The merchant’s account
Every trade that moves goods, pays people and owes somebody money keeps the same four books. We keep them for you.
A merchant landing cargo on a quay in 1680 had four problems, and a small business in San Diego has the same four now. What did it cost and what did it fetch. Who is owed wages and when. What the customs house wants and by what date. And what all of that says about whether to buy more.
The tools have changed. Nothing else has.
What we keep
Fitting out
Getting the systems in
Accounting, point of sale, payroll and card spending, set up and connected to each other so the figures arrive on their own. Most of the pain in a small business’s books is not the bookkeeping — it is somebody retyping the same numbers out of one system into another.
The day book
Bookkeeping
Every transaction recorded, categorised and reconciled against the bank, month after month, so the books are never more than a few days behind. This is the whole foundation: nothing else on this page is worth anything if this is not right.
The muster
Payroll
The crew paid on time and at the right rate, with the withholding, the filings and the year-end forms handled. Run through Gusto and tied back into the accounts, so wages are not a separate world from everything else.
The custom house
Tax and filings
Federal and state returns, quarterly estimates, sales tax, and whatever your particular trade has to file that nobody warned you about. Prepared from books that are already current, which is why it stops being a scramble.
The manifest
Figures you can steer by
What you actually made last month, what it cost to make, which lines carry the business and which quietly do not. Numbers turn into decisions only when somebody puts them in front of you early enough to act on.
Standing by
Somebody to ask
A question about a purchase, a hire, a lease, a price rise — answered by the person who already knows your numbers, without a meeting or an hourly rate. It is included, and it is most of what the flat fee is for.
Trades we work with
- Breweries and brewpubs
- Restaurants and bars
- Retail and e-commerce
- Trades and contractors
- Professional services
- Property and rentals
If your trade is not on that list, it is not an obstacle. The four books are the same. Ask.
What it costs
A flat monthly fee for every $50,000 of revenue — $575 a month for bookkeeping, $799 with payroll and tax included. No hourly billing, no invoice at the end of a month you did not expect, and no charge for asking a question.
Fifteen minutes
Tell us what the business does and where the books currently are. We will tell you what we would fix first, whether or not you hire us.
Talk to us
421 Broadway, Unit #327, San Diego, CA 92101