What owners actually ask us.

A full-service firm handles the whole financial back office rather than one slice of it: keeping the books current, closing each month, coordinating payroll, preparing and filing both the business and personal tax returns, and advising on decisions during the year. The alternative most owners end up with is three separate vendors, a bookkeeper, a payroll service, and a tax preparer, who rarely talk to each other and leave the gaps for the owner to notice.

Not if your accounting firm does both, which is the point of a full-service arrangement. A bookkeeper records what happened; an accountant interprets it, prepares the returns, and advises on what to do next. When they are separate people at separate companies, the accountant often sees the books for the first time months later, which is when errors surface and it is too late to act on them.

A bookkeeper records transactions and maintains the ledger. An accountant works on top of that record: closing periods, preparing returns, and interpreting the results. A CPA is an accountant who holds a state license, which is required to issue audited financial statements and carries formal continuing-education and ethics obligations. Many excellent tax practitioners are enrolled agents rather than CPAs, which is a federal credential specifically for tax.

The good arrangement is that one firm does both, because for most owner-operated businesses the two returns are one financial picture. Owner compensation, distributions, home office, vehicle use, and pass-through income all move between them. Splitting the work across two preparers is how figures end up disagreeing and deductions get missed.

A monthly close is the process of finishing a month’s books: categorizing every transaction, reconciling each bank and card account, matching receipts, posting payroll, and confirming the balance sheet ties out. It matters because of timing. Books closed within days of month end give you numbers you can still act on. Books closed months later only tell you what already happened.

Yes. Coordination is the normal arrangement: your payroll provider runs payroll, and we make sure the entries post to the correct accounts, the liabilities are tracked, and the quarterly filings line up with the books. Switching payroll providers is not a prerequisite for changing accountants.

That varies by firm, and it is worth asking directly before engaging one. A practice built around seasonal filing is busiest in the same months you most need answers. A practice that closes books monthly is in your numbers year-round, which is what makes a same-day answer in July possible at all.

Same business day is achievable and is a reasonable thing to expect. Long response times are usually a symptom of hourly billing and seasonal workflow rather than indifference: if every call is billable and the books are months behind, both sides are discouraged from talking. Flat-fee arrangements remove that friction on purpose.

Price is driven by transaction volume, how many bank and card accounts you run, whether payroll is involved, and how many entities and owners need returns. Firms that bill hourly quote a rate; firms that bill flat quote a monthly fee after reviewing a few months of your actual books. The practical difference is that with a flat fee, phone calls and questions do not add to the bill, so you are not penalized for asking early.

Catch-up work is normal and it is quoted separately as a one-time fixed amount before any work starts, so you know the cost up front. Being behind is not a reason to wait. The longer books sit, the harder the reconstruction gets and the more likely a missed deduction or an unfiled form turns into a penalty.

Mid-year is usually the easiest time to switch, not the hardest, because nothing is due immediately. You request your records from the prior firm, which they are obliged to return to you, and the new firm brings the books current from the last clean month. Waiting until March means switching at the exact moment everyone is busiest and the deadline is closest.

Typically the last two or three years of filed tax returns, access to your bank and card feeds, your payroll reports, and whatever bookkeeping file already exists. That is enough to see the shape of the business, quote accurately, and identify anything that needs cleaning up before the next deadline.