Accounting Services
Small business accounting services that turn closed books into decisions.
Updated August 2026
Rubric Financial is the outsourced accounting department for small businesses: a monthly close on a predictable cadence, accrual-basis P&L, balance sheet, and cash-flow statements, departmental reporting, and a monthly review meeting with your accountant, not a PDF dropped in a folder. Every close is CPA-overseen. Headquartered in San Francisco; serving small businesses across the United States.
Fixed monthly fee · one business day response · no per-question billing · same partner every conversation.
Scope
What do our accounting services include?
Bookkeeping records the transactions; accounting is where they become insight. We close your books on a regular schedule, produce GAAP-aligned financial statements, and review the numbers with you so you understand what they mean.
The scope below matches our accounting bucket on the services page, with no surprise exclusions.
Monthly close on a predictable cadence
The month ends and the books close on schedule, so you can plan owner meetings, tax estimates, and lender reporting around a date you can trust.
P&L, balance sheet, and cash-flow statements
A full three-statement package every month, GAAP-aligned and reconciled to source, not just a P&L export.
Accrual-basis accounting and revenue recognition
Prepaids, accrued expenses, and deferred revenue booked so the P&L reflects what you earned and consumed, not just what hit the bank.
Departmental and class-level reporting
Profitability by location, service line, property, or department: the cut of the numbers you actually manage by.
Monthly review meeting with your accountant
A standing working session to walk through the statements, explain variances, and flag decisions worth making. Same accountant, every month.
Process
How does outsourced accounting work at Rubric Financial?
Every engagement follows the same five-step process: scope the work, set up the file, close the month on a predictable cadence, deliver reviewed financial statements, and walk through the numbers together.
The point of the process is predictability: you always know when the statements land, who is working on them, and what happens next.
- 1
Intro call and scoping
We start with a 30-minute call to understand your entity structure, current software, who does the bookkeeping today, and what reporting you actually need. You get a fixed-fee proposal the next business day: no per-question billing, no surprise add-ons.
- 2
Diagnostic and setup
We review the existing file, tighten the chart of accounts, set up class or department tracking where you'll use it, and, if you're moving from cash to accrual, build the accrual conversion (prepaids, accrued expenses, deferred revenue) so month one starts from a clean baseline.
- 3
Monthly close on a predictable cadence
Every month the books are closed on schedule: reconciliations verified, accruals booked, revenue recognized in the period it was earned. If we also run your bookkeeping, the close lands by the fifth business day; if your bookkeeper feeds us, we close on an agreed cadence right behind them.
- 4
Financial statements and variance review
You get an accrual-basis P&L, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement, plus departmental or class-level reporting where it applies. Month-over-month variances are explained in a written management summary, not left for you to decode.
- 5
Monthly review meeting
A 30-to-45-minute working session with your accountant walks through the numbers, answers your questions, and surfaces anything worth acting on: margin drift, spending creep, an estimated-tax adjustment. The meeting is part of the fee, not an add-on.
Accrual vs. cash
Why accrual-basis financials matter
Cash-basis books tell you what hit the bank. Accrual-basis books tell you what you actually earned and what it actually cost, which is the version lenders, partners, and buyers rely on, and the version you can price and plan from.
If you invoice ahead of the work, collect retainers or deposits, carry inventory, or prepay annual expenses, cash-basis margins swing month to month for reasons that have nothing to do with the business. We book prepaids, accrued expenses, and deferred revenue every close so the P&L reflects economic reality, and we handle the cash-to-accrual conversion when you make the switch. Not sure which basis you need? Start with when (and how) to switch from cash to accrual and GAAP vs. cash vs. tax basis.
Payroll
Payroll runs on the same team as the close
Small business payroll for W-2 employees and 1099 contractors, run in Gusto, ADP, or your existing provider. Pay runs land on schedule, federal and state payroll taxes (940, 941, state withholding) file and pay on time, and every payroll journal flows straight into the same monthly close, so the P&L is never waiting on a cost of labor number.
Multi-state hires, contractor onboarding, and year-end W-2 and 1099 issuance are part of the engagement, not add-ons. If you are electing S-corp status, we coordinate reasonable-comp payroll with the tax team so the position is documented and defensible.
- Payroll setup and provider integration (Gusto, ADP, and more)
- Bi-weekly or semi-monthly W-2 pay runs
- Contractor 1099-NEC payments and year-end forms
- Federal and state payroll tax filings (940, 941, state withholding)
- New-hire onboarding and termination workflows
- Multi-state payroll registration and compliance
Built on the monthly close
Accounting is only as good as the close underneath it.
Financial statements built on unreconciled books are fiction with formatting. That's why our accounting work sits on top of a disciplined month-end close: either our own monthly bookkeeping service with its five-business-day close, or your existing bookkeeper's work brought up to the same standard. If you want to see what a tight close looks like, our month-end close checklist and the five-day month-end close guide are the exact playbook we run.
Pricing
Fixed monthly fee. Quoted in writing. No meters running.
Monthly accounting services are scoped explicitly and priced at a fixed monthly fee, with no per-question charges. The fee reflects entity count, transaction volume, and reporting complexity (departments, classes, locations), and whether we're also running your bookkeeping. You get a written proposal the next business day after an intro call, and the fee doesn't change because you asked a question.
Most clients bundle accounting with bookkeeping and tax so one team owns the numbers end to end, and cleanup of prior periods, when needed, is always bid separately so the ongoing price stays transparent.
Fit check
Who is Rubric Financial accounting built for?
We serve small businesses, professional-services partnerships, and high-net-worth individuals, not venture-backed startups. If you sign the checks and answer to yourself, your partners, or your family, you're the client we're built for.
For VC-backed startups (burn analysis, board reporting, cap tables, R&D expense tracking, 409A coordination), use our sister practice StartupCFO.AI. Same firm, same partners, tooling optimized for venture-scale startups.
Small businesses
S-corps, LLCs, and partnerships where the owner reads the P&L every month and prices work off real margins.
Professional-services partnerships
Law firms, medical and dental practices, architecture and design studios: partner-level profitability, WIP, and comp allocation reported correctly.
High-net-worth individuals
Personal balance-sheet tracking, K-1 reconciliation, and entity-level financials for individuals with complex passthroughs.
Real-estate investors
Per-property reporting, depreciation schedules, and accrual-basis statements that lenders and partners can rely on.
Restaurant operators
Multi-location class reporting, food-and-beverage cost tracking, and a close cadence that keeps prime cost visible.
Doctors, lawyers, and dentists
Multi-partner practices with trust accounting, clean monthly statements, and books that feed a tight S-corp return.
The People You'll Work With
Same partner every conversation. Not a rotating team.
Engagements are led directly by a partner. The same person on your kickoff call signs your filings, runs your close meeting, and picks up the phone in July.
Harry Prabandham
Founder & Partner
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Founder of Rubric Financial. Wharton MBA + MS in Computer Science. Decades of experience across finance and technology.
Aparna Devalla, CPA
Partner, Tax & Accounting
Licensed CPA. Decades of experience in U.S. taxation, accounting, and banking. Leads the tax and accounting practice at Rubric Financial.
Nirmala Murugesan, CA, CPA
Partner, Accounting
Partner leading Rubric Financial's accounting practice. CA and CPA with 20+ years across U.S. GAAP, IFRS, and cross-border entity accounting in India and the U.S.
Free tools
Numbers your accounting should be feeding
Every calculator is free, requires no sign-up, and uses the same methodology we apply on real engagements. Clean, current financial statements are the input each of these depends on.
Quarterly Estimated Tax
Safe-harbor federal estimates: the number a current, accurate P&L should be feeding every quarter.
S-Corp Savings
Payroll-tax savings from electing S-corp status, a decision that starts with knowing your real profit.
Audit Risk Assessment
seven-question check. Many common triggers trace back to accounting and reporting hygiene.
More in the calculators and resources libraries.
Glossary
Common accounting terms
Plain-English definitions of the GAAP and month-end-close terms that come up in accrual books, financial statements, and any first-audit conversation.
Accrual Basis Accounting
An accounting method that records revenue when earned and expenses when incurred, regardless of cash timing.
Cash Basis Accounting
An accounting method that records revenue when cash arrives and expenses when cash leaves.
GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)
The U.S. standard set of accounting rules used in audited financial statements, set by FASB and required for most lender, investor, and audit contexts.
EBITDA
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization: a proxy for operating cash generation.
Depreciation
The systematic expensing of a long-lived asset's cost over its useful life.
13-Week Cash Forecast
A weekly projection of cash inflows, outflows, and ending balance over a rolling 13-week period.
ASC 606 (Revenue from Contracts with Customers)
The U.S. accounting standard for recognizing revenue: when to record it, how much, and from which performance obligation. Cash collected before revenue is earned sits on the balance sheet as deferred revenue and releases into revenue as the obligation is satisfied.
ASC 842 (Lease Accounting)
The accounting standard requiring most operating leases to appear on the balance sheet as a right-of-use asset and lease liability.
ASC 718 (Stock Compensation)
The accounting standard for recording expense from stock options, RSUs, ESPPs, and other equity-based compensation.
Burn Rate
The monthly net cash outflow of a business: how much cash leaves the bank each month after collections.
Runway
How many months of operations the business can sustain at the current cash balance and net burn rate.
Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC)
How many days between paying for inputs and receiving cash from customers: Days Inventory + Days Sales Outstanding − Days Payables Outstanding.
What you can count on
Three commitments, written down.
CPA-signed accuracy guarantee
If a return signed by Rubric Financial triggers a math-error notice, we fix it and pay the resulting IRS penalty, subject to your engagement letter's terms. CPA review on every filing.
One-business-day response
Your partner replies within one business day, and there's no per-question fee. Year-round access, not just tax season.
Fee-only, no kickbacks
We don't sell insurance, annuities, or investment products. Our only revenue is your monthly fee. No conflicts.
Frequently Asked
Accounting questions we hear often
- What does outsourced accounting include?
- Outsourced accounting at Rubric Financial includes a monthly close on a predictable cadence, accrual-basis accounting and revenue recognition, a full set of GAAP-aligned financial statements (P&L, balance sheet, cash-flow statement), departmental and class-level reporting where you use it, and a monthly review meeting with your accountant. Every close is CPA-overseen. It replaces the accounting function of a controller-level hire without the full-time salary.
- What's the difference between accounting and bookkeeping?
- Bookkeeping records and reconciles transactions: categorization, bank and credit-card reconciliation, A/P and A/R. Accounting turns those transactions into decision-grade information: closing the month, booking accruals and revenue recognition, producing financial statements, and reviewing what the numbers mean. Most clients engage both from us as one stack; if you already have a bookkeeper you like, our accounting services sit on top of their work.
- Do I need accrual accounting?
- If you invoice ahead of the work, collect deposits or retainers, carry inventory, pay for things annually (insurance, software), or need statements a lender or partner will rely on, accrual accounting is usually the right call; cash-basis books will misstate your margins month to month. If you're a small cash-in, cash-out operation, cash basis can be fine for a while. We help clients pick the right basis and handle the conversion; our guide on cash vs. accrual walks through the decision in detail.
- How much does small business accounting cost?
- Small business accounting services at Rubric Financial are priced as a fixed monthly fee, quoted in writing after a scoping call. The fee scales with entity count, transaction volume, reporting complexity (departments, classes, locations), and whether we're also running your bookkeeping; most clients bundle the two. The fee is all-inclusive of the monthly close, financial statements, and the review meeting, and it doesn't change per question.
- Can you work with my existing bookkeeper?
- Yes. If your bookkeeper keeps the transactions current, we layer the accounting on top: month-end close, accruals, revenue recognition, financial statements, and the monthly review. We coordinate directly with them on cadence and quality, and if the underlying books need work first, we scope a cleanup separately so pricing stays transparent.
- How fast do you close the month?
- When Rubric Financial runs both bookkeeping and accounting, ongoing engagements close by the end of the fifth business day of the following month. When an outside bookkeeper feeds us, we close on an agreed cadence right behind their work. Either way, you know when the statements will be ready and can plan around it.
- Do you handle fixed assets and depreciation?
- Yes. We maintain fixed-asset and book-depreciation schedules as part of the close, so the balance sheet stays accurate as you buy equipment, vehicles, or improvements. Book and tax treatment often differ (for tax purposes, 100% bonus depreciation is permanent under the OBBBA), so our accounting and tax teams coordinate the two rather than leaving you to reconcile them at year-end.
- Is this the right firm for a VC-backed startup?
- No. Rubric Financial's accounting services are purpose-built for small businesses and high-net-worth individuals. If you are venture-backed and need burn analysis, board-pack reporting, cap-table workflows, R&D-credit expense tracking, and 409A coordination, use our sister practice, StartupCFO.AI. Same firm, same partners, tooling optimized for venture-scale startups.
Keep reading
Accrual Basis Accounting
An accounting method that records revenue when earned and expenses when incurred, regardless of cash timing.
GlossaryGAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)
The U.S. standard set of accounting rules used in audited financial statements, set by FASB and required for most lender, investor, and audit contexts.
GlossaryAudit (Financial Statement Audit)
An independent CPA's examination of a company's financial statements, resulting in an opinion on whether they fairly present the business under GAAP.
GlossaryDeferred Revenue
Cash collected before the work is delivered — a liability on the balance sheet that converts to revenue as you perform. Governed by ASC 606, the revenue recognition standard.
GuideAccrual Accounting: When to Switch From Cash Basis
Cash basis is simple but lies about timing. When accrual accounting is required, when it is simply the smarter call, and exactly how the switch works.
GuideMonth-End Close Checklist for Small Businesses
A repeatable monthly close cadence, what to reconcile, what to accrue, and how to know your books are actually done.
One integrated firm
Bookkeeping
Monthly categorization, reconciliation, and a five-day close, the foundation the accounting sits on.
Tax
Federal, state, multi-state, sales, and cross-border tax filings, CPA-signed. Accrual books feed clean returns.
Fractional CFO
Cash-flow planning, owner and lender reporting, pricing and margin work, all built on top of the same monthly close.
All services
Bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, tax, FP&A, fractional CFO, valuation, and cross-border tax under one partner-led roof.
Ready for accounting you can run the business on?
Tell us about your entity, your software, and who does the bookkeeping today. We'll scope the monthly accounting, quote a fixed fee the next business day, and put a CPA-overseen close behind every statement you rely on.