Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping Services for Chicago Small Businesses
Monthly books, reconciled and closed, with statements you send anywhere.
Why owners call about bookkeeping
Each one is a conversation we have had this month.
- Your books are more than a month behind
- A lender, landlord or buyer asked for financial statements you did not have
- Your tax preparer charges extra to rebuild the year before filing
- The bank feed guesses at categories and you distrust the result
- Business spending, owner draws and personal cards share one account
- You reconcile accounts at eleven at night
What sets the price
We quote a flat monthly fee after reading three months of statements, and the fee holds until the business changes. Catch-up work is quoted separately and billed once.
- Transactions running through the accounts each month
- Number of bank, card and loan accounts to reconcile
- Whether payroll entries and payroll filings form part of the job
- Whether inventory, job costing or rental units need separate tracking
- How far behind the books are on day one
Fixed monthly fee · Set by volume
How it starts
Nobody signs anything before a number is on the table.
Send three months of statements
Bank, card and loan statements, plus any bookkeeping file. We read them before quoting. A price given without looking gets revised later.
We quote a flat monthly fee
One number for the monthly close and the statements. Catch-up work is quoted separately and charged once.
We rebuild, then reconcile
Prior periods are corrected and tied to the statements before anything counts as current. You see what was wrong and what we changed.
You get a close on a fixed date
Statements and a summary arrive on the same date every month, early enough to act on.
Trades we do this for
Every industry page lists the returns, the form numbers and the dates.
Bookkeeping
Common questions
How much does a bookkeeper cost in Chicago?
Price follows transaction volume, the number of accounts, and whether payroll is included. A single-owner service business with one bank account and one card sits at the low end. A retail shop with daily deposits, several cards and a payroll runs higher. We quote a flat monthly fee after reading three months of statements.
Do I need a bookkeeper if I already use accounting software?
Software records transactions. Bookkeeping decides what each transaction means, catches what the bank feed miscategorized, and reconciles to the statement. Most of the messy books we clean up came out of software running on autopilot.
What is the difference between bookkeeping and accounting?
Bookkeeping is the monthly record: categorizing, reconciling and closing. Accounting sits on top, covering tax planning, filings and advice on structure. We do both, so the person filing your return reads books they already trust.
Will you fix books two years behind?
Yes. Send whatever exists and we will list what is missing. Catch-up work is quoted apart from the monthly fee.
How long does catch-up bookkeeping take?
One year for a business with two accounts and a few hundred transactions a month runs two to three weeks once the statements arrive. Missing paperwork slows the work far more than volume does.
Do I have to switch accounting software?
No. We work in the file you have wherever the file is workable. We recommend a move only when the current setup fails to reconcile or fails to produce a statement a lender will read, and we say so before you spend anything.
Who owns the books if we stop working together?
You do, and you always did. The file sits in software under your login, so ending the arrangement means removing our access. Nothing gets requested back.
Get your price this week
The first conversation is free. We read three months of statements, quote a flat figure and hold it. We reply the same working day.