Ronnie Micle, CPA
Close the Books, LLC
Bookkeeping and Accounting for Small business
I'll focus on the bookkeeping and accounting, so you can focus on your business
Services
My primary service is recurring monthly bookkeeping and accounting.If you've been in business for any significant period of time but haven't been producing financial statements, I provide a 'catch-up' service to produce financial statements from the inception of your business to the present day.If you've already been working with a bookkeeper/accountant but you are unhappy with the work, I can also provide a 'clean up' service to get your financial statements in order.I can provide general tax advice, but please note that at this time I am not providing any tax preparation services. The financial statements I produce can be provided to your tax return preparer.
What is Bookkeeping/Accounting?
What is bookkeeping and accounting?
Bookkeeping is the process of recording and categorizing the day-to-day transactions of your business. A bookkeeper "books" these transaction to an accounting ledger. Every month, the bookkeeper must reconcile each transaction. That is, he must make sure every transaction is accounted for by comparing everything in the accounting ledger to official documents like bank statements and credit card statements.An accountant then takes these accumulated transactions in the accounting ledger and produces financial statements. Financial statements are reports that generally present the health of a business.
What are financial statements?
Financial statements are reports that generally present the health of the business. Financial statements are produced every month, quarter, and year. There are 3 main financial reports:1) Profit & Loss (P&L) Statement - how much income you're making, how much you're spending, and ultimately what is your profit over a certain period of time2) Balance Sheet - the business's assets, liabilities, and equity at a certain point in time3) Cash Flow Statement - how much cash is coming into your business versus how much cash is leaving the business over a certain period of time
What are financial statements used for?
Financial statements are critical for anyone trying to understanding your business. That "anyone" could be yourself, your business colleagues, the IRS, banks, and other investors or potential investors in your business.Perhaps the most immediate and obvious purpose of financial statements is that you need them (the P&L statement in particular) in order to accurately file your tax return (both federal and state) and pay taxes.If you ever want to get a business loan or take on additional investors, you will need to provide accurate financial statements.
Isn't accounting just tracking when you receive and send cash?
For simple businesses, this statement is accurate. But for the vast majority of businesses, tracking cash by itself will not produce accurate financial reports.Let's say you play gigs at venues and allow up to 30 days for customers to provide payment. You could perform gigs for an entire month, rack up expenses for things like equipment and travel, and not receive any cash until the following month. If you produced financial reports for that month on a cash basis, you wouldn't have any revenue (because no cash came in) to report even though you performed a bunch of gigs.Cash basis accounting isn't permitted by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). And generally GAAP is needed for producing financial statements that are ultimately used for things like taxes and business loans.
Do I need to hire a bookkeeper/accountant?
Can't I just do the accounting myself for my business?You absolutely can. More and more banking services offer built-in bookkeeping features that will categorize your transactions. And there are accounting ledger services out there that are built for simplicity.The main issue is that as your business grows, you be will be spending more time and energy on making sure the accounting accurate. And this probably won't be the best use of your time. Additionally, transactions in your business could become more complex and require some genuine accounting knowledge that is best left to a professional.
When is the right time to hire an accountant for my business?
There is no exact science to it. Everyone's business journey will be different. But if you are confident that your business is a real thing that is going to last for a while...then it's probably better to hire an accountant sooner rather than later.If you're business is growing, you probably want to spend your time on things other than fumbling around with debits and credits. You probably want to focus on making more sales, hiring/training/managing employees, and just generally improving your product or service.While hiring an accountant is an additional expense to the business, you are going to be saving money in the long-run. Your time will be freed up to work on more important things. And as your business grows and gets more complex, it becomes critical that you get another pair of eyeballs to review your business transactions and ensure that accurate financial reports are being produced.
Isn't AI going to automate accounting real soon?
AI is only as good as the data being fed to it. As the expression goes, "garbage in, garbage out." An accountant knows how to create accurate financial data from the ground up. Unfortunately, you cannot feed business receipts and bank statements to AI and have it produce financial statements that will hold up to even a modest measure of scrutiny. Maybe one day, but I don't think we're there yet.
Why Should I Hire You?
What is your background?
I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed in Massachusetts (where I was born and raised). I have Master's Degree in Accounting from Boston College. I have 10+ years experience, which includes working at a Big 4 accounting firm and multiple multinational, publicly traded companies. I also have a Data Analytics certificate from Google.
How much does it cost to hire you? What is your hourly rate?
I do not have a set hourly rate. I don't believe in hourly rates - I think it encourages service providers to spend more time working than may otherwise be necessary. I will always strive to provide quality work at a fair price.The complexity of your business really goes a long way towards determining the price. How many transactions does your business do every month? And how complex are the transactions? We would have to discuss factors like these over a phone call. After that, I'd be able to provide a quote for the cost of monthly recurring bookkeeping/accounting services.
What accounting software do you use? QuickBooks Online?
I exclusively use Xero. I am a Xero Certified Advisor. Xero is probably the number one competitor of QuickBooks Online. I believe it is a better product.If you already use Quickbooks Online, we should be able to import your data into Xero without much trouble.
I have a question that isn't listed here.
Cool, shoot me an email - [email protected]
Hello there. My name is Ronnie Micle. I have a Masters degree in Accounting from Boston College and I'm a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Massachusetts since 2015.I've worked previously at a Big 4 accounting firm and multiple multinational, publicly-traded corporations. I left the corporate world to start my own firm and help small business owners.I'm born and raised in Massachusetts. The New England Patriots won their first Super Bowl when I was in sixth grade, so I'm one of the most spoiled sports fans in history.If you are interested in bookkeeping/accounting services, please book a FREE consultation today:
Contact
If'd you like to get in touch with me, see links at the bottom of the page to email me or book a FREE consultation.