Austin CPA and Bookkeeping AlternativeHow the work is priced, without a fake number

What you should hear about price

A monthly close assumes the prior month was closed. You are paying for the rhythm. Statements tied, leftovers named, reports from that month, and the return prepared from the year those months made. If the prior month was not closed, the first invoice is not a monthly close. It is a cleanup, and it is scoped to the open months in front of us.

Setup is its own price. A new set of books is setup. Payroll setup on a provider is setup. Neither one is quietly folded into the first month so the number looks smaller. You should be able to tell which check paid for which job.

Rainey Street, near the lake and the interstate, is the row of old bungalows that turned into a nightlife street in the 2010s. Texans can picture the lights without needing a table. We picture them as Texans. You should be able to read the fee conversation before you sit down to it. You should know what you are walking into before you sit down.

What changes the scope

The number of open months changes it. The number of accounts changes it. A payroll provider that is already live changes it, compared with setup still to do. A year that includes sales tax in more than one city changes it. None of those is a surprise fee. They are the questions on the form, and they are why we do not print a single number on this page and call it your price.

We also do not discount a mess into a monthly rate and hope. That is how a practice and an owner end up unhappy in month four. The cleanup is finished, or it is declined, and then the monthly work has a floor.

What you are not paying for

You are not paying for an audit, a review, or a compilation. Those are not sold here. You are not paying us to run payroll. You run the provider. You are not paying for a street address in Austin, because there is not one. The video call, the shared books, and the calendar are the delivery.

If you want a number, send the scope. The last closed month, the open months, whether payroll exists, and what you want decided before the year ends. What comes back is a scope you can accept or refuse.

A straight answer after we see the months

Send the last month you trust and a count of the open ones. Say whether payroll has a provider. Mention whether the month you described includes sales tax. With that, a scope can be a number of months and a kind of work, and the price can be said against that scope. Without it, any number on a website would be a costume. We do not wear that costume.

You will see the cleanup, the monthly close, and any setup as separate lines when they are separate jobs. If you later add a city, a permit, or a payroll provider, the scope changes in a sentence before the work changes. The point of writing it down is so a busy month does not silently become a different engagement. Ask, and the answer comes back in that shape.

Nothing here is a teaser rate, and nothing expires. The work costs what the open months require. If that is more than you want to do right now, we would rather you know before we start. Declining is a complete answer. So is starting with one month and telling the truth about what that month can support.

When you write, name the open months in a count rather than a mood. Four open months is a different week from one. A provider already sending pay is a different week from setup still ahead. Those two facts, plus whether sales tax is in the month, are enough for a scope you can accept or refuse with a clear head.