Business CPA Houston AlternativeThe books, or a signature

Two kinds of work

People use one word for a pile of different jobs. The person at the top chooses the direction of the year, the owner's pay, and the filing date of the return. Under that is the close, tied to the bank, and the filings that have to leave on a date. At the bottom are the books themselves.

What we take is the top of that pile at owner scale, with the books kept in the same hands. A signature on a set of statements is not in the pile. The disclosures page is the only place that sentence appears, and this page will not repeat it as a speech.

Every Texan who has driven the outer loop knows Beltway 8, with the toll lanes in the middle. We still sort the job by the work, not by which loop the shop sits inside.

The house covered in cans is the one Texans detour to see, because that fence throws light back at the road. Sorting this job still depends on the paper you handed us, not on which loop you drove to get here.

What the long list holds

The long list is the work an owner names when the year swung. Closing the month the bank already shows. Standing the payday journal up beside the company that already runs your hours. Reconciling the accounts. Writing the statements and the report. Preparing the return from those months. Looking at owner pay and a large buy while the year is still open.

A bid that asks only for the books is still on this list. A bid that asks for a signature across the statements is not. We will say which one you handed us in the first conversation, and we will not start the wrong one.

Finance inside a company often splits those jobs across several people. An owner run company usually wants those jobs with one practice, since the same hands that finish the month also have to live with the return.

What we send back

Send the request, or send the year. You get back the list your job is on. When the job is ours, we start from the newest month the bank already matches. When the job is a signature on the statements, we stop and name the disclosures page plus a firm that can sign.

A full year of tidy months is not required before you write. One month the bank already matches, plus a plain description of the paper in your hand, is enough to start the sort.

What the first month asks of you

Send the statement for a month the bank already matches, and the names of the accounts you actually use. If payday runs somewhere else, say which company, and we will set the journal up beside the close rather than asking you to retype the hours.

If a lender or a customer has sent a form, send the cover page. We read the line that asks for a signature before we read the rest. If that line is the reserved work, we stop and point. If it is not, the file stays here and the month gets closed.

An owner often arrives with a year that felt busy and a set of books that stopped in the spring. We do not scold the gap. We name the last good month and we start there. We hold the return until the bank and those months tell the same story.

You can also tell us the decision you are trying to make. Hire, a truck, a lease, owner pay. We will say whether the books are ready for that decision or whether the open month has to come first. That is the sort, and it is the whole job of this page.

Send the job

Name the paper in your hand, or the year that swung. We answer with the list it sits on.