Services

Monthly Bookkeeping

Transactions categorized, bank and card accounts reconciled, and the books closed on a dependable schedule. The aim is simple: accurate, current books you can rely on when making decisions.

What’s included

• Transaction categorization
• Bank and credit card reconciliations
• Month-end review and close
• Profit & loss and balance sheet
• Monthly financial reporting
• Questions answered between closes, such as what you can afford to pay and when
• Ongoing bookkeeping maintenance

Clean-up & Catch-up

For books that have fallen behind. Records brought current, discrepancies traced and resolved, and a cleaner process established for keeping the books on track going forward.

What this involves

• Bringing overdue months current
• Reconciling bank and credit card accounts
• Reviewing uncategorized or incorrectly recorded transactions
• Correcting bookkeeping inconsistencies
• Preparing the file for ongoing monthly bookkeeping or tax preparation

Every clean-up is scoped after we have reviewed the books, so the work and the price are agreed before anything begins.

QuickBooks Setup & Bookkeeping Systems

Starting fresh or outgrowing your current setup? We can help organize QuickBooks Online, establish a practical chart of accounts, and create bookkeeping processes designed around the way your business actually operates.

What this can include

• QuickBooks Online setup
• Chart of accounts review and setup
• Bank and credit card connections
• Opening balance setup
• Bookkeeping workflow development
• Transition into ongoing monthly service

Need more than bookkeeping?

Monthly bookkeeping covers the books themselves. Some businesses want us closer to the work around them. These are scoped with the monthly service and billed with it, so there is one bill.

Available as add-ons

• Payroll oversight. Payroll stays with your payroll service and you approve each run. We get new-hire paperwork to the provider, record each payroll as wages, taxes, and fees, reconcile the liabilities, and confirm the filings were made.
• Multi-location reporting. A profit and loss statement for each location and one for the business.
• Monthly review. A scheduled thirty-minute call after each close to walk through the reports, what changed, and what to do about it.

Where bookkeeping ends

Ivy Counting House does bookkeeping and financial recordkeeping. We do not prepare or file income tax returns, calculate or file sales and use tax, give legal or HR advice, or provide audit or assurance services. Where one of those is needed, we work alongside the professional who does it.

Working with your CPA

Most of our clients also have a CPA, and the arrangement is simple. We keep the books current and reconciled every month. Your CPA receives a closed, reconciled file in January and prepares the return from it. Payroll runs through a payroll service and is recorded and reconciled here. Sales tax, where it applies, is handled by your CPA or a sales tax preparer from figures the books already contain. Questions about the books come to us, questions about tax go to them, and we are glad to talk with your CPA directly.

Bookkeeping kept inside a tax practice is usually done once a year, for the return. Ours is done every month, for running the business.

Pricing

Bookkeeping should be predictable. Your bill should be, too.

Ongoing bookkeeping is offered at a fixed monthly rate based on the size and complexity of your business, including transaction volume, number of accounts, and the level of support required.

Most monthly engagements fall between $600 and $1,500 a month. A simple business with one bank account and a hundred or so transactions sits at the low end. Several accounts, high transaction volume, loans, multiple locations, or more than one owner sit at the high end, and unusually complex books can run higher.

Clean-up, catch-up, and setup projects are quoted separately after a review of the work involved.

A quote given before anyone has looked at the books is a guess. Ours comes after we have seen how many accounts there are, how the money moves, and what the last few months look like.

You will know the scope and the price before work begins. No surprise hourly bills.