bookkeeping, close, reporting
Accrual-based books, a disciplined monthly close, and financial statements you can run the business from. Controller-led, starting at $795 a month.
The Basics
Bookkeeping records transactions. Accounting turns that record into financial statements that tell you what's actually happening in the business, including what you've earned and what you owe, and not only what moved through the bank account.
VantagePoint's accounting service covers both, and it doesn't stop at closing the books. A team of accountants handles the day-to-day recording, reconciliations, payables, and receivables, and a Controller reviews and signs off on every monthly close. What you receive each month is a P&L, a balance sheet, and a statement of cash flows, built on an accrual basis and a GAAP framework and structured the way lenders, investors, and your own leadership team need to read them.
Controller-Led
The reviewer with authority over your engagement. A Controller reviews and signs off on the financial statements and the month-end close, makes the accounting policy calls, oversees internal controls, and leads your review meetings. One is on every engagement, and a Senior Controller is brought in for matters such as multi-entity consolidation or technical questions like revenue recognition and lease accounting.
The people who run the close. Senior Staff Accountants lead the month-end procedures, prepare the draft financial statements, handle complex journal entries and technical accruals, and supervise the staff accountants working in your books.
The day-to-day work in your books: recording transactions, reconciling bank and card accounts, coding expenses, running payables and receivables, and coordinating with your payroll provider. Everything they do is reviewed before it reaches your statements.
Bookkeeping works fine until it doesn't. Here's when businesses typically make the move.
What's Included
The scope is set to what your business needs, and it's written down before any work begins.
Recording transactions, posting journal entries, reconciling bank and credit card accounts every month, booking accruals and deferrals, and keeping the fixed asset register current.
Entering vendor bills and preparing payment runs for your approval, invoicing customers, applying cash, and producing aging reports so you know who owes you and who you owe.
A month-end close run from a checklist and a tied-out trial balance, then a P&L, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows, delivered within 15 business days of receiving your month-end documents.
Keeping payroll journals from your payroll provider, reconciling payroll tax liabilities to the general ledger, and helping prepare year-end 1099s. Your provider still runs the payroll itself.
Designing and maintaining a chart of accounts that reflects how your business actually operates, keeping your accounting platform in good order, and connecting the tools around it, such as payroll and bill pay.
When the business needs a new inventory, bill-pay, or expense management system, we can lead or support the rollout, from choosing the tool to configuring the integration and training your team. These are scoped and priced separately as projects.
Most charts of accounts were set up once, years ago, by whoever installed the software. But the structure of your accounts, and the consistency of your customer, vendor, and product records, decides what your numbers can tell you, whether a person is reading them or an AI tool is. We treat that structure as infrastructure. Set up well, it lets you see margin by product, channel, or location without rebuilding a spreadsheet every month, and it gives any reporting or AI tool you add later clean data to work from.
How It Works
The close is a routine, and a good one is predictable. You know what we need from you, when, and what you get back.
We talk through how your books are kept today and what you need from them. If basic bookkeeping would serve you fine, or you need something we don't do, we'll say so.
No costWe get access to your accounting platform and accounts, review the chart of accounts, and agree on the policies that keep the books consistent, such as how expenses and fixed assets are handled. We work in QuickBooks Online by preference and take on other platforms case by case.
Getting the foundation rightTransactions are reviewed weekly where possible rather than saved for the end. After month-end we reconcile, post accruals, and run the close checklist, and a Controller signs off before the statements go to you.
Every monthWe walk through the numbers with you, clear up open transactions, and flag what's changed. The cadence is set to how closely you want to follow the books.
Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthlyFrequently Asked Questions
Bookkeeping records financial transactions: income, expenses, and payments received. Accounting takes that data and turns it into structured financial statements: P&L, balance sheet, cash flow statement. Accounting applies GAAP principles, recognizes revenue on an accrual basis, and produces reports that lenders, investors, and boards rely on to evaluate your business.
GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) is the standard framework for financial reporting in the United States. GAAP-based accounting means your financial statements are prepared on an accrual basis using consistent methods that lenders and investors expect to see. If your business is seeking bank financing or outside investment, financials built on a GAAP framework are what the other side will ask for.
Our books are accrual-based and built on a GAAP framework, because that's what shows whether the business is actually profitable. For a smaller business, strict accrual treatment of every item isn't always practical or worth what it costs, so we agree with you at the start where a simpler treatment makes sense. If a lender, investor, or buyer needs strict GAAP financials, tell us and we scope the engagement that way.
The trigger is usually one of three things: your lender or investor asks for accrual-based financials, your business has grown complex enough that cash-basis reporting no longer tells the full story, or you’re preparing for a fundraise, acquisition, or audit. The earlier you make the switch, the less cleanup is required when it matters most.
We don't prepare tax returns, and we don't perform audits, reviews, or compilations. Those belong to a CPA firm, and we work alongside the one you use. We coordinate with your payroll provider rather than running payroll ourselves. Forecasting, financial modeling, and pricing work sit outside accounting too, and they're available through our Fractional Finance and consulting services.
Engagements start at $795 a month. The fee reflects the hours the work takes and the mix of team members doing it, with a monthly minimum agreed in writing before work begins. If a month looks like it will run meaningfully over what we projected, we tell you and get your approval before continuing.
Yes, and many of our accounting clients add Fractional Finance as the business grows. Because the team already knows your books, there's very little to re-explain, and the two engagements are built to work together. Accounting keeps the record accurate and current, and Fractional Finance uses it for forecasting, planning, and the decisions in front of you.
