Frequently asked questions

A bookkeeper records and organizes the day-to-day financial transactions of your business: categorizing expenses, reconciling accounts, preparing financial statements, and keeping your books accurate and current throughout the year. A CPA is a licensed professional who handles complex tax strategy, audits, and certain regulated services that require state licensure. Most small business owners need a great bookkeeper first — that's the foundation everything else sits on. Many also need a CPA for complex tax situations or specialized advisory work, and the two roles work best together. If you're a small business owner with relatively straightforward finances, ongoing bookkeeping plus tax preparation from someone like me is usually the right starting place.

My services are billed hourly, so you only pay for the time actually spent on your books — no retainers, no flat-rate packages. For small businesses, hourly bookkeeping rates typically range from $40 to $100 per hour depending on the complexity of the work. The number of hours needed each month will vary based on your transaction volume, the number of accounts, and whether additional services like payroll, sales tax, or AP/AR management are included. After our initial consultation, I can give you a realistic estimate of what to expect each month so there are no surprises.

A bookkeeper records every financial transaction in your business — every sale, every expense, every transfer, every loan payment — in an accounting system like QuickBooks Online. They reconcile your bank and credit card accounts to make sure nothing is missing or duplicated. They prepare your monthly financial statements (profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow). They track who owes you money and who you owe. And they keep everything tax-ready so that when tax season arrives, your accountant or tax preparer has clean, organized financials to work from. In short: a bookkeeper makes sure the financial story of your business is told accurately, on time, every month.

Absolutely. While I live in Cresson, Texas, and serve clients throughout the greater Fort Worth area — Benbrook, Granbury, Dallas, and surrounding towns — a meaningful share of my clients live in other states. Modern bookkeeping is a remote-friendly profession. I use QuickBooks Online and a secure document portal, and we connect by phone or video whenever a real conversation is needed. The quality of the work is identical whether you're ten minutes away or a thousand miles away.

I work primarily in QuickBooks Online, which is the small business standard in the U.S. and works seamlessly for both bookkeeping and payroll. I'm also proficient in Wave and Zoho Books, so if you're already on one of those platforms, we can hit the ground running. If you're on a different system entirely, we can talk about whether it makes sense to migrate or whether I can work with what you have. For payroll, I use established payroll platforms that handle tax deposits and filings automatically. Every system I use is secure and protected by multi-factor authentication.

Your financial information is treated with the same seriousness as I treat my own. I use secure, encrypted document portals for sharing sensitive files, never email. I store nothing locally that doesn't need to be stored. All software accounts are protected by strong passwords and multi-factor authentication. And I never share client information with anyone — not other bookkeepers, not vendors, not anyone — without written permission.

Yes — catch-up bookkeeping is one of the things I do regularly, and it's rarely as bad as the client expects when they first reach out. I'll review what you have, give you an honest scope of what catching up will take, and we'll work through it month by month until your books are current. After that, ongoing monthly bookkeeping keeps you from ever falling behind again.

I love working with brand-new businesses. The earlier we set up your books correctly — chart of accounts, banking, payroll structure, sales tax registration where applicable — the easier everything else gets. If you're just starting out, the first conversation is the right time to talk about how to set things up so your finances scale with the business.

Both. I prepare personal income tax returns and small business tax returns for sole proprietors, single-member LLCs, and small S-corporations. Many of my bookkeeping clients use me for taxes too, because clean year-round books make tax preparation straightforward. For more complex returns or for tax strategy work that requires a CPA, I refer to trusted CPA partners.

A short conversation usually answers that question for both of us. I offer a free initial consultation where we talk about where your business is, what kind of support you actually need, and whether what I offer matches that. If we're a good fit, we move forward. If we're not, I'll point you toward someone who is. There's no obligation either way.