Small Business Accountant in Rochester, NY

We keep the books to standard and then work from them. Every month you get financial statements plus a short written read: what moved, what it means, and what to watch. We build the chart of accounts so it answers the questions you actually ask, by location, product line, or job, and we review margins as well as totals. When a decision is coming, a hire, a lease, a price increase, you get a CPA's answer grounded in your own numbers rather than a gut call. The point of the books is to make better decisions, and that only happens when someone reads them with you.

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

We review whether your structure still fits, sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, or S corporation, as your profit grows, and model the self-employment and payroll tax difference so the choice comes down to a number you can see. The New York rule: a federal S corporation is not automatically a New York S corporation. New York requires a separate election on Form CT-6, and without it the state taxes the entity differently than you expect. If an S election makes sense, we handle both the federal and the New York filing, set a reasonable owner salary to support it, and keep the payroll and distribution split documented so it survives review.

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

The pass-through entity tax (PTET) lets an S corporation or partnership pay New York income tax at the entity level, where it stays federally deductible, and passes a credit to the owners. For owners the phase-down pushes back to the 10,000 dollar cap, or whose state and local taxes exceed the cap, it can still save thousands a year; for owners comfortably under both, the federal benefit through 2029 may be small, which is why we model it per owner before electing. The catch is timing: the annual election must be made by March 15 of the tax year, with no extension, and estimated payments follow their own quarterly calendar. We run the math, make the election where it pays, calculate and schedule the estimated payments, and file the annual PTET return, then reconcile the credit onto the owners' New York returns so the benefit actually lands.

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

We plan taxes on a rolling basis off your live numbers. That means a projected federal and New York liability updated through the year, estimated payments sized so you are not penalized and not overpaying, and decisions timed while they still count: Section 179 and bonus depreciation on equipment, retirement plan contributions that fit an owner's cash, and the PTET and S-election calls above. One New York wrinkle we manage: 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 Rochester businesses that sell taxable goods or services, we keep sales tax planning in the same view, since the 8 percent collected in Monroe County is a liability to manage, not revenue. The goal is no surprises in April and no money left on the table in December.

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

We track the ones that catch Rochester owners: the biennial statement due to the Department of State every two years; the annual LLC filing fee (Form IT-204-LL) that scales with New York-source gross income; partnership and corporate franchise filings; and 1099-NEC filings for contractors, due January 31. We also oversee payroll compliance where you run payroll through a provider, making sure the employer taxes are booked and the filings reconcile, even though we do not sell payroll as a standalone service. For anyone hiring, the upstate minimum wage is its own planning number: 16 dollars an hour in Rochester for 2026, a dollar below downstate, and indexed to inflation from 2027. One more, because the mailers are relentless: as of mid-2026, most Rochester LLCs have no beneficial-ownership report to file, since FinCEN exempted domestic companies from the federal rule and New York's LLC Transparency Act was amended to cover only non-U.S.-formed LLCs, so treat the official-looking compliance letters demanding a fee with suspicion and ask us before paying anyone. None of these are large on their own; together they are the difference between a business in good standing and one scrambling to reinstate.

We work with the main business types in the region: medical, dental, and specialty practices around the University of Rochester and Rochester Regional systems; optics, photonics, and precision manufacturers carrying the area's imaging heritage, where job costing and inventory decide the margin; contractors and trades that need profit tracked by job; restaurants and cafes from Park Avenue to the Public Market, where merchant fees and tips have to be unwound to real revenue; and the professional-services firms and startups coming out of accelerators like NextCorps. The reports, the KPIs, and the planning are tuned to your model, so the advice is usable rather than generic.