Accounting, answered.

Bookkeeping is the operational recording of financial transactions — categorizing expenses, reconciling bank accounts, processing payroll, generating invoices, maintaining the general ledger. Accounting is the broader discipline that uses bookkeeping data to produce financial statements, perform analysis, support tax preparation, and guide business decisions. Bookkeeping is the foundation; accounting is what gets built on top.

In practical terms, a bookkeeper maintains the books; an accountant interprets them. A Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor firm like TechBrot handles both the operational bookkeeping (data entry, reconciliation, payroll processing) and the accounting layer above it (financial statement preparation, advisory work, KPI reporting, fractional CFO services). What we don’t do is regulated tax-filing work — that requires a CPA or EA credential and stays with your tax professional. See also our bookkeeper vs accountant comparison.

GAAP — Generally Accepted Accounting Principles — is the standard accounting framework used in the United States, established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). GAAP defines how revenue is recognized (ASC 606), how leases are accounted for (ASC 842), how nonprofits report (ASC 958), and dozens of other standards.

Public companies must follow GAAP. Most private companies are not legally required to follow GAAP but typically do because their bank covenants, investors, potential acquirers, and CPA expect GAAP-compliant financials. Cash-basis bookkeeping for very small businesses (under $5M revenue, no inventory, no investors) can defer GAAP compliance — but most growing businesses cross the threshold where GAAP matters by year 3-5 of operations. We produce GAAP-compliant books by default; if cash-basis is intentionally chosen for your situation, we configure for that explicitly.

Cash basis records revenue when cash is received and expenses when cash is paid. Accrual basis records revenue when earned (regardless of when cash arrives) and expenses when incurred (regardless of when cash leaves). Cash basis is simpler but obscures business reality — a profitable cash-basis business can have a balance sheet that doesn’t match operations, deferred revenue liabilities that don’t appear, prepaid expenses that aren’t tracked.

Accrual basis matches GAAP, gives accurate margin reporting, and is required once a business has inventory, deferred revenue (memberships, subscriptions, prepaid contracts), or significant receivables/payables. Practically: businesses under $1M revenue with simple service-based operations can use cash basis acceptably; businesses with any complexity (inventory, subscriptions, memberships, projects, multi-month engagements) should be on accrual. The IRS allows cash basis up to certain revenue thresholds; GAAP-compliant books require accrual.

The chart of accounts (CoA) is the structured list of every account in the general ledger — assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, expenses, broken into categories. The CoA structure determines what every financial report shows: how revenue is broken down (service lines, product categories, geographies), how expenses are categorized (cost of goods sold vs operating expenses vs overhead), which sub-totals appear on the P&L, what the balance sheet structure looks like.

A correctly designed CoA produces useful reports automatically; a poorly designed CoA means every report has structural problems no amount of cleanup fixes. Industry-specific CoAs matter — a restaurant CoA looks different from a SaaS CoA which looks different from a construction CoA. We treat CoA setup as foundational work — see /accounting/chart-of-accounts-setup/ for the canonical reference covering both /accounting/ and /quickbooks/ silos.

Standard monthly financial statements include three core reports: balance sheet (assets, liabilities, equity at month-end — a point-in-time snapshot), profit & loss statement (revenue and expenses over the period — operational performance), and cash flow statement (cash generated from operations, investing, financing — bridges P&L to actual cash).

Many businesses also need monthly: accounts receivable aging (who owes you, how long past due), accounts payable aging (who you owe, when payments due), bank account reconciliation reports (confirming books match bank), and a monthly close summary memo (significant items, judgment calls, follow-ups). Industry-specific reports add depth: construction needs WIP reports, SaaS needs MRR/ARR waterfalls, retail needs inventory turnover, agencies need utilization reports. We deliver the standard three plus industry-specific reports as part of monthly bookkeeping engagements.

CPA-ready books means the financial records are accurate, reconciled, and organized to a standard that allows a CPA to efficiently prepare tax returns without first having to fix bookkeeping problems. Specifically: all bank and credit card accounts reconciled to statements; chart of accounts structured correctly; revenue and expenses categorized properly; accruals, prepayments, and deferred revenue posted; depreciation calculated and posted; fixed asset register current; payroll reconciled to payroll service reports; sales tax accruals current; intercompany transactions cleared (where applicable); supporting documentation organized and accessible.

Audit-ready books goes further — meets the documentation, reconciliation, and substantiation standards required for an external CPA audit (typically for businesses with bank covenants, investor requirements, or regulatory triggers). All CPA-ready standards plus: documented internal controls, segregation-of-duties evidence, supporting documentation for material judgments, audit trail for all journal entries, prior-period adjustments documented. We deliver CPA-ready as a default; audit-ready is a defined engagement scope with additional documentation requirements.

Monthly bookkeeping is the ongoing engagement that maintains the books month after month after they’ve been set up (or cleaned up). Standard monthly scope includes: transaction categorization (all bank and credit card transactions coded to the correct chart-of-accounts categories), bank and credit card reconciliation (every account reconciled to statement balance), accounts payable and receivable management (vendor bills entered and reconciled, customer invoices tracked and aged), payroll posting (payroll runs reconciled to QuickBooks), sales tax accrual posting (where applicable), monthly close (period closed, books locked, prior period protected), financial statement generation (balance sheet, P&L, cash flow), and monthly review with the business owner.

Cadence is monthly with a defined close calendar — typically a 5-10 day close. Cost varies by transaction volume and complexity: typically $400-$2,500+/month, fixed-fee, with a written scope that defines everything included.

Bookkeeping cleanup is a one-time engagement that fixes an existing QuickBooks file with accumulated errors before ongoing monthly bookkeeping begins. Monthly bookkeeping assumes the file is clean and reconciled; cleanup gets it there.

Common cleanup engagements: months or years of unreconciled bank accounts, transactions miscategorized or sitting in undeposited funds or other unresolved accounts, AR/AP aging that doesn’t match general ledger, payroll posting drift, fixed asset register out of sync, opening balance errors that propagated. Cleanup is tiered fixed-fee: focused cleanup (3-6 months, single-account scope) typically $1,500-$3,000; standard cleanup (6-18 months, multi-account) typically $3,000-$7,500; complex cleanup (multi-year accumulated errors, multi-entity) typically $7,500-$15,000+. After cleanup, monthly bookkeeping takes over as the ongoing engagement. Most cleanup engagements transition cleanly to monthly bookkeeping.

Catch-up bookkeeping is reconstructing books that haven’t been maintained — either because no one was doing the books, the previous bookkeeper stopped, or the business never had professional bookkeeping in place. Catch-up differs from cleanup in scope: cleanup fixes a partially-maintained file with errors; catch-up builds from scratch where no bookkeeping was happening.

Typical catch-up scope: 6 months to 3+ years of transactions to categorize, all accounts to reconcile against bank statements, AP/AR to reconstruct from invoices and bills, payroll history to reconcile against payroll reports, sales tax history to reconstruct, financial statements to produce for the catch-up period. Cost: typically $2,000-$20,000+ depending on time period and transaction volume. Catch-up is essential for businesses preparing for a CPA tax filing, seeking financing, planning a sale, or just needing to know where the business actually stands financially.

The distinction is whether bookkeeping was happening at all. Cleanup applies when bookkeeping was being done but contains errors — the file exists, transactions are recorded (mostly), reconciliations were attempted (mostly), but the result is unreliable. Catch-up applies when bookkeeping wasn’t happening — the QuickBooks file is empty or barely populated, transactions weren’t being recorded systematically, and the work involves building from source documents (bank statements, credit card statements, invoices, bills).

Many engagements involve both: catch-up for recent unmaintained periods plus cleanup of older partially-maintained periods. The discovery call sorts which engagement fits your specific situation. Both engagements end at the same place — books ready for ongoing monthly bookkeeping.

Monthly bookkeeping at TechBrot ranges from $400 to $2,500+ per month, fixed-fee, set in written scope before any work begins. Pricing depends on: transaction volume (more transactions = more time), business complexity (multi-entity, multi-state, multi-currency add complexity), number of bank/credit card accounts to reconcile, payroll complexity (single-state W-2 vs multi-state with contractors), sales tax complexity (single-state vs multi-state nexus), inventory complexity, and integrations to manage (Shopify, Amazon, Stripe, etc.).

Typical ranges: solo professional services or small e-commerce $400-$700/mo; established small business with employees $700-$1,500/mo; multi-state or multi-entity operations $1,500-$2,500+/mo. We don’t bill hourly — fixed-fee aligns our incentives with delivery efficiency rather than billable hours. See /pricing/ for the full canonical pricing reference.

Yes — transitions are common and we handle them cleanly. A typical transition involves: discovery call to assess the current file state, written scope including any required cleanup from prior provider issues, coordination with the prior provider for QuickBooks access transfer, opening-balance verification at the transition date, first month of ongoing monthly bookkeeping with extra review, and a defined go-live date where TechBrot is the sole provider.

Most transitions identify some level of cleanup needed — previous bookkeepers vary widely in quality, and even competent prior work usually shows some patterns we’d structure differently. We don’t weaponize the assessment to inflate cleanup scope; if the prior file is solid, we say so and proceed straight to monthly bookkeeping. Honest assessment is the engagement model.

Yes — and we prefer it. Our scope is operational accounting and bookkeeping; your CPA’s scope is tax filing, audit, and assurance work. The two roles are complementary, not competing. Most engagements involve some CPA coordination; we make it easy by maintaining clean books, clear documentation, and direct communication with your CPA when they need it.

Specific coordination touchpoints: providing year-end CPA-ready financial statements, answering operational questions during tax preparation, supporting state-tax controversy responses with underlying records, sharing read-only QuickBooks access with the CPA team. If you don’t currently have a CPA but need one, we can recommend specialists in your state and industry. See also our network for how we collaborate with the broader professional services ecosystem.

Month-end close is the structured process of finalizing the books for a period — ensuring all transactions are recorded, all accounts are reconciled, all accruals and prepayments are posted, all journal entries are made, and the period is closed and locked so financial statements can be relied upon and prior-period data can’t be inadvertently changed.

A disciplined monthly close standard runs 5-10 business days from period end: days 1-3 transaction completion (final bills, invoices, payroll), days 4-7 reconciliations (bank, credit card, payroll, sales tax), days 8-10 accruals, adjustments, review, and lock. Faster close (under 5 days) is achievable for clean operations with strong integrations; slower close (15+ days) signals process problems — either too much late data entry, insufficient automation, or scope that’s genuinely too large for the engagement structure.

Bank reconciliation is the process of matching every transaction recorded in QuickBooks against the bank statement, account by account, month by month. The output: a reconciled ending balance that matches the bank statement exactly, with every difference explained and documented. Reconciliation matters because it’s the only verification that the books reflect reality — unreconciled accounts mean the books may show transactions that didn’t happen or miss transactions that did.

Common reconciliation issues we find: duplicate transactions (same expense entered twice), missing transactions (bank fees, interest, automatic payments not captured), miscategorized transactions (personal expenses charged to business cards, business expenses paid personally), and timing differences (checks issued but not yet cleared). Reconciliation is part of every monthly bookkeeping engagement and is standalone work in cleanup engagements.

Job costing is the accounting discipline that tracks revenue and costs by project or job, producing per-job profitability rather than just aggregate business performance. Industries that need job costing: construction (every project has its own P&L; WIP and percentage-of-completion required by GAAP), manufacturing (BOM costs, labor allocation, overhead absorption per work order), marketing agencies (client and project-level profitability), law firms (matter-level profitability), and any project-based business.

Job costing requires CoA structure that separates direct costs (allocated to jobs) from overhead (allocated by a defined rate), QuickBooks Customer:Job structure or Class tracking, time tracking integration to allocate labor costs, and reporting that surfaces gross margin by job. Without job costing, project-based businesses don’t know which projects make money and which lose money — the aggregate hides it. See /accounting/job-costing/ for the implementation methodology.

Inventory accounting tracks the cost and quantity of goods held for sale, the cost of goods sold (COGS) when items sell, and the inventory shrinkage or obsolescence that occurs along the way. Inventory complexity depends on the business: ecommerce with simple SKUs vs manufacturers with raw materials, WIP, and finished goods; retail with single-location vs multi-location with inventory transfers; FIFO vs weighted-average vs specific identification costing methods.

For most growing businesses, inventory eventually outgrows QuickBooks Online’s native inventory and requires either QuickBooks Enterprise (with Advanced Inventory) or a third-party inventory platform integrated with QuickBooks. The transition point is usually somewhere between $1M-$5M revenue depending on SKU count, multi-location complexity, and reporting requirements. We handle the platform selection and configuration as part of monthly bookkeeping engagements for inventory-heavy industries.

Accruals, prepayments, and deferred revenue are the GAAP-required accounting entries that make financial statements reflect operational reality rather than cash timing. Accruals: expenses incurred but not yet billed (utilities used in December, billed in January — the December expense is accrued at year-end). Prepayments: expenses paid in advance (annual insurance paid in January — expensed monthly over 12 months rather than all in January). Deferred revenue: cash received before service delivered (annual SaaS contract paid in January, earned monthly over 12 months — revenue recognized over the service period, not at collection).

These entries are part of disciplined monthly close. Without them: cash-basis distortion (December profitable because no January expenses accrued), inaccurate margin reporting (annual prepayments inflating early-month profits), GAAP violations (deferred revenue requires ASC 606 recognition over service period). Industries with heavy deferred revenue requirements: SaaS, fitness, franchise, prepaid services, and subscription businesses.

Both, scoped separately. Payroll setup (one-time engagement) configures the payroll system correctly from day one — tax-account registration coordination, employee setup, benefits configuration, chart-of-accounts mapping, first pay-run verification. Payroll management (ongoing engagement) handles the recurring work: pay-run processing, employee changes, multi-state compliance maintenance, quarterly tax filings, year-end W-2 and 1099 generation.

We work with both QuickBooks Payroll and Gusto (zero affiliate commission on either) and select the right platform per client. See /accounting/payroll-management/ for the ongoing payroll scope and /quickbooks/payroll/setup/ for the setup engagement.

Multi-state payroll requires registering for state income tax withholding and state unemployment insurance (SUI) accounts in every state where employees physically work — not just the state where the business is headquartered. Beyond registration, multi-state operations involve: convenience-of-the-employer rules in six states (NY, CT, PA, NJ, DE, NE) that override normal state-of-work logic; reciprocity agreements between state pairs that affect withholding for cross-border employees; local taxes in dozens of municipalities (Ohio RITA/CCA, Pennsylvania PSD codes, Kentucky local occupational taxes, NYC city tax, San Francisco payroll expense tax); and state-specific paid leave, disability insurance, and other compliance overlays.

We handle the operational and QuickBooks Payroll/Gusto configuration; we coordinate with your CPA on nexus opinions. Setup pricing for multi-state payroll: typically $3,000-$10,000+ depending on state count and complexity. See /quickbooks/payroll/multi-state/.

Sales tax compliance is the operational process of collecting sales tax from customers, remitting it to state and local tax authorities, and filing periodic returns. Most U.S. businesses selling taxable products/services to multiple states face economic nexus — the post-Wayfair v South Dakota (2018) Supreme Court ruling that allows states to require sales tax collection from out-of-state sellers crossing economic thresholds, typically $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions per state per year (varies by state).

Once nexus is established in a state, the business must register for sales tax, collect at correct rates (state + county + city + special-district), and file returns on the state’s required cadence (monthly, quarterly, or annual). We handle operational sales tax compliance: nexus monitoring, registration coordination, Avalara/TaxJar integration setup, monthly filing, exception handling. Pricing: typically $250-$1,500+/month + $500-$3,000 nexus review for initial assessment.

Nexus review is the formal assessment of where a business has created sales tax collection obligations across U.S. states. Triggers for nexus review: multi-state sales growing (the business is approaching or crossing $100K/200-transaction thresholds in multiple states), expansion into a new state (physical office, warehouse, or employees in a new state creates physical nexus immediately), marketplace seller transitioning to direct ecommerce (Amazon/Etsy/eBay collect tax for sellers, but direct Shopify sales don’t), acquisition or new product line (changed nexus footprint), or state notice received (a state has identified the business as having unregistered nexus).

The nexus review output: complete sales-by-state analysis, nexus determination per state, registration prioritization (which states first), Voluntary Disclosure Agreement (VDA) recommendation if back-tax exposure exists, and a remediation plan. Ignoring nexus exposure compounds — states catch up eventually, and back taxes plus penalties grow significantly.

Payroll is a subset of HR. Payroll services handle: pay-run processing, tax withholding and remittance, multi-state compliance, W-2 and 1099 generation, payroll-related accounting entries. HR services are broader: employee onboarding and offboarding, benefits administration (health, dental, 401(k), commuter), employee handbook and policy administration, compliance training, performance management, employee relations, leave management, and workforce planning.

TechBrot is a Certified ProAdvisor firm — we handle payroll, not full HR. For HR services, businesses typically use Gusto (which combines payroll + light HR), a dedicated HR platform (Rippling, BambooHR, JustWorks), or a PEO (Justworks PEO, TriNet, Insperity) depending on size and complexity. We coordinate with HR providers and help businesses select the right HR stack alongside payroll.

Yes — as part of payroll or as a standalone year-end engagement. 1099 contractor management includes: W-9 collection at contractor onboarding (the precondition to year-end 1099 issuance), correct contractor classification (1099 vs W-2 — consequential in many states, especially CA with AB5), monthly tracking of payments to each contractor (threshold for 1099-NEC: $600+ annually), year-end 1099-NEC generation and filing with the IRS and contractor, and state-specific 1099 filings where applicable (CA, NY, several others require additional state filings).

Worker-classification mistakes are expensive: misclassified contractors create back-tax liability (employer-side payroll taxes that should have been paid), unemployment insurance and workers’ comp exposure, and state-specific penalties. We coordinate with your CPA on classification questions but handle the operational tracking and year-end filings. See industries with heavy contractor mix: agencies, construction, professional services.

Bookkeeping is the operational layer — recording, categorizing, reconciling, producing financial statements. Advisory is the judgment layer that turns those financials into business decisions — how to price, when to hire, whether to add a location, how to fund growth, what KPIs to track, when to negotiate which contracts.

Bookkeeping answers what happened. Advisory answers what to do about it. As automation and AI commoditize basic bookkeeping, value increasingly lives in the advisory layer — the strategic judgment that automation cannot replace. TechBrot’s advisory cluster covers fractional CFO, cash flow management, budgeting and forecasting, KPI reporting, quarterly business review, and financial strategy.

A fractional CFO is the right answer when a business needs strategic financial leadership but doesn’t yet have the complexity or budget to justify full-time CFO compensation ($200K-$400K+ all-in for an experienced CFO in the U.S.). Typical fractional CFO threshold: businesses between $1M-$30M revenue, businesses approaching a financing round or exit, businesses in transition (rapid growth, post-acquisition, new market entry), businesses where the founder/CEO is making financial decisions on intuition rather than analysis.

Fractional CFO pricing: typically $3,000-$8,000+/month for 10-25 hours of strategic financial leadership monthly. Full-time CFO becomes justified when financial complexity demands 40+ hours/week, when the team has multiple finance staff requiring leadership, or when the business has reached $30M-$50M+ revenue. We offer fractional CFO at /accounting/advisory/fractional-cfo/.

Cash flow management is the rolling discipline of forecasting cash position 13 weeks ahead, identifying cash gaps before they happen, and managing working capital (AR collection, AP payment timing, inventory turnover) to keep cash position healthy. The output: a 13-week cash forecast updated weekly, with scenarios for upside and downside cases, and specific action items if cash position is projected to tighten.

Cash flow management matters because profitable businesses regularly run out of cash — growth absorbs working capital, seasonal businesses face off-season cash gaps, slow-paying customers create AR concentration risk, large vendor commitments create AP cliffs. The bookkeeping side produces the historical baseline; advisory builds the forward forecast and the working capital playbook. See /accounting/advisory/cash-flow-management/.

KPI reporting is the monthly executive dashboard that surfaces the operational metrics that drive business performance — the ones beyond standard financial statements. Industry-specific KPIs matter: SaaS needs MRR/ARR, CAC, LTV, gross margin, churn; restaurants need prime cost %, average ticket, table turns, food cost %, labor %; agencies need utilization rate, realization rate, AGI per FTE, project margin; home services need revenue per truck per day (RPTD), close rate, average ticket; construction needs WIP, cost-to-complete, backlog.

Generic financial statements don’t surface these. KPI reporting requires CoA structure that captures the operational data, integrations to non-financial sources (CRM, POS, FSM platforms), and dashboard tools that present the right metrics to the right audience monthly. We design industry-specific KPI dashboards as part of advisory engagements.

Budgeting & forecasting is the structured discipline of setting annual financial targets (the budget), then continuously updating projections as the year unfolds (the rolling forecast). Budgets matter because they create accountability and resource allocation; rolling forecasts matter because budgets become inaccurate within weeks of being set, and businesses need to know where they’re actually heading.

Practical implementation: annual budget set in Q4 of prior year (board-ready, lender-ready); rolling 12-month forecast updated monthly with variance analysis (budget vs actual vs forecast); scenario planning for major decisions (hiring, expansion, capital investment); and integration with KPI reporting so operational drivers connect to financial outcomes. Bigger businesses use FP&A teams for this; mid-market businesses use fractional CFO; small businesses use advisory engagements as the right-sized version.

A quarterly business review (QBR) is the structured quarterly meeting where the business leadership team reviews the past quarter’s performance, the year-to-date trajectory, the forward forecast, and the strategic priorities for the next 90 days. The QBR connects monthly bookkeeping data, KPI dashboards, and advisory analysis into actionable strategic decisions.

QBR agenda typically covers: financial performance vs budget and prior quarter; KPI performance vs targets; cash flow and working capital review; strategic initiatives status; competitive landscape and market changes; capital allocation decisions; team and hiring priorities; risks and mitigation; quarterly OKRs/priorities for the next 90 days. The output: documented decisions, defined accountability, and a forward plan everyone in the room owns. Fractional CFO engagements typically include quarterly QBRs as a deliverable.

Industries have distinctive accounting patterns that generic bookkeeping completely misses. Revenue recognition varies wildly: SaaS deferred revenue under ASC 606, construction percentage-of-completion, agencies gross vs net (principal vs agent), fitness memberships as deferred revenue, nonprofits restricted vs unrestricted under ASC 958. Operational economics differ: restaurants need prime cost, manufacturers need BOM costing, home services need revenue per truck per day, law firms need IOLTA trust accounting.

Generic accountants handle the universal layer (bookkeeping, financial statements) but miss the industry layer (industry-specific KPIs, industry-specific CoA, industry-specific GAAP requirements). The result: books that pass a generic audit but don’t produce the operational insights the business actually needs. Industry specialization separates competent operators from generalists. See /accounting/industries/ for our full industry coverage.

TechBrot serves 17 industries across U.S. small and mid-market businesses, with dedicated industry pages and specialist depth in each: agencies (marketing, advertising, PR), construction, dental practices, ecommerce, fitness studios, franchise operations, healthcare practices, home services (HVAC, plumbing, electrical), law firms, manufacturing, nonprofits, professional services, real estate, restaurants, retail, SaaS, and trucking.

Each industry has its own service page with industry-specific challenges, sub-vertical breakdowns, integration platforms, KPI frameworks, and FAQ content. Industry experience matters because each industry has specific QuickBooks configurations, chart-of-accounts structures, and operational workflows that don’t translate cleanly across sectors.

Most industries fit close enough to our 17 published verticals that engagement structure works. Common “not on the list” cases that fit: insurance agencies (similar to professional services + agency hybrids), consulting practices (covered by professional services), creative agencies and design studios (covered by agency), specialty trade contractors (covered by home services or construction depending on scope), tourism and hospitality (covered by restaurant for operational similarity), independent medical specialties (covered by healthcare).

Industries we don’t serve well: cannabis (separate legal scope, banking, regulatory complexity we don’t specialize in), oil & gas operations (specialty depletion accounting), insurance carrier accounting (heavily regulated, separate from agency-side), financial services with regulatory overlay (broker-dealers, investment advisors). When industry fit isn’t a match, we’ll say so on the discovery call and recommend specialists better positioned to serve.

Industry specialization is essential when: the industry has distinctive revenue recognition (SaaS, construction, fitness, nonprofit, franchise), distinctive operational economics (restaurant prime cost, agency utilization, home services RPTD, trucking IFTA), distinctive GAAP requirements (nonprofit ASC 958, construction percentage-of-completion, leases under ASC 842), distinctive regulatory requirements (legal IOLTA, healthcare HIPAA-aware bookkeeping, multi-state franchise FDD reporting), or distinctive operational platforms (FSM, POS, PMS, AMS systems that drive the financial data).

Industry specialization is less critical when: the business is small ($300K-$1M revenue) with simple service operations, single-state, no inventory, no deferred revenue, generic SMB QuickBooks setup, and minimal complexity. At that scale, a competent generalist bookkeeper handles the work well. As businesses grow into complexity, the industry layer compounds in importance. Most businesses that engage us recognize the industry layer is missing before they engage; some realize it after switching from a generalist.

Industry specialization shows up in five concrete places: (1) Chart of accounts design — industry-specific CoA structure that surfaces the right operational categories. (2) Integration setup — connecting QuickBooks to the operational source-of-truth platforms (ServiceTitan for HVAC, MindBody for fitness, Toast or Square for restaurants, Shopify and Amazon for ecommerce). (3) Revenue recognition methodology — ASC 606 implementation tailored to the industry’s revenue patterns. (4) KPI dashboards — industry-specific metrics (RPTD, utilization, prime cost, MRR, etc.) calculated and reported monthly. (5) FAQ depth in proposals and advisory — the engagement structure anticipates the industry’s specific challenges rather than treating it generically.

Generic bookkeepers handle steps 1 and 2 superficially and skip 3, 4, and 5 entirely. The difference is visible in monthly reporting: industry-specialist books surface what’s actually happening in the business; generic books surface accounting categories.

Yes — multi-entity and multi-industry engagements are common, particularly for holding companies, multi-location operators, and businesses with related-party operations across different verticals. Multi-entity engagement scope includes: separate QuickBooks files per entity (or multi-company structure where appropriate), consolidated financial reporting across entities, intercompany transaction reconciliation, equity tracking across entities, and entity-level KPIs reported separately plus consolidated reporting.

Common multi-industry patterns we handle: franchise operators with 5-20+ units across multiple brands; real estate holdings combining property management and operating companies; family offices with operating businesses plus investment entities; service businesses with both retail and B2B divisions. Pricing scales with complexity — consolidated entities typically run 1.3-2.0x single-entity monthly pricing depending on intercompany volume and consolidation requirements.

TechBrot uses fixed-fee pricing on all engagements — no hourly billing. Pricing varies by engagement and complexity, always set in written scope before any work begins. Typical ranges:

• Monthly bookkeeping: $400-$2,500+/mo
• Bookkeeping cleanup: $1,500-$15,000+ (focused/standard/complex tiers)
• Catch-up bookkeeping: $2,000-$20,000+
• Chart of accounts setup: $750-$2,500
• Payroll management: $150-$800+/mo
• Payroll setup: $1,500-$6,000+
• Multi-state payroll setup: $3,000-$10,000+
• Year-end payroll work: $1,500-$7,500+
• Sales tax compliance: $250-$1,500+/mo + nexus review $500-$3,000
• Fractional CFO: $3,000-$8,000+/mo (by application)

Fixed-fee aligns our incentives — efficient delivery rather than billable hours. Discovery calls are complimentary. See /pricing/ for the full canonical pricing reference.

Fixed-fee pricing aligns the firm’s incentives with the client’s outcomes. Hourly billing creates an incentive to extend engagements — the longer the work takes, the more the firm earns. Fixed-fee creates the opposite incentive: efficient delivery directly benefits the firm because we’re paid for the outcome regardless of hours invested.

From the client side, fixed-fee provides predictability — you know the cost before any work begins, can budget against it, and don’t get surprise invoices for scope creep. The trade-off is upfront scoping work: every engagement starts with a discovery call and written scope. We absorb the scoping investment because it produces better engagements and longer client relationships. See /trust/ for the full engagement model details.

No. Income tax filing (Form 1120 for C-corps, 1120-S for S-corps, 1065 for partnerships, Schedule C for sole proprietors) is regulated work requiring CPA or EA credentials. TechBrot is a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor firm — we handle operational accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, sales tax compliance, and advisory work. We produce CPA-ready books and coordinate with your CPA or EA on tax filing.

This separation is structural: regulated work performed by appropriately credentialed professionals, operational work handled by ProAdvisors with the right depth. Working with TechBrot does not replace your CPA — it makes your CPA’s work easier by delivering accurate books and clean documentation. If you don’t currently have a CPA, we can recommend one in your state. See /legal/disclaimer/ for full scope boundaries.

No. TechBrot Inc. is a Delaware-incorporated independent Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor firm. We are not affiliated with Intuit Inc., not employed by Intuit, and we earn no commission, affiliate revenue, or referral fees on QuickBooks subscriptions or any other Intuit products.

This independence is structural rather than accidental — it means our recommendations on QuickBooks product selection, payroll provider selection, and add-on tools reflect what fits your business rather than what pays us. Most ProAdvisor firms operate under some form of Intuit partner program with associated incentives; we don’t. The trade-off is that we make less per engagement on the affiliate side; the benefit is genuine independence. See /trust/ for the full independence policy and /about/ for the firm background.

TechBrot operates two delivery modes under one firm standard. Lead practice: TechBrot’s own Certified ProAdvisors deliver directly (common for QuickBooks-heavy engagements like cleanup, migration, and QB-platform work). Vetted operator network: curated independent local Certified ProAdvisors deliver under TechBrot’s brand, standards, platform, and engagement model — matched to the client’s state, industry, and engagement type.

Both modes operate under one engagement standard: fixed-fee, written scope, named ProAdvisor accountability, work performed in the client’s own QuickBooks file, TechBrot quality review on deliverables. The network provides scale (we can serve clients in any U.S. state), local presence (in-state professional licensed in the client’s jurisdiction where it matters), and continuity (network operators provide bench depth so client coverage doesn’t depend on a single individual). See /about/network/ for the full network model.

Book a 30-minute discovery call. The call covers your current state (existing bookkeeping, QuickBooks setup, business complexity), your specific situation (industry, growth stage, immediate needs), the engagement type that fits, and any questions you have about how we work. Within 3 business days of the call, we deliver a written scope with fixed-fee pricing — no surprises, no hourly billing, no pressure to commit on the call itself.

If the engagement fits, work begins on the scheduled start date. If it doesn’t fit, we’ll say so and route to whatever does fit, including firms outside TechBrot when that’s the honest answer. The discovery call is complimentary; the scope is non-binding; the engagement starts only when you commit in writing.

Book the discovery call →