting responsibility for one ledger is how items end up owned by nobody.

What's included every month

Payroll entries, loan amortization and month-end accruals are included wherever they apply to the file, and never billed as a surprise add-on mid-year. If a file changes tier partway through the year, the change takes effect the following month rather than retroactively.

What we need from your firm each month

Almost nothing, once we're set up. QuickBooks' bank feed handles the raw data. We need accountant-level access and a same-week answer on anything we flag as unclear: a large or unusual deposit, a new vendor, a transaction that could be personal or business. Most months that's zero or one question, and it comes to your firm instead of to the client.

If a client adds a bank account, a credit card or a new line of business mid-year, a quick heads-up before the account opens lets us connect it to the feed and map it to the chart of accounts before the first transaction lands, instead of catching it after a month's worth have piled up unconnected.

What happens on day one

If the file is already clean or caught up, day one is short. We request accountant access, review the chart of accounts and bank feed rules once, and confirm the next close date. If the file isn't current yet we fix that first, through cleanup or catch-up, before the monthly cadence starts, so the first close isn't built on a shaky prior balance.

What happens if you stop

Monthly bookkeeping runs month to month. There's no annual contract locking your firm in and no penalty for stopping after any closed month. The client keeps the QuickBooks company exactly as it stands, fully categorized and reconciled through the last month we closed, and accountant access is revoked whenever you say so. The books were always the client's. A monthly engagement changes who keeps them current, not who owns them.

What to check on the report each month

Three things are worth a reviewer's look every close: whether the bank and card balances on the balance sheet match what the accounts show online, whether expenses moved in a direction that makes sense for the month the business just had, and whether the flagged-item note mentions anything unfamiliar. Catching a question in month one is far cheaper than catching it in an audit two years later.

Running more than one company file?

Each QuickBooks company closes on the same 5th-business-day schedule, priced by its own tier rather than bundled into one combined figure. A holding structure with a management company and two operating entities is three separate closes, each sized to what that entity actually needs. We flag intercompany transactions and reconcile them between the files, so the same transfer never shows up as income in one company and nowhere in the other.

Related

A client whose file needs fixing before a monthly cadence means anything starts with cleanup or catch-up. For books delivered to a tax preparer once a year instead of monthly, see the CPA handoff pack. Every price on this page is on the pricing page.