Tax-Ready Financials for Your CPA

I do not file your taxes. I make your CPA’s job small. Tax-ready financials are books that a tax preparer can file from without a single cleanup hour: every account reconciled, every transaction categorized the same way it was last year, and a year-end package that answers their questions before they ask. That package lands in January, not April.

Most of what a CPA bills a small business at tax time is not tax work. It is bookkeeping, done in a hurry, at a CPA’s rate. This service is the part that moves that work out of March and into the months where it belongs.

What tax-ready actually means

When I hand a file to your CPA, this is what is already done:

• Every account reconciled through December 31. Bank, credit cards, loans, lines of credit, payment processors. Statement balance and book balance match, with the reconciliation reports to prove it.
• Every transaction categorized to a chart of accounts that matches last year’s return. Consistency is what your CPA needs. A new category every year is a question every year.
• Owner money separated from business money. Draws, contributions, loans to and from the owner, and personal charges on the business card each sit where they belong.
• Transfers booked as transfers, not as income on one side and expense on the other.
• 1099 vendors flagged with year-to-date totals, so the list is ready in January.
• Fixed assets listed, with purchase date and cost, so depreciation is your CPA’s decision, not a hunt through the register.
• Sales tax and payroll tied out to what was actually filed and paid.
• A short list of open questions for you and your CPA, written down, instead of buried in the file.

What your CPA gets

• Profit and loss and balance sheet for the year, plus the general ledger.
• Reconciliation reports for every account.
• The 1099 vendor list with totals.
• The fixed asset list.
• The open-questions list, already answered where I could.
• Accountant access to the QuickBooks Online file, so they can look for themselves.

If your CPA wants something in a different format, they tell me once and it arrives that way every year after.

What it costs

For monthly bookkeeping clients, tax-ready books are not an add-on. They are what closing the books every month produces, and the year-end package is included. If your books are behind or messy and you want them tax-ready for this year, that is a one-time cleanup, quoted as a fixed fee before any work starts. Both are on the pricing page.

Not sure which you need? Start with the free bookkeeping health check. Part of it is a plain answer to one question: could your CPA file from this today?

For CPAs and tax preparers

I am building my practice around a few real relationships with CPAs, and I want to be the bookkeeper you can hand a client to. Two ways that works:

1. Refer the client to me. They become my bookkeeping client. You get a clean file in January with the package above, books closed every month, and questions asked as they come up instead of at tax time. It goes both ways: when my clients need a CPA, I send them to you.
2. Keep the client and add me to your team. The client stays yours. You bill them. You add me to your QuickBooks Online Accountant team and I do the books as part of your firm. I bill you. My name stays in the audit log, so nothing is hidden from anyone.

Every job gets a quote. The first cleanup is an upfront set fee based on the work itself, so you and the client know the cost before anything starts. I do not prepare returns, give tax advice, or compete for tax work. That is your side of the table.

Book a call

Prefer email? shawn@workfasterplaylonger.com. Based in New Jersey and working with New Jersey small businesses, though everything runs virtually in QuickBooks Online.

What clients say

“Shawn is extremely knowledgeable in bookkeeping and QuickBooks. He’s helped me clean up my books, see my business through different lenses, and help me project and plan for the future.”

Cleanup and planning client, QuickBooks ProAdvisor directory review, June 2023

“Did an amazing job reorganizing my books and keeping them up to date.”

Cara, Cara Casting, Google review, August 2026

Every review is public. Read them on Google and on the QuickBooks ProAdvisor directory.

Tax-ready questions

Do you file taxes?

No. I keep the books and hand your CPA a file they can prepare the return from. If you do not have a CPA, I can point you to one.

Can you work with the CPA I already have?

Yes. That is the normal case. I ask them once how they want the year-end package and then deliver it that way.

My CPA already does my bookkeeping. Why change?

Sometimes you should not. If it works and the price is fair, keep it. The usual reason to change is that the books get done once a year in a rush, so you fly blind for eleven months and the tax bill is a surprise. Monthly books fix that.

Do you handle 1099s?

I keep the vendor list and the totals current all year and hand them over in January. Filing is coordinated with your CPA so it is done once, by one person.

When should I start?

The earlier in the year, the smaller the cleanup and the cheaper the year. Starting in the fall still beats starting in March.