Monthly bookkeeping

Count the file's connected bank and credit card accounts, then estimate transactions a month across all of them; a few months of statements gives a close-enough number. Three accounts or fewer and 200 transactions a month or fewer is Standard. More accounts than that, more transactions than that, or class, location and multi-entity reporting is High volume. Only one of the two has to be true for the higher band to apply.

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

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. What runs inside that window is seven steps in a fixed order, and the order is what stops the work being done twice.

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 (see our guide on bank reconciliation explained for what reconciling actually proves). High volume adds 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Each QuickBooks company closes on the same 5th-business-day schedule, priced by its own band 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.

Monthly bookkeeping, and the close that goes with it: every transaction categorized, every bank and card account reconciled, payroll entries and accruals posted, and a profit and loss and balance sheet on close day. Tax returns, tax planning and advisory work are not part of it and stay with your firm.

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 band partway through the year, the change takes effect the following month rather than retroactively. The entries themselves are worked through in the journal entry reference, with accrued expenses and prepaid expenses written up individually, since both carry a second entry that matters more than the first.