Frequently asked questions

Bookkeeping is the ongoing process of recording, organizing, and categorizing your financial transactions throughout the year — think of it as keeping score. Tax preparation uses those organized records to prepare and file your tax returns, typically at the end of the year or quarter.

If your bookkeeping is clean and current, tax prep is faster and less stressful — and usually less expensive. If it isn't, a cleanup fee typically applies before your return can be filed accurately. This is why we offer our Bookkeeping + Tax bundle: one clean workflow from January through filing day.

A bookkeeper handles the day-to-day recording and organization of financial transactions — categorizing expenses, reconciling accounts, and generating financial reports. A CPA (Certified Public Accountant) is a licensed professional focused on higher-level tax strategy, audit work, and financial consulting.

Many small businesses need solid bookkeeping far more than they need a full CPA — and pay a lot less for it. We handle bookkeeping and tax preparation for sole proprietors, LLCs, partnerships, and S-corps. If you ever need something outside our scope (audit representation, Tax Court, complex estate planning), we'll point you to the right person.

A few clear signals: you're spending more than a few hours a month trying to keep your own books; you're not confident your records are accurate; you're behind on reconciling; your tax preparer is asking you to gather documentation you can't find; or you're growing and need reliable financial data to make decisions.

For most small businesses with more than $5,000/month in revenue, clean monthly bookkeeping pays for itself in time saved, errors caught, and lower tax prep costs. If you're not sure, book a free call — we'll give you a straight answer.

The easiest path is to book a free 30-minute discovery call. We'll talk through your business, your current setup, and which services make sense. If it's a good fit, we'll send over a simple engagement letter and get you onboarded.

Onboarding involves a flat $200 setup fee and your first month's payment upfront. From there, you're auto-billed monthly. If your books need catch-up work first, we'll scope that and handle it before your ongoing engagement begins.

Our bookkeeping and federal tax preparation services work for clients across the U.S. — everything is handled remotely, so location isn't a barrier for most of what we do. For payroll, we currently work with South Carolina-based businesses only, as we specialize in SC withholding and compliance.

Multi-state tax returns (clients operating and filing in more than one state) and multi-state payroll are currently outside our scope. If you're primarily SC-based or primarily federal, reach out and we can confirm whether we're a fit.

Accounting software is a tool, not a bookkeeper. QuickBooks and similar platforms can track transactions — but someone still needs to categorize them correctly, reconcile the accounts monthly, spot errors, and interpret the reports. Most business owners using DIY software end up with miscategorized expenses, unreconciled accounts, and inaccurate financial statements by the end of the year.

We work within your existing software subscription and take those tasks off your plate. The software stays yours; we just make sure it's actually accurate and up to date.

Every month you receive a Profit & Loss statement (P&L), a Balance Sheet, and a Statement of Cash Flows — the three core financial statements your business needs. These are delivered after your accounts are fully reconciled, so the numbers are accurate and trustworthy.

Our monthly bookkeeping also includes a quarterly 30-minute review call where we walk through the numbers together, flag anything worth your attention, and discuss what's coming up from a tax perspective.

Yes — and you're far from alone. Our Catch-Up & Cleanup Bookkeeping service is built exactly for this. We work through your backlog at $125 per month behind (up to 12 months), delivering clean, organized, reconciled books at the end. No judgment, just solutions.

Cleanup projects require a 50% non-refundable deposit before work begins; the remainder is due when we deliver your finished books. Once you're caught up, you can roll into a monthly bookkeeping engagement to stay current going forward.

Every monthly bookkeeping engagement includes a 30-minute call each quarter. We use that time to walk through your past quarter's numbers, discuss any trends we're seeing, flag tax considerations on the horizon, and map out strategies for the coming quarter.

It's kept practical and forward-looking — not a lecture on your P&L, but a real conversation about your business and what's coming up. Think of it as a lightweight CFO check-in, built into your monthly rate.

The exact list depends on your entity type, but typically includes: your prior year tax return, any 1099s or W-2s received, business income and expense records (or your bookkeeping file if maintained separately), bank and credit card statements for reconciliation, and any asset purchase or depreciation records.

If you're a bookkeeping client, we already have most of this — your year-end tax prep is essentially a continuation of what we do together all year. For tax-only clients, all documents must be submitted by March 1 for timely filing. We'll send a detailed document checklist after onboarding.

Schedule C is the IRS form used by sole proprietors and single-member LLCs to report business profit or loss on their personal tax return (Form 1040). If you operate a business as a sole proprietor, freelancer, independent contractor, or self-employed individual — and you haven't elected S-corp status — you almost certainly file a Schedule C.

Schedule C is where your business deductions live: home office, mileage, equipment, software, professional services, and more. Accurate bookkeeping throughout the year makes Schedule C preparation significantly faster and ensures you don't leave deductions on the table. Our 1040 with Schedule C preparation is priced at $500.

If you're self-employed, a freelancer, or a small business owner who doesn't have taxes withheld from a paycheck, the IRS expects you to pay taxes four times a year — in April, June, September, and January. These are called estimated quarterly tax payments (Form 1040-ES). Failing to pay them can result in underpayment penalties at tax time.

As a bookkeeping client, we help you estimate what you'll owe based on your actual quarterly earnings and flag any large adjustments needed. This is one of the core benefits of the quarterly strategy call — you never get surprised by a big April tax bill again.

Common deductions for small business owners include: home office (if you have a dedicated workspace), business mileage, health insurance premiums (if self-employed), retirement contributions (SEP-IRA, Solo 401k), professional services (accounting, legal), software and subscriptions, marketing and advertising, equipment and computers, and business education and training.

The key is documentation: you need to actually record these expenses in your books to claim them. This is exactly what proper bookkeeping does — it catches deductions in real time rather than scrambling to reconstruct them at tax season. Good books and a good tax preparer working together is how small businesses keep more of what they earn.

It depends on your entity type. Sole proprietors and single-member LLCs file on Schedule C with their personal 1040, due April 15. Partnership returns (Form 1065) and S-corporation returns (Form 1120-S) are due March 15. C-corporation returns (Form 1120) are due April 15. All of these can be extended six months with a timely filed extension.

We require all documents by March 1 to file timely without a rush fee. If that's not possible, we'll file an extension on your behalf for a flat $100 fee. An extension gives you more time to file — not more time to pay, so estimated taxes should still be submitted by the original deadline.

Yes, in most cases. Preparing returns for prior years follows the same process as current-year filing — we just need the relevant financial records from those years. If bookkeeping records don't exist for those periods, a catch-up bookkeeping project typically runs concurrently with the back-year tax preparation.

Note that extremely complex situations — including years with significant IRS correspondence, liens, or collections activity — may require coordination with a tax attorney or Enrolled Agent. We'll be upfront if your situation is outside our scope and will help connect you with the right resource.

Don't panic — most IRS notices are routine and can be resolved with a clear, accurate response. We offer Tax Notice Responses as an add-on at $100 per letter. Send us the notice and we'll draft and submit a professional response on your behalf.

We don't offer IRS audit representation, Tax Court representation, or penalty abatement beyond first-time requests. For those situations, we'll help you find the right Enrolled Agent or tax attorney.

A W-2 employee has taxes withheld from their paycheck; the employer pays half of Social Security and Medicare taxes (FICA) on their behalf and files payroll tax returns quarterly. A 1099 independent contractor is paid their full amount with no withholding — they're responsible for their own self-employment taxes and quarterly estimated payments.

Misclassifying employees as contractors is a common and costly IRS audit trigger. If you're unsure whether someone working for you should be a W-2 or 1099, we can help you think through it. Our payroll service handles SC-based W-2 employees for teams of up to 10.

Generally, no. Sole proprietors and single-member LLCs (taxed as disregarded entities) pay themselves through owner's draws — simply transferring money from the business account to personal. There's no payroll required, and they pay self-employment taxes quarterly via estimated payments instead.

The exception: if you've elected S-corporation status for your LLC, the IRS requires that you pay yourself a "reasonable salary" through payroll. This is one of the key compliance requirements of the S-corp election, and it's why S-corp owners often need both bookkeeping and payroll services.

Monthly engagements are auto-billed. Taxes and payment processor fees are applied automatically. If a payment is 30 days past due, 1.5% monthly interest is applied; work halts at 45 days past due.

New clients pay the first month's fee upfront. Cleanup projects require a 50% non-refundable deposit to begin; the balance is due on delivery. Rates may increase up to 10% annually with 60 days' written notice.

Yes. Add-on services like payroll, AR/AP management, or tax notice response can be added to an existing engagement at any time. Upgrades (e.g., moving from bookkeeping-only to a bookkeeping + tax bundle) are handled via an updated engagement letter and take effect the following month.

If your business grows and your transaction volume or complexity increases significantly, we may also propose a rate adjustment — always with 60 days' written notice as outlined in our policies.