Bookkeeping Services in New York City

We run your books on QuickBooks Online or Xero on a monthly cycle. Every transaction is categorized against a chart of accounts built for your business, every bank, credit card, and loan account is reconciled to the statement, and payroll entries from your payroll provider are booked correctly, including the employer taxes owners routinely miscount as profit. You get a profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flow summary on the same date every month, with a short note on anything that moved. When something needs your answer, it comes as one batched question list, not a drip of emails.

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

Cleanup is usually where an engagement starts. We rebuild the ledger from bank and credit card records, fix miscategorized history, reconcile every account to the statements, and clear the junk balances that accumulate in accounts nobody reviews. The deliverable is a books-to-bank reconciliation your tax preparer, your lender, or an auditor can rely on, brought current through the most recent closed month, and then kept current monthly so the backlog never rebuilds. If prior-year returns were filed off bad books, we flag the differences so your tax preparer can decide what needs amending.

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

We set the books up so sales tax collected posts to a liability, not to income, and reconcile that liability to what the returns actually remit. New York City sellers register with the New York State Tax Department for a Certificate of Authority at least 20 days before making taxable sales, then file on the schedule the state assigns: quarterly returns due March 20, June 20, September 20, and December 20 for most businesses, monthly once taxable sales pass 300,000 dollars in a quarter. The 8.875 percent rate is made of the state's 4 percent, the city's 4.5 percent, and the 0.375 percent Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge, which applies everywhere in the five boroughs. Two city specifics worth knowing: clothing and footwear under 110 dollars per item are fully exempt, and filing on time pays a little through New York's vendor collection credit, which a late return forfeits. We prepare and file the returns, and keep the exemption and resale certificates that support any nontaxed sale.

What you get: Registered, reconciled, and filed New York City sales tax, with the certificates that support every nontaxed sale.

The city taxes that touch a small business: the Unincorporated Business Tax, 4 percent on the New York City income of sole proprietors, partnerships, and LLCs, with a filing required once business gross income passes 95,000 dollars; an entity-level tax on S corporations, because New York City does not recognize the federal S election and taxes the company itself at 8.85 percent; and the MCTMT payroll tax that five-borough employers owe once quarterly payroll expense passes 312,500 dollars. We keep the books so the income, payroll, and owner-draw detail each of these filings needs is already there, and we flag the ones that apply to your structure so nothing surfaces as a surprise at filing time.

What you get: Books that carry the income, payroll, and owner-draw detail the city's UBT, corporation, and payroll taxes need.

Contractors and the trades. Profit lives at the job level, so we track costs by job, carry work in progress correctly, and manage the New York sales tax split the trades get audited on: capital improvements are exempt with a Form ST-124 certificate from the customer, repairs and maintenance are taxable, and the certificate file is what settles it.

Restaurants and cafes. The daily reality is merchant deposits net of processor fees, tips flowing through payroll, and prepared food taxable at the full 8.875 percent. We unwind deposits to gross sales so the books match the point of sale system, which is exactly the tie-out a New York sales tax auditor runs.

Professional services. Law, consulting, and design firms depend on unbilled work in progress and retainers, and as unincorporated businesses many owe the city's Unincorporated Business Tax, so we keep the books in the shape that filing needs. Attorney books add escrow and IOLTA funds that must stay strictly separated from operating cash.

Medical, dental, and therapy practices. Practice books have to reconcile insurance deposits, net of adjustments and clawbacks, back to the production the providers actually billed, and keep provider compensation splits clean enough to survive a partner meeting.

E-commerce and retail. New York's marketplace facilitator rules mean the marketplace collects on marketplace sales while you still file, direct-channel sales remain yours to collect, and out-of-state sales raise nexus questions. We keep the channels separated so the sales tax return is right by design.

Startups and technology companies. Venture-backed companies need accrual books, deferred revenue handled correctly, and investor-ready reporting from the first check, because cleanup during a diligence process is the most expensive kind. This is the same technical accounting the rest of our practice does for public and venture-backed companies.

What you get: A chart of accounts and monthly reports built for your business type, not a generic template.

The work is done in QuickBooks Online or Xero, read-only bank feeds, and a shared document inbox for the statements and bills we need. You get a fixed monthly delivery date, a standing way to reach us, video calls when a conversation beats an email, and a CPA who answers within one business day. You also get a team led by a New York-licensed CPA at a flat monthly price a solo bookkeeper cannot match on depth: 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 batched question list, and a CPA who replies within one business day.