You should know if your business made money last month. Let me show you, free.

Questions people ask before they send anything

What is the catch on the free Books Review?

You end up talking to me. That is the whole catch. I build the P&L, we go through it, and if you want to keep working together we talk about that. If you do not, you keep the P&L and we are done. It costs you three months of statements and about half an hour.

What exactly do you need from me?

Send us the last three months from all your business accounts. Every business checking account and every business credit card. Statements downloaded straight from the bank are perfect. I will reply with exactly where to send them.

I do not have any books at all.

Then this is more useful to you than to anyone. I build the P&L from the statements themselves, so you do not need existing books for this to work. You will see what your business actually did, probably for the first time.

My books are a mess and I am embarrassed to show anyone.

You just described most of the people I talk to. I have had an owner doing a million a year tell me he goes through twelve months of statements in one weekend every March. Being behind is not a character flaw, it is what happens when you are busy running the thing. The mess is the job, and I would rather see it than have you keep putting this off.

I already have a bookkeeper. Is this still worth doing?

Especially then, and here is the honest test. When you send them a question, do you get an answer within 24 business hours, every time, without chasing? If yes, you have a good one and you should keep them. If you had to think about it, that is worth knowing now rather than in April. Either way you get an independent P&L built from your own statements, and you can compare it to what you are being handed.

How long does it take?

A few days for most businesses, once your statements are in. Then we find half an hour to go through it.

What happens if I message you and hear nothing back?

Every bad review of a bookkeeper in this city says the same thing: the person stopped answering. So this is the promise I am willing to put money behind. You get your own Basecamp project, which is where we talk and where your documents live. Post a question there and if you have not heard back from me within 24 business hours, that month of bookkeeping is free. Not a credit. Free. Everything in one place means nothing gets lost in a text thread, and you can see exactly when you asked and when I answered. Applies to monthly bookkeeping clients. A real reply from me, not an autoresponder. If the answer needs research, telling you that counts. Leaving you wondering does not.

What is Kick?

Kick is the bookkeeping software your books live in if we work together monthly. I set it up and connect your accounts. The account is in your name, so if you ever leave, your books go with you.

Is this right for my business?

If you have at least one business bank account and three months of activity, yes. If you started last month and have almost no transactions, there is not enough there for a P&L to tell you anything useful yet, and I would rather tell you that now than waste your time.

Do you do my taxes too?

This business is bookkeeping. I also run Elevated Tax Strategies, a tax firm, and plenty of clients use both. For monthly bookkeeping it is entirely optional.

How do I know if I am being overcharged by a bookkeeper?

Compare what you are getting, not the number, because two quotes that look far apart are usually two different services wearing the same name. Four questions sort it out, and they work on me as well as on anyone else. Does every account get reconciled every month, or are transactions just categorized off the bank feed? Will I get a Balance Sheet as well as a Profit and Loss, since the Balance Sheet is where errors hide? Who is actually doing the work? And how fast will I hear back when I ask a question? A cheap quote usually turns out to be missing one of those four, and you find out which one at tax time.

How much does monthly bookkeeping cost?

Every set of books is different, so every quote is different. I price it once I have seen your actual accounts, which is exactly what the free review shows me. Some businesses are one checking account and a handful of transactions a month. Others have payroll, sales tax and a few entities. Quoting those the same way means one of us is getting a bad deal, so I do not publish tiers. You will have a real number before you are ever asked to commit to anything.