Oakum Chartered

Books that hold water

Accounting, payroll and tax for people who would rather be running the business than reconciling it.

Oakum, n.

Loose fibre picked from old tarred rope. Driven into a ship's plank seams with mallet and caulking iron, then payed with hot pitch, it is the only thing standing between a sound hull and a wet one. The picking was slow, patient and thankless work — which is rather the point.

From the Old English ācumba: off-combings.

How the work goes

A caulker rakes out the seam, drives the oakum home, and pays it with pitch. Bookkeeping is not so different.

First — raking out

We find the gaps

A free consultation. We look at what you have, and tell you plainly where the water is getting in and what to fix first.

Then — driving

We pack them

Accounting, point of sale and payroll set up and connected, so the figures arrive on their own instead of being chased.

Last — paying

We seal them

Books kept current and compliant, month after month, and numbers you can actually make a decision on.

Get your time back

Administration is the tax nobody quotes you for. Our work is to take it off the owner's desk and hand back the figures that let you manage and grow the business.

Less time reconciling. Less worry about what is filed and what is not. More time on the thing you started the business to do.

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Boats moored in a Southern California harbour
Where you would rather be at four o'clock on a Friday.

The systems we run

Set up, connected to one another, and kept fed.

Work we have done

What the day-to-day looks like once the systems are talking to each other.

Is your trade next?

We work with owner-operators across San Diego — hospitality, trades, professional services. If you want to know how it would work for yours, ask.

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Articles of agreement

Flat monthly fees per $50,000 of revenue. No hourly billing and no surprises.

Rates, and what each covers
 StandardPremium
Rate $575per month, per $50k of monthly revenue $799per month, per $50k of monthly revenue
Bookkeeping✓✓
Payroll—✓
Tax—✓
  Start with Standard Start with Premium

If the service is not what you wanted, we refund up to three months.

Let us take a look

Fifteen minutes, no obligation, and you speak to the person who will do the work. We will tell you what we would fix first whether or not you hire us.

Graham Butler of Oakum Chartered
Graham Butler

Book a free consultation

Talk to us

421 Broadway, Unit #327, San Diego, CA 92101