Small Business CPA Austin AlternativeBooks closed and the return prepared.
We keep the books current, set payroll up with a provider you still run, and Steven Palmieri, Tax CFO, the Entrepreneur's CFO, prepares the return from those closed months.
Open a books talk
The month as it stands.
Name the company and whether last month already matches the bank.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.
The month gets closed.
The dusk when bats leave the Congress Avenue Bridge is a Texas hour anyone in the state can picture. When that hour passes, a company in Austin still has a month to close, and we put the close on a day we name together.
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The return follows.
A fall Saturday at the stadium on the University of Texas campus is a feeling the whole state borrows. The return we prepare still has to agree with the months already closed, roar or no roar.
Click to see the return ›Tap to see the return ›Payroll is set up.
We set payroll up with a provider you keep running. We do not run payday.
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The taxes still come.
Barton Springs stays cool in the kind of August that will not quit, and Texans pass that fact around like a cold drink. Sales tax for a shop in Austin is still due on the 20th, and we keep that date on the month.
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One company is enough.
Being told a company is too small is a rotten afternoon. One company in Austin is already a full close for us. Size never shows up on these pages as a hurdle.
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A person answers.
For a couple of weeks in December, Zilker goes bright and the city treats the park like a living room. We treat that same stretch as the last open door on the year, when a bonus and a purchase can still be chosen.
Click to see who answers ›Tap to see who answers ›Six months, one company.
Open a month on this line. It names what one company in Austin usually owes in that stretch.
1January
Vendor forms come due for people a company in Austin actually paid, and the prior year is still open until those forms and the return agree.
We build the vendor list from the closed months. You confirm the amounts. Nothing is filed on a guess.
2April
The company return is usually in this stretch, and the first estimate of the new year sits beside it if the year looks profitable.
What you sign in April is a reading of months already reconciled. Your signature stays on the lines that belong to you.
3May
Mid May is when the Comptroller expects the franchise filing for a company in Austin. Even a year under the no tax due line can still owe that short public information sheet.
Figures on that May filing come from the year we already finished. Your company name is the one printed on it.
4June
Another estimate often shows up, and a thirteen week look at cash shows whether a slow August is already sitting in the bills.
We build that view from the bank and the bills you already know. You decide what can wait.
5September
A fall estimate is common, and sales tax for a shop in Austin is still due on the 20th of the month it belongs to.
We keep the 20th next to the estimate. You approve the payment before it leaves.
6December
Zilker is bright for a couple of weeks, and a bonus or a purchase can still change the year if it is decided before the year closes.
We name the choice while the year is open. You pick. The books then match the pick.
Steven Palmieri, Tax CFO.
Steven Palmieri answers under the name the Entrepreneur's CFO. Dallas is where we sit, and owners in Austin join the work on a video call. Whichever city the company is in, the close still lands on the named day.
How a month earns the word closed
A month is closed when the bank and the books tell the same story. Deposits that hit the account are in the books. Checks that cleared are in the books. What is still open has a name, a reason, and a person who will clear it. We write that reason in plain words so the next month does not inherit a mystery. A feed that quietly dropped a transfer is not a closed month, and we say so before anyone calls the month done.
The statements that come out of that work are ones you can read without us sitting beside you. Profit, cash, and what the company owes are three different ideas, and a good month shows all three. If they disagree, the disagreement is the thing we talk about, not a number we smooth over.
We do this for one company at a time. The close has a day on the calendar. That day does not move because a week got busy, and it does not get smaller because the company has one location instead of ten. A holiday week does not move it either.
Cash, thirteen weeks out
Owners in Austin feel a slow week before the books do. A thirteen week view is how we get ahead of that feeling. It is the bank balance you have, the bills you already know, the payroll the provider will run, and the tax payments that have a date. We lay those weeks in a row so a thin week is visible while there is still time to move something.
The view is a planning sheet. It is not a promise that customers will pay on the day you hope. When a customer slips, the sheet changes and the next conversation starts from the new sheet, not from the old hope.
The return uses the closed year
A year gets a return only after every month in it has been matched to the bank. An open month holds the filing back. Guessing at a year and patching it later is how a letter from the state starts. We would rather finish the open months first, even when the filing then goes in a little later and cleaner.
Estimated payments, when the year looks profitable, often fall in April, June, September, and January. Those months can shift with the form for the year you are in, so we read that form before we treat a date as fixed. A truck, a leasehold, or a build-out does not always land on the books in one gulp. Part of the cost can come off across the years the thing is used, and the books and the return have to tell that story the same way.
What we will not pretend to sign
Some lenders ask for a signed cover called an audit, a review, or a compilation. That cover leaves this practice. On the opening conversation we name a firm allowed to put the signature down, and we keep the monthly file ready so their team is not starting from a shoebox.
Payroll setup means the registrations, the provider you choose, and a map of what gets filed. The provider you run sends the pay. We do not run payday. When a letter only wants copies of what we already keep, we send those copies. A formal examination is a different job and we leave it alone.
Send the loose ends.
Tell us if the books still have loose ends. We finish those loose ends before a fresh month is added on top.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.