Bookkeeping Services in NJ
Looking for a bookkeeper in New Jersey who actually explains your numbers? I’m Shawn Kuehn — a QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor based in Hopatcong (Sussex County), and I keep the books for NJ small business owners who are done guessing what their bank balance means. Everything runs virtually in QuickBooks Online, so whether you’re down the road on Lake Hopatcong or across the state, your books get the same treatment: categorized, reconciled, and delivered as monthly financials you can actually make decisions from — explained, not just filed.
With over 25 years of finance experience behind the work, here’s exactly how I help New Jersey businesses get their books working for them.
Bookkeeping Services for New Jersey Small Businesses
Monthly Bookkeeping
The core service: every transaction categorized, every bank and credit card account reconciled, and monthly financial statements delivered with a plain-English walkthrough. One predictable monthly price — payroll cleanup and catch-up projects are scoped separately so the number never surprises you. See what monthly bookkeeping includes.
QuickBooks Cleanup & Catch-Up Bookkeeping
Books a mess, or months — even years — behind? Both are fixable faster than you’d think. I untangle duplicate transactions, unreconciled accounts, and a chart of accounts that tells you nothing, or rebuild the record from your bank statements forward. Most cleanups finish inside 30 days. How QuickBooks cleanup works · the catch-up process, step by step.
Bank & Credit Card Reconciliation
Every account reconciled every month, so the books match reality. It’s unglamorous, and it’s the foundation of every number you’ll ever trust — skip it and the rest is decoration. Included in monthly bookkeeping; here’s my step-by-step QuickBooks Online reconciliation guide if you do your own.
QuickBooks Online Setup
Want to keep your own books, done right? I set up QuickBooks Online correctly from day one — chart of accounts, bank feeds, workflows — and coach you until the monthly close takes 15 minutes instead of a lost weekend. About setup & coaching.
Financial Reporting & Profit Clarity Review
Clean books are the start; knowing what they’re telling you is the point. Monthly financials come with a plain-English review — what moved, why, and the handful of numbers worth watching. See the Money Peace Dashboard for how I keep it to 15 minutes a month.
Payroll Setup & Support
Payroll that flows cleanly into the books — setup and support alongside your monthly bookkeeping, scoped separately so the monthly price stays predictable.
Accounts Receivable & Payable Tracking
Who owes you, what you owe, and when it’s all due — tracked in QuickBooks so cash flow stops being a surprise. Especially for trades and service businesses juggling invoices across jobs.
Tax-Ready Financials for Your CPA
I don’t file your taxes — I make your CPA’s job easy and their invoice smaller. Clean, reconciled, tax-ready books, handed off with everything your CPA needs. Heading into a deadline with messy books? Start with the tax-ready checklist.
Bookkeeping Health Check
Not sure what state your books are actually in? A quick look at your QuickBooks file tells us both: what’s solid, what’s off, and what it would take to fix. It’s the first step of every engagement — book a free strategy call and we’ll start there.
Local to Sussex County, Serving All of New Jersey
I work from Hopatcong, and most of my clients are the businesses that keep this part of the state running — trades, service businesses, family companies in Sussex and Morris counties and beyond. Because everything runs through QuickBooks Online with secure bank feeds, distance never gets in the way: the books are as current for a client in Cape May as for one in Landing. You get a local bookkeeper’s accountability with a virtual service’s convenience.
Here’s what one client says on Google: “Shawn has been instrumental to my company. Did an amazing job reorganizing my books and keeping them up to date.”
Who This Isn’t For
Honesty saves us both a call. If you’re looking for someone to file your tax returns, that’s a CPA or an EA — I prepare the books they file from, and I’ll happily work alongside yours. And if you want the cheapest possible data entry with no explanation attached, there are offshore services that cost less than I do. My clients want to understand their numbers, not just have them typed in.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should you pay someone to do your bookkeeping?
For most NJ small businesses, professional bookkeeping runs a few hundred dollars a month, scaling with transaction volume and account count. Cleanup and catch-up projects are one-time and scoped up front. Real numbers, not “it depends”: see the full bookkeeping pricing guide.
What is the average hourly rate for a bookkeeper in New Jersey?
NJ bookkeepers typically charge more per hour than the national average, reflecting the cost of doing business here. I price flat monthly instead of hourly — you know the number before the month starts, and a slow question never turns into a billable surprise.
Is AI replacing bookkeepers?
AI is changing the data-entry half of the job, and that’s a good thing — categorization gets faster and cheaper. What it doesn’t replace is judgment: catching the miscoded transfer, knowing what a healthy margin looks like for a NJ contractor, and explaining what the numbers mean for your next decision. My honest long-form answer: Will AI replace your bookkeeper?
What are the four types of bookkeeping?
Single-entry, double-entry, manual, and computerized. Every business I work with runs double-entry in QuickBooks Online — it’s the only version that produces financial statements a bank, a CPA, or a buyer will trust.
Do we ever meet in person?
If you’re near Hopatcong or elsewhere in Sussex County, gladly. Most clients find the virtual rhythm easier — a short monthly video call over your actual financials beats a commute.
Ready for Books You Can Trust?
One conversation. No pressure. We’ll look at where your books stand and what it would take to get them working for you — and if I’m not the right fit, I’ll say so and point you in a better direction.
Prefer to talk first? Call (949) 227-0808.