Bookkeeping is likely what you did yourself or had a family member do for you when you first started your business. It’s the daily work of identifying, classifying, and recording all transactions of the company. Bookkeepers often pay bills, run payroll, and other similar work that keeps the financial lifeblood of the business pulsing. 

Accounting is a higher level review role of the work of the bookkeeper, ensuring that the financial records and statements are correctly reconciled and categorized. Accountants are responsible for reporting on the business finances and providing an overview of the financial health of the company, as well as ensuring the books are tax-ready.

As soon as possible after you start your business–ideally you’d make the investment to ensure that you have a clear, up-to-date picture of the financial health of your business from the start. (Plus, most business owners would put accounting at the BOTTOM of their list of interesting things they want to do during the day.) 

But, as the Chinese proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.” In other words, you’re here because you’ve realized how valuable your time is and that what you’re doing today with your books and taxes is holding your business back. So don’t wait–get your finances in order today.

We love setting up books from scratch, because we get the opportunity to do it right from the start. That said, we bring on many clients with not-so-clean books, and we do catch-up and clean-up to get them back into great shape. Here are some of the common mistakes we see when taking over many of our small business owner clients’ books:

• Accounts payable not cleared against payments
• Incorrect opening balances of accounts
• Bank and credit card accounts not reconciled properly
• Balance sheet not set up correctly to account for setup expenses, loans, etc.
• Chart of accounts not optimized for business insights and tax savings

(By the way, if this sounds like a foreign language to you, that’s what we’re here for! It’s truly amazing how clean, up-to-date books can transform your view of your business finances. You don’t necessarily need to know every stage of how the sausage is made to enjoy the end result.)

In addition to monthly bookkeeping and accounting services, we offer payroll setup and/or ongoing payroll; bill pay; Quickbooks Online setup and training; clean-up and catch-up work; and Virtual CFO strategic finance services that range from a monthly look at your historical financials to dedicated financial planning services such as cash flow forecasting and scenario planning. 

We also typically bundle tax strategy and filing services with monthly accounting services so you can rest easy knowing your financial house is in order.

We believe that clean books are the foundation for strategic tax planning, and that having your accounting team and tax team under the same virtual roof means that we can work together to minimize your tax burden. We typically bundle together monthly bookkeeping and accounting services with business tax preparation and planning and (if applicable) individual tax preparation and planning. 

That said, we offer a free Strategy Session with you to understand your business and growth goals, then proposed a customized but fixed price for everything you need to achieve those goals. Why don’t you go ahead and get your session booked now?

Not to sound like a lawyer, but it depends, primarily on the size of your business and the number of transactions. We typically bundle together monthly bookkeeping and accounting services with business tax preparation and planning and (if applicable) individual tax preparation and planning and Virtual CFO services. We offer a free strategy session to discuss your needs and how we can help you reach your business goals with monthly bookkeeping, tax strategy and filing, and virtual CFO services as needed. Meanwhile, check out our pricing page for typical package prices.

On the bookkeeping front, we work with small but growing businesses in all industries that are earning between $500K and $20M in revenue. While there are certainly industry-specific nuances, drivers, and KPIs, every small business is focused on one or more of these key drivers: Revenue growth, profit growth, determining and saving the right amount of working capital, fostering a customer-centric culture, attracting, recruiting, and retaining top talent, and creating transferable business value for when you’re ready to exit.

Clean books are the foundation for smart tax strategy and healthy financial decisions, and we recommend professional bookkeeping and accounting services to every small business owner who would rather work on your business, not receipts and reconciliations. 

Finally, we do have a particular focus on dentists & medical professionals as well as B2B services and professional services.

Our mission at Red Bike Advisors is to equip our clients with financial and tax insights that create exponential value for their companies, customers, employees, and families—and ultimately create generational wealth. Like you, our CEO Gretchen Roberts is a small business owner who has always craved a strategic relationship with her finance, tax and accounting partner, but many accounting and tax firms reactively call once a year for tax papers.

Working with a firm dedicated to your monthly financials ensures that you’re always able to make timely business decisions and are tax-ready.

If you crave that kind of relationship with your finance & tax strategy advisor, then give us a shout.

Absolutely! Our Virtual CFO services take your squeaky-clean books and up-to-date financial reporting to the next level with services like cashflow forecasting, scenario planning, and KPI tracking. And having a strategic financial advisor to bounce ideas around with as an ancillary member of your management team is priceless. You can explore our VCFO services here, or book a free strategy session to discuss your specific needs.