Bookkeeping

If I do most of the books, can you just do the rest?

Yes, if you have someone else doing the bulk of the bookkeeping I can assist with the more difficult transactions. That is a mix of a business advisory and training arrangement, which you can read more about on this page

Can you just show me how to do the books myself?

Sure! but that is called training, not bookkeeping. I am training you how to be your own bookkeeper under that arrangement. It doesn't take many sessions to become well versed in being your own bookkeeper. You can read more about training here

Me, or my previous bookkeeper have totally destroyed my books, can you fix them?

Yes! This is a common problem. It can take some time, and sometimes the easiest fix is to just start over for the time period that is wrecked. I also won't make you feel bad about it, if you did it wrong the first time around.

Tax Preparation

are all of those extra forms for foreign accounts and Corporations necessary?

Yes, the IRS is draconic with its foreign tax reporting. Not only are there multiple forms but the penalties for not filing them are very high, starting at $10,000 per form, per year.

Do you provide audit Support for tax returns?

Yes, but it is not a flat fee insurance arrangement. Do you want someone that you have paid a flat 'audit insurance' fee of $40 to representing you in a tax audit? Their goal is to end the audit as fast as possible, not argue on your behalf. The fastest way to end an audit is to agree with everything the auditor assesses, and that is not doing any service to you as a client, you also don't need any representation to go that route.

Can I ask you a quick tax question?

Of course! Questions are free, answers are not.  Free answers are available via google searches.

how do i save money on tax preparation fees?

Keep your personal and business structure simple. The more fancy, multi state, subsidiary business setups you have, the more you pay to report on all of them. For personal taxes, the more investments, children and retirement accounts you have, the more it costs to report them all.  If you business is barely profitable, or running at a loss, don't get convinced you need a tax structure rivaling Amazon.

Pricing

hourly rates? Don't you know that Value pricing is the wave of the future?

Fixed pricing is the right way to do Saas, scalable or productized services. Fixed pricing is the wrong way to do accounting and tax. What is the profit motive for fixed pricing? It is to get through each client as fast as you can, with as little interaction as possible. Hourly pricing means spending time on client work to make sure it is done right.

How do I make sure I don't go over budget with your services?

Request to use a Retainer. If you pay a retainer up front I will only work up to that retainer and then stop and ask you if you'd like me to continue working on a new retainer. You can set that retainer amount as high, or low as you would like.

Can I get a discount?

Sure, if you are a long term customer, I happily give discounts. Those discounts are usually in the form of free time here and there, not in the form of discounted rates.

Your rates are 3x more than a quote I got from Overseas

Amazing! If you would like to save even more money, there is likely an outfit in Nigeria who will do your books for free as long as you just send them your bank statement containing your name, address and full account numbers. You will get exactly what you pay for with discount providers.

Why do I have to provide a payment method with my contract?

Sometimes people are less than honorable and try to skip out on a bill after I send it to them. That is called "Theft of Services" and instead of filing a police report, and hiring a lawyer I use the agreed to payment method to charge overdue client bills. If you aren't happy with your service, or your invoice, let me know and we'll sort it out. Ghosting does not work.