Bookkeeping from $600/mo: What You Get

We publish a starting price for monthly bookkeeping because guessing is a poor way to shop. At Moreno Financial Services, plans start at $600/mo. That is a floor, not a one-size quote: a plan scales with transaction volume, the number of accounts, and payroll or sales tax needs. When the books are behind, the catch-up cleanup is scoped and quoted as its own project.

What stays the same is the order of things. You tell us how you run money today, whether that is QuickBooks, a spreadsheet or a shoebox. We assess the scope on a free 15-minute call, and you have a clear quote before any paid work begins. The rest of this guide explains why each of those factors changes how much work a month takes.

What the monthly work covers

Our monthly bookkeeping covers categorization, reconciliation, and a clear monthly picture of income and expenses, so you know where the business stands. Questions get answered year-round, not only when tax season arrives, and the profit and loss and balance snapshots are written for owners to read, not as a dump of accounting jargon.

Categorization means each transaction lands in the right account. Reconciliation means each account in the books is checked against its statement; QuickBooks describes it as making sure the amounts in the books match the real bank and credit card statements. The IRS version is shorter: the statement, the checkbook and the books should agree.

Why the number of accounts matters

Every bank account, credit card, loan and payment account is reconciled on its own. QuickBooks needs the monthly statement for each account to reconcile it, so a business with one checking account and one card has a very different month from one with three cards, a savings account, a line of credit and two payment apps.

More accounts also mean more transfers between them. A payment from checking to a credit card appears in both places, and QuickBooks lists credit card payments and bank transfers among the records a bank transaction can be matched to.

Why transaction volume matters

Connected bank and card feeds do the first pass. In QuickBooks Online, clients connect their own bank and card accounts, and QuickBooks suggests a category for each downloaded transaction. Suggestions still need a person, because software alone still puts things in the wrong place.

Matching links each bank transaction to an invoice, receipt or bill already recorded, which QuickBooks says prevents duplicate entries. A business with a few dozen transactions a month has a lighter month than one with hundreds of card charges and cash deposits. Transaction volume is one of the factors a plan scales with.

Why payroll and sales tax add scope

Payroll adds records of its own. The IRS's example of a small business recordkeeping system includes employee compensation records, and if the business has employees, the IRS employment tax pages and the Texas Workforce Commission's unemployment tax program page, both linked below, explain what applies. For bookkeeping clients who need it, we can run payroll on QuickBooks and Intuit, with scope and fee settled on the free call.

Sales tax adds a second stream to track. The Texas Comptroller's permit FAQ explains who needs a sales and use tax permit, and filing through the Comptroller's Webfile system takes a Webfile number. In the books, sales tax collected is kept apart from income, and sales tax records for Texas sellers covers why that matters.

Why catch-up comes first when books are behind

A monthly plan assumes last month is finished. When it is not, a catch-up cleanup comes first, then the monthly routine. The cleanup is quoted as its own project, and the free call covers both: what a cleanup looks like, and what a steady monthly plan would cost after it. Catch-up bookkeeping before tax season walks through the general order of the work.

The reports the work produces

Books exist to produce reports an owner can read, and ours center on the profit and loss and a balance snapshot. The SBA's learning platform defines the core statements: the income statement, which shows how the business has performed over a given period; the balance sheet, which shows assets, liabilities and owners' equity at a specific point in time; and the cash flow statement, which shows the timing of cash going in and out.

If you use another preparer at tax time, we package clean reports they can use. If we prepare your return too, the books and the return stay with one local practice.

If monthly bookkeeping is more than you need

Not every business needs a monthly plan yet. On the free call we look at your volume and tell you honestly whether a monthly plan makes sense. The McLennan Small Business Development Center offers no-cost consulting and training to owners in Bell and Coryell counties, and the Texas State University SBDC serves Lampasas County. Neither is connected to us.

What to have ready for a quote

A few details make the quote accurate on the first call:

• A list of every bank, card, loan and payment account the business uses
• A rough count of transactions in a typical month
• Whether you have employees, and how payroll runs today
• Whether you collect Texas sales tax
• How far behind the books are, if at all
• The bookkeeping software you use now, if any