A monthly subscription, payable whether or not the month gets reconciled.
Account opened · no entries posted
Software on one side, an accountant on the other
A small business keeping its own books with software, and a small business paying someone to keep them, are two different arrangements — not a good option and a bad one. This site posts them side by side and leaves the balance to you.
Dr — Software, kept in-house
You run the books, a subscription runs the ledger.
Cr — An accountant, engaged
Someone else runs the books, you carry the fee.
Dr 01
Cr 01
A monthly retainer or a fee per engagement, quoted against the scope of work.
Dr 02
The chart of accounts is yours to set up and yours to keep consistent.
Cr 02
The chart of accounts is set up by someone who has built one before.
Dr 03
Bank feeds, categorising and chasing unpaid invoices land on your desk.
Cr 03
The close lands on theirs — and so does the wait when they are busy.
Dr 04
You see the numbers the day they happen, and you own every mistake.
Cr 04
You see the numbers when the pack arrives, and you get advice attached.
Dr 05
Year-end still needs someone qualified to look at it before it is filed.
Cr 05
Year-end is inside the engagement, or it is a separate line on the quote.
Ruled off · the account is open and the entries are still to come
The register
No write-up has been posted yet. These are the folio slots the ledger has been opened for, listed so you can see whether this is the right page to come back to.
Folio 101
Bookkeeping software against a bookkeeping service
The same month of transactions, costed both ways, with the hours counted as well as the invoices.
Folio 102
What a bookkeeper does that software does not
Where the work is judgement rather than data entry, and why that is the part software leaves behind.
Folio 103
Subscription tiers against a monthly accounting fee
How the two pricing shapes behave as a business grows, and where they cross over.
Folio 104
The first month-end close, either way
Bank feeds, reconciliation and the pack — what the first close asks of you under each arrangement.
Folio 105
When a growing LLC outgrows doing its own books
The signals that usually come before the switch: payroll, inventory, multi-state, and running out of evenings.
Folio 106
Handing over: what an accountant needs from you
What has to be in order before someone else can take the ledger on without repricing the job.
Six slots, alternating sides · each becomes a link when the entry is written
Standing rules of this ledger
Worth ruling in before anything is posted, because it is what every entry will be held to.
Rule 01
Both sides get the same column
Neither arrangement is set up as the default here. The page is symmetrical on purpose, because the right answer depends on the business and not on the layout.
Rule 02
No scores and no ratings
Nothing is graded out of ten or sorted into tiers. Where one option is preferred for a given situation, it is argued in words with the reasoning on the page.
Rule 03
Only claims that were earned
No described test bench, no invented tallies of tools compared or readers served. Where a write-up is built on published pricing and documentation, it says so.
Rule 04
Affiliate links are disclosed
Some links may earn a commission. That does not decide which side of the ledger an entry is posted to, and it is stated on every page it applies to.
Working the decision through the ledger
The method the write-ups will follow, and one you can run yourself on the back of an envelope before any of them exist.
Post 01
Write down the month you actually have
Transactions, invoices raised, payroll runs, and who currently touches each of them.
Post 02
Enter the money on both sides
Subscription plus your own hours on one side; fees plus handover time on the other.
Post 03
Enter what you would be giving up
Immediacy and control against expertise and the evenings you get back.
Post 04
Rule off and read the balance
The answer is whichever side is cheaper in the thing your business is shortest of.