Bookkeeping & Accounting Frequently Asked Questions
Clear answers to the questions we hear most from business owners, and from the CPAs and tax practices we partner with, about bookkeeping, clean-up, tax-ready books, and what it's actually like to work with us. Don't see your question below? Send us a note.
Getting Started
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We help businesses that have outgrown simple bookkeeping keep their financial lives organized, from day-to-day bookkeeping and financial reporting through tax preparation.
That can mean cleaning up books that are behind or inconsistent, providing ongoing monthly or weekly bookkeeping, preparing reliable financial reports, reviewing expenses and cash flow, and handling tax preparation.
Our goal is to give you one dependable place for your accounting needs, with accurate financial information that carries through from everyday bookkeeping to year-end taxes.
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It starts with the current condition of your books.
If your bookkeeping is behind, accounts haven't been reconciled, transactions are inconsistent, or you don't trust the financial reports you're seeing, bookkeeping cleanup is usually the right place to start.
If your books are already accurate and up to date, ongoing bookkeeping keeps them that way through regular reconciliation, transaction review, and financial reporting.
Many clients need both: cleanup to establish a reliable starting point, followed by ongoing bookkeeping to keep everything current.
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Ongoing bookkeeping is designed to keep your financial records accurate, organized, and current throughout the year.
Depending on the needs of your business, that can include reconciling bank and credit card accounts, reviewing and categorizing transactions, maintaining the general ledger, identifying discrepancies, and preparing financial reports. We can also help you understand what those reports are showing you rather than simply delivering numbers without context.
For businesses with greater transaction volume or more complex needs, bookkeeping may be performed more frequently than monthly.
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That's a good place to be, and ongoing bookkeeping is how you keep them that way.
Accurate books still require regular reconciliation, transaction review, consistent categorization, and attention to issues that develop over time. Staying current also gives you better information for making decisions and helps make tax preparation a much smoother process.
You don't have to wait until the books become a problem to get professional support. Preventing bookkeeping problems is usually much easier than correcting them later.
Bookkeeping & Cleanup
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Bookkeeping cleanup is the process of reviewing existing financial records, identifying problems, and correcting them so the books accurately reflect what happened in the business.
Depending on the condition of the records, cleanup may involve reconciling accounts, correcting transaction classifications, addressing missing or duplicate transactions, reviewing balances, and resolving inconsistencies that affect the financial reports.
The objective isn't simply to make the books look cleaner. It's to establish financial records that are accurate enough to rely on going forward.
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Cleanup may be appropriate anytime you aren't confident that your financial records are complete and accurate.
Common situations include books that have fallen behind, accounts that haven't been reconciled, financial reports that don't make sense, a change in bookkeeping systems, or a period when bookkeeping wasn't consistently maintained.
Cleanup may also be necessary before preparing overdue tax returns, applying for financing, providing financial information to a lender or other third party, or preparing for a significant business transaction.
You don't necessarily need a looming deadline to clean up your books. Reliable records are valuable whenever you're making decisions about the business.
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Yes. Books can often be brought up to date even when they're several months, or multiple years, behind.
The amount of work involved depends on factors such as transaction volume, the number of accounts, the condition of the existing records, and the supporting documentation available. We approach catch-up work methodically: determine where the records stand, identify what needs to be corrected or completed, and work toward a reliable set of books.
Being behind doesn't automatically mean you're facing an impossible cleanup. It simply means we need to understand the starting point before determining the scope of the work.
Understanding Your Numbers
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Yes. Accurate reports are important, but they're much more valuable when you understand what they mean for your business.
Every close already includes Senior Oversight, an experienced CPA checking the numbers before they reach you. From there, we can help you make sense of your financial statements and identify what your revenue, expenses, cash flow, and other financial activity are showing over time.
When useful, we can also provide recorded video reviews that walk through the financials and explain what we're seeing. That gives you context around the numbers without requiring another meeting just to review a report.
The goal is to make your financial information useful, not simply available.
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Yes. One of the benefits of well-maintained books is being able to see more clearly how money moves through the business.
We can review spending for patterns such as recurring charges, duplicate subscriptions, unused services, unusual expenses, and costs that have gradually increased over time. We can also help you look at cash flow and understand where financial pressure may be developing.
We're not here to tell you what you should or shouldn't spend. We're here to give you better visibility so you can make those decisions with accurate information.
Bookkeeping & Taxes, Together
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Tax-ready bookkeeping means your financial records are maintained throughout the year with tax preparation in mind, not cleaned up at the last minute when a return is due.
We keep transactions consistently categorized, accounts reconciled, and financial records organized so the information needed for tax preparation is already built on a reliable foundation.
Because your bookkeeping and tax needs are handled together through Perrywinkle, there's no separate handoff between an outside bookkeeper and tax professional. The people preparing for tax season are working from the same financial records we've been maintaining throughout the year.
Reports are prepared as part of a bookkeeping engagement and do not constitute an audit, review, or other assurance service.
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Yes. Tax preparation is available to clients who use our bookkeeping services, either ongoing monthly bookkeeping or a completed cleanup, prepared by the same CPA who's been reviewing your books throughout the year.
Rather than treating tax preparation as a separate, once-a-year service, we build it on the same financial records we've maintained all along. That means no handoff to a second firm and no separate provider to coordinate with, the person who's been reviewing your numbers is the one preparing the return.
Reports are prepared as part of a bookkeeping engagement and do not constitute an audit, review, or other assurance service.
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Yes. We provide bookkeeping cleanup and overflow support for CPA firms, tax practices, and other bookkeeping firms, handling clients they refer to us, and covering seasonal capacity constraints.
All of that work goes through the same Senior Oversight as our direct client work, prepared and reviewed by a CPA before it reaches the tax preparer.
Reports are prepared as part of a bookkeeping engagement and do not constitute an audit, review, or other assurance service.
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No, our process is methodical and accuracy-focused by design. Rushed bookkeeping increases the risk of errors and the downstream issues that come with them.
If timing is tight, tell us where things stand and we'll help you figure out the fastest responsible path forward.
Working With Perrywinkle
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We start by understanding what's happening with your books, your business, and what you're trying to accomplish. From there, we determine the appropriate starting point and the services needed to support you going forward.
Once work begins, most communication is handled asynchronously, with clear updates and documentation as the work progresses. Meetings are used when a conversation would genuinely be helpful, not simply because another meeting is on the calendar.
Our approach is structured, methodical, and accuracy-focused. You should know what we're working on, what we need from you, and what happens next.
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You don't need to diagnose your own accounting needs before contacting us.
If your books are behind, the numbers don't seem right, you're struggling to understand where your money is going, you're concerned about taxes, or you simply know your current process isn't working, start by telling us what's happening.
Our What-If Assessment is designed for exactly that. It helps us understand your situation and identify the most appropriate next step.
You bring us the situation. We'll help you determine where to start, and, when we're a good fit, keep the pieces connected from bookkeeping through taxes.
Still not sure where to start?
If your books are behind, inconsistent, or you're just not sure what kind of support you need, we'll help you figure out the right starting point.