Small Business Accountant in Buffalo, NY

We keep the books to standard, then put them to work. Every month you get financial statements plus a short written read: what moved, what it means, and what to watch next. The chart of accounts is built to answer the questions you actually ask, by location, product line, or job, and we review margins alongside the totals. When a decision is coming, you get a CPA's answer grounded in your own numbers within one business day. Books only pay for themselves when someone reads them with you, and that reading is the center of this service.

What you get: Monthly statements with a written read of what changed and what to do.

We review whether your structure still fits as profit grows, sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, or S corporation, and model the self-employment and payroll tax difference so the choice comes down to a dollar figure you can see. The New York step that trips owners: the state requires its own S election on Form CT-6, filed separately from the federal Form 2553, and until New York accepts it the state taxes the entity on its own terms. Where an S election makes sense, we file both the federal and the New York elections, set a reasonable owner salary that supports the structure, and keep the payroll and distribution split documented well enough to survive review.

What you get: An entity recommendation modeled in dollars, with the federal and New York S elections filed.

Under the pass-through entity tax (PTET), an electing S corporation or partnership pays New York income tax at the entity level, deducts it in full against federal income, and passes each owner a credit for the New York personal return, so state tax the SALT cap would have disallowed becomes deductible again. Owners the phase-down pushes back toward the 10,000 dollar cap, and owners whose state and local taxes exceed their cap, can save thousands a year. Owners comfortably under the cap may see little federal benefit through 2029, which is why we model the election owner by owner, every year. The mechanics are strict: the annual election is due by March 15 of the year it covers, there is no extension, and the estimated payments run their own quarterly schedule. We run the math, file the election where it pays, schedule the estimates, file the annual PTET return, and carry the credit onto each owner's New York return so the savings arrive as cash.

What you get: A PTET election made on time, with the credit reconciled onto the owners' New York returns.

We plan off your live numbers on a rolling basis: a projected federal and New York liability updated through the year, estimated payments sized so you are neither penalized nor lending the government money, and decisions timed while they still count, Section 179 and bonus depreciation on equipment, retirement plan contributions matched to the owner's cash, and the S-election and PTET calls above. One New York wrinkle we manage for you: the state does not follow federal bonus depreciation, so bonus taken federally is added back on the New York return and depreciated separately, which changes the state math on equipment timing. For Buffalo businesses that sell taxable goods or services, the 8.75 percent collected in Erie County stays in the same planning view, since it is a liability the books have to carry until each return remits it. The goal is an April with no surprises and a December with nothing left on the table.

What you get: A rolling federal and New York projection with estimates sized to avoid penalties.

We track the ones that catch Buffalo owners: the biennial statement due to the Department of State every two years; the annual LLC filing fee (Form IT-204-LL), which scales with New York-source gross income; partnership and corporate franchise filings; and 1099-NEC filings for contractors, due January 31. Payroll itself stays with your payroll provider; we oversee the compliance side, confirming the employer taxes are booked and the provider's filings reconcile to the books. For anyone hiring, the upstate minimum wage is a planning number of its own: 16 dollars an hour in Buffalo for 2026, a dollar under the downstate rate, with inflation indexing from 2027. And one warning about the official-looking mailers: as of mid-2026, most Buffalo LLCs have no beneficial-ownership report to file anywhere, since FinCEN exempted domestic companies from the federal rule and New York's LLC Transparency Act was amended to reach only LLCs formed outside the United States. A letter demanding a compliance fee deserves suspicion and a call to us before any payment. Each item is small; together they are the difference between good standing and a reinstatement project.

We work with the main business types in Erie County: medical and dental practices in the orbit of Kaleida Health, Catholic Health, and Roswell Park, where insurance economics and provider compensation drive the numbers; manufacturers from the RiverBend solar plant's supplier base to the South Buffalo machine shops, where job costing, inventory, and the qualified-manufacturer question decide the margin and the tax rate; contractors and trades that need profit tracked job by job; restaurants and cafes along Elmwood, Hertel, and Larkinville, where merchant fees and tips have to be unwound to real revenue; the professional firms working around M&T's downtown headquarters; and the startups coming out of the University at Buffalo, 43North, and Launch NY. The reports, the KPIs, and the planning are tuned to your model, so the advice fits the business you actually run.