Monthly bookkeeping for small businesses
Clearway Accounting keeps the books for small businesses each month in QuickBooks Online or Digits: accounts reconciled, transactions categorized, the month reviewed, and a financial statement package delivered. The firm is based in Boston, Massachusetts, working with clients across Massachusetts and remotely with clients in any state. Monthly bookkeeping typically runs $300 to $1,500 or more per month, quoted as a flat fee.
What do I get each month?
A financial statement package, as one PDF, delivered through the client portal with a cover email:
- Profit and Loss: the prior month, the month, and year to date
- Balance Sheet: the prior and current month end
- Statement of Cash Flows
- The month's adjusting journal entries
- A listing of the bank and card transactions
What the monthly close covers
- Reconcile every bank and card account to its statement
- Categorize the transactions
- Book the recurring entries the business needs: accrued revenue and receivables, depreciation, prepaid and accrued expenses, and the interest split on loan payments
- Review the month for accuracy
- Send one email a month with the open items that matter
The close also notes habits worth changing, such as cash withdrawals, Venmo payments to contractors, personal spending on the business card, and paper checks.
Which software do you use?
QuickBooks Online with bank and card feeds, and Digits. Where a business has no accounting software, we can keep simple books in Excel.
Bookkeeping is recording and categorizing every transaction and reconciling each account to its bank or card statement, so the financial statements match what happened in the business.
How does a bookkeeping engagement start?
- You give us access to QuickBooks Online and send bank and card statements and prior records.
- We review the existing books, identify any cleanup, and confirm an opening balance.
- We close the books every month on a schedule we agree with you.
Engagements are monthly, or an annual reconciliation for simpler books.
My books are behind. Can you help?
Yes. We set up and catch up books from inception, or from the last clean period, to a date we agree. A cleanup can include recategorizing every transaction, identifying checks, reconciling every period to the statements, and building accrual receivables where the business needs them.
Catch-up work is a one-time fee, stated separately from the monthly fee, and we take it on with a plan for ongoing monthly service. Missed tax returns are covered under catch-up tax filings, and past-due sales tax below.
Can you catch up and file our sales tax?
Yes. Sales tax is part of our bookkeeping service. We register businesses in the states where they need to collect, file past-due returns with penalty waiver requests, arrange voluntary disclosure agreements, and file ongoing returns at the frequency each state assigns, including Massachusetts Form ST-9 on MassTaxConnect every month.
Each return is built from your invoice export or QuickBooks, reviewed, and filed by the state's due date. Payments go out only with your written go-ahead, from your own payment account. We also answer Department of Revenue notices. Filed returns and payment confirmations go to your portal folder each month.
Registration and catch-up filings are a one-time fee. Ongoing filing is a flat monthly fee.
Do you handle payroll?
Yes, through payroll providers such as Gusto. If you don't have a provider yet, we help you choose one and set it up, including the Massachusetts registrations for withholding, Paid Family and Medical Leave, and unemployment insurance, then manage payroll from there.
Payroll is priced per payroll run and per employee, plus filings and year-end forms.
Who this is for
Small businesses that want the books closed every month and a set of financial statements they can read.
The businesses we work with include childcare and preschool operators, restoration and building trades, technology businesses that collect sales tax, and real estate holding companies.
Who this is not a fit for
We don't take on reactive cleanup engagements without a path to ongoing service.
How much does bookkeeping cost?
| Service | Typical fee | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly bookkeeping | $300 to $1,500 or more per month | Transaction volume, number of bank and card accounts, and employees |
| Catch-up and cleanup (tax filings or books) | One-time fee, stated separately from any monthly fee | Number of years or months behind |
| Sales tax | One-time fee for registration and catch-up, then a flat monthly fee | Number of states, filing frequency, and past-due periods |
| Payroll | Per payroll run and per employee, plus filings and year-end forms | Number of employees and payroll runs |
Quoted fees are flat, agreed in writing in the engagement letter before work starts, and change only by agreement. One-time and monthly fees are always stated separately.
Bookkeeping questions
How much does bookkeeping cost?
Monthly bookkeeping typically runs $300 to $1,500 or more per month, depending on transaction volume, the number of bank and card accounts, and employees. Every engagement is quoted as a flat fee before we start. Catch-up work is a one-time fee, stated separately.
Do I need QuickBooks?
No. We work in QuickBooks Online and Digits, and we can keep simple books in Excel.
How often are my books updated?
Monthly engagements close every month on a schedule we agree with you. Simpler books can be reconciled once a year instead.
My books are behind. Can you help?
Yes. We bring the books current as a one-time catch-up project, then move to ongoing monthly service.
Do you handle payroll?
Yes, through payroll providers such as Gusto. If you do not have a provider yet, we help you choose one and set it up, then manage payroll from there.
Can you catch up and file our sales tax?
Yes. We file past-due returns with penalty waiver requests and then file each return as it comes due. Payments go out only with your written go-ahead.
Will I be charged for a quick question?
No. Routine questions are part of the relationship, so a five-minute call does not turn into an invoice.
Ready to hand off your books?
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