Bookkeeping Services in Miami, FL

We keep your books in QuickBooks Online or Xero on a monthly cycle. Every transaction is categorized against a chart of accounts built for your business, and every bank, credit card, and loan account is reconciled to its statement. Payroll from your provider is recorded in full, including the employer taxes, which owners often count as profit. For a Florida employer those include reemployment tax, which the employer pays and does not withhold from wages. You receive a profit and loss statement, a balance sheet, and a cash flow summary on the same date each month, with a short note on what changed. Our questions come to you as one list each month.

What you get: Reconciled books and a three-statement financial package on a fixed date every month.

Most engagements start with a cleanup. We rebuild the ledger from bank and card records, correct the categories on past transactions, reconcile every account to its statements, and clear balances nobody has reviewed. The result is a books-to-bank reconciliation that a tax preparer, a lender, or an auditor can rely on, current through the last closed month. We check two Florida items in every cleanup: sales tax collected but recorded as income, and the county surtax charged on the full price of an expensive item when it applies only to the first $5,000. If tax returns were filed from the old books, we list the differences so the preparer can decide what to amend.

What you get: A books-to-bank reconciliation current through the last closed month, quoted as a one-time project.

The state rate is 6 percent on most sales of goods and on some services. Miami-Dade adds a 1 percent discretionary sales surtax, so most sales delivered in the county are taxed at 7 percent. The surtax applies only to the first $5,000 of a single item, while the state rate applies to the whole price. On a $20,000 piece of equipment the correct tax is $1,250: $1,200 of state tax and $50 of surtax. Charging 7 percent on the full price collects $1,400, and the extra $150 is an overcharge the business then has to correct. The surtax rate is set by the county where the buyer takes delivery, so a Miami business that delivers into Broward or Palm Beach charges those counties' rates. We register the business with the Department of Revenue before its first taxable sale, record collected tax in a liability account, and keep the resale and exemption certificates behind every untaxed sale. The Department assigns each business a schedule for its Form DR-15 returns based on the tax it collects in a year: monthly above $1,000, quarterly from $501 to $1,000, and twice a year or once a year below that. Each return is due on the 1st and late after the 20th of the month after the period ends. A business that files and pays electronically and on time keeps a collection allowance of 2.5 percent of the first $1,200 of tax due, up to $30, and electronic filing becomes mandatory once a business paid $5,000 or more in the prior state fiscal year.

One recent change affects older leases. Florida's sales tax on commercial rent was repealed from October 1, 2025. Rent for periods beginning on or after October 1, 2025 carries no tax, and rent for periods through September 30, 2025 stays taxable even when it is paid later, so a lease that still adds the tax, or a ledger that still accrues it, needs correcting.

What you get: Registered, reconciled, and filed Florida sales tax, with the surtax applied only where it is due.

Reemployment tax. Florida's unemployment tax is paid by the employer alone. A new employer pays 2.7 percent on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages each year, and files Form RT-6 every quarter, by the last day of the month after the quarter ends, even in a quarter with no wages. Business tax receipts. A business inside a city needs both a county receipt and a city receipt. In the City of Miami, most businesses need a Certificate of Use before the city issues its Business Tax Receipt. Receipts run from October 1 to September 30, and a late renewal carries a penalty of 10 percent in October and 5 percent a month after that, up to 25 percent. The annual report. Every Florida corporation and LLC files an annual report with the Division of Corporations between January 1 and May 1. A report filed after May 1 carries a $400 late fee, and a company that has not filed by the third Friday in September is administratively dissolved. Payroll rules. The Florida minimum wage is $15.00 an hour from September 30, 2026, and a private employer with 25 or more employees must verify each new hire through E-Verify. We keep all of these on the same calendar as the sales tax returns.

What you get: Reemployment tax, business tax receipts, and the annual report on one calendar, filed before they are due.

Funds, family offices, and financial firms. Miami's financial district in Brickell includes investment managers, advisory firms, and family offices. Their operating companies need fee revenue recorded when it is earned, expenses split correctly between the management company and the funds, and partner capital accounts that reconcile to the fund administrator's reports.

International trade. PortMiami handled 1,115,058 TEUs of cargo in fiscal year 2025, and Miami International Airport handled 3,128,165 metric tonnes of air cargo in 2025, the fifth-highest total of any airport in the world. Import and export companies need inventory recorded at landed cost, including freight, duties, and brokerage, foreign currency accounts kept in their own currency, and the shipping records that support each sale that was not taxed in Florida. Payments to and from related companies abroad are recorded separately, because the federal return reports them.

Real estate and short-term rentals. Each property gets its own profit and loss, security deposits are held apart from income, and depreciation stays current. A rental of six months or less collects Florida sales tax, the county surtax, and the county's convention development, tourist development, and sports franchise taxes, which total 6 percent in most of the county, and the books keep each tax apart from rental income.

Restaurants, bars, and hotels. Card deposits arrive net of processor fees, tips run through payroll, and sales tax is collected at the Miami-Dade rate. Outside Miami Beach, Bal Harbour, and Surfside, a restaurant located with a hotel or motel also collects the county's 2 percent food and beverage tax, and other businesses that sell alcohol for consumption on the premises and have gross receipts above $400,000 collect a 1 percent homeless and domestic violence tax. We record gross sales so the books match the point of sale system and the returns.

Medical, dental, and therapy practices. Insurance deposits, net of adjustments, are reconciled to the production the providers billed, and provider compensation splits are kept accurate.

Construction and the trades. Costs are tracked by job, work in progress is carried correctly, and retainage and progress billings are recorded as they are earned.

What you get: A chart of accounts and monthly reports built for your business type.

The work is done in QuickBooks Online or Xero, with read-only bank feeds and a shared folder for the statements and bills we need. You get a fixed monthly delivery date, one list of questions each month, video calls when a conversation is faster than email, and a reply from a CPA within one business day. Our team works in English and Spanish, so an owner, an office manager, and a bookkeeper on staff can each work with us in the language they prefer. When a meeting in person is useful, we meet at our office in downtown Miami. The same practice handles technical accounting for venture-backed and public companies, and your books are kept to that standard.

What you get: A fixed delivery date, one list of questions, and a CPA who replies within one business day.

The offices Miami owners use most: the Florida Department of Revenue for sales tax, reemployment tax, and the corporate income tax; the Division of Corporations for formation and the annual report; the Miami-Dade Tax Collector for the county business tax receipt; the City of Miami for the city receipt and the Certificate of Use; the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser for homestead and the tangible personal property return; the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller for recorded documents and the Declaration of Domicile; the SBA South Florida District Office, which has an office in Miami; the Florida SBDC at FIU for free business advice; SCORE Miami-Dade for volunteer mentors; the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce; and the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, the county's economic development partnership. If a registration on one of these sites is holding you up, ask us.

What you get: A direct answer on which office handles the registration or filing you need.