Bookkeeping Services
Monthly books you can actually run the business on.
Updated August 2026
Rubric Financial closes small-business books by the fifth business day of every month, in QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books. Every close is CPA-overseen, feeds a full set of GAAP-aligned financial statements, and comes with a review meeting, not a PDF dropped in a folder. Headquartered in San Francisco; serving businesses across the United States.
Fixed monthly fee · one business day response · no per-question billing · same partner every conversation.
Process
What does monthly bookkeeping actually look like?
A predictable five-business-day close cycle. The month ends, feeds pull, transactions get categorized and reconciled, financials get drafted and reviewed, and you get closed books plus a working review meeting by end of day five.
The point of the cadence is predictability, you know when the numbers will be ready, and you can plan meetings, tax estimates, and lender reporting around it.
- 1
Day 1
Feed pull and completeness check
Bank feeds, credit-card feeds, payment-processor feeds (Stripe, Square, PayPal), and payroll journal entries are pulled and reconciled to source statements. Missing transactions are flagged before categorization begins.
- 2
Day 2
Categorization and coding
Every transaction is coded to your chart of accounts with class or location tracking where you use it. We chase down the vendor detail on anything ambiguous rather than dumping it into 'Miscellaneous'.
- 3
Day 3
Reconciliation and accruals
Every bank, credit card, loan, and merchant-processor account is reconciled to statement. Prepaids, accrued expenses, and deferred revenue are booked so the P&L reflects economic reality, not just cash movement.
- 4
Day 4
Financial statements and review
P&L, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement are drafted, month-over-month variances are explained, and your accountant reviews everything before it goes to you.
- 5
Day 5
Delivery and review meeting
You get the closed month by end of the fifth business day, along with a written management summary. A monthly review meeting (30 to 45 minutes) walks through the numbers and surfaces anything worth acting on.
Software
What accounting software do we work in?
We work in the software you already use, QuickBooks Online is our default, and Xero and Zoho Books are also supported. No forced migration.
If you're still choosing between platforms, the short version: QuickBooks for most U.S. small businesses; Xero for cleaner multi-currency and more flexible bank rules; Zoho for the Zoho ecosystem or U.S.–India operations. Detailed head-to-heads are in the compare and resources libraries.
QuickBooks Online
Our default. Certified ProAdvisors. Best fit for most small businesses in the US, broad ecosystem, wide app-marketplace, easy handoff between firms.
Xero
Certified Xero Partner. Preferred by clients with international exposure, cleaner multi-currency support, and better bank-rule flexibility than QuickBooks.
Zoho Books
Strong fit for owners already in the Zoho suite (CRM, Inventory, Books) or clients with U.S.–India operations who want a single vendor across both sides.
Cleanup & catch-up
Books are behind? We rebuild them, clean, on a fixed fee.
Bookkeeping cleanup engagements are scoped as a fixed one-time fee, separate from ongoing monthly work, so pricing is transparent. Typical scope is six to 24 prior months, but we'll rebuild back further if there's a real reason (open notice, sale of the business, partnership buyout, or an IRS response).
Diagnostic on the current file
We open the existing QuickBooks, Xero, or Zoho Books file, run trial balances, reconcile major accounts to statement, and produce a written punch-list of what is broken.
Fixed-fee scope in writing
You get a one-page scope with the periods, accounts, and deliverables covered, and a fixed fee. No billing surprises.
Rebuild to a clean opening balance
We rebuild the chart of accounts, correct opening balances, re-reconcile bank and card accounts, and re-categorize prior-period activity.
Handoff to ongoing monthly bookkeeping
Cleaned books hand off directly into the standard five-day monthly close, so you do not have to switch teams or restart the relationship.
Fit check
Who is Rubric Financial bookkeeping 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, from solo shops to established teams.
Professional-services partnerships
Law firms, medical and dental practices, architecture and design studios, trust accounting, WIP tracking, and partner-comp allocation handled correctly.
High-net-worth individuals
Personal balance-sheet tracking, K-1 reconciliation, and rental-property books for individuals with complex passthroughs.
Real-estate investors
Per-property class tracking, mortgage amortization, depreciation schedules, and K-1 workpapers for syndications and partnerships.
Restaurant operators
Daily-sales journal entries, POS integration, tip accounting, food-and-beverage cost tracking, and multi-location class reporting.
Doctors, lawyers, and dentists
Multi-partner practices, IOLTA/trust-account reconciliation, and clean 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 & guides
Sanity-check the numbers before you engage
Every calculator is free, requires no sign-up, and uses the same methodology we apply on real engagements. If your books are clean, these are the first numbers you should be generating from them.
S-Corp Savings
Payroll-tax savings from electing S-corp status, net of the payroll overhead your bookkeeper will run.
Quarterly Estimated Tax
Safe-harbor federal estimates from clean books, the number your bookkeeper's P&L should be feeding.
QBI Deduction
Section 199A pass-through deduction, sensitive to how the P&L classifies owner comp and pass-through activity.
Self-Employment Tax
Schedule SE math for sole props and single-member LLCs.
Audit Risk Assessment
seven-question check, a lot of common triggers are bookkeeping hygiene issues.
More in the calculators and resources libraries.
Glossary
Common bookkeeping and accounting terms
Plain-English definitions of the terms that show up in the general ledger, on financial statements, and in most bookkeeping conversations.
1099-NEC
IRS form used to report payments to non-employee contractors and freelancers.
W-2
IRS form reporting wages, tips, and tax withholding for employees.
FICA (Social Security & Medicare Tax)
Federal payroll taxes funding Social Security and Medicare, split between employer and employee.
FUTA (Federal Unemployment Tax)
Federal unemployment insurance tax paid by employers, separate from FICA.
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.
Depreciation
The systematic expensing of a long-lived asset's cost over its useful life.
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.
1099-NEC vs 1099-MISC
1099-NEC reports payments to independent contractors for services; 1099-MISC covers other payments like rent, royalties, prizes, and legal settlements.
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
Bookkeeping questions we hear often
- What's included in monthly bookkeeping?
- Monthly bookkeeping at Rubric Financial includes bank and credit-card reconciliation, payment-processor and payroll journal entries, transaction categorization to your chart of accounts, A/P and A/R support, and a full set of GAAP-aligned financial statements (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow). Every close is CPA-overseen. 1099 preparation is included at year-end.
- How much does small business bookkeeping cost?
- Bookkeeping is fixed monthly fee, quoted after a scoping call. Pricing depends on transaction volume, account count, revenue model complexity, and how many entities we're running. The fee is transparent, all-inclusive of month-end close and financials, and doesn't change per question.
- What accounting software do you work in?
- QuickBooks Online is our default, and we're Certified ProAdvisors. We also run Xero (Certified Partner) and Zoho Books (strong fit for clients already in the Zoho ecosystem or with U.S.–India operations). We do not force a migration if your existing file is workable.
- How fast can you close the month?
- Ongoing engagements close by the end of the fifth business day of the following month. Cleanup engagements or first-time closes take longer during the ramp-up while we reconcile prior periods, but the five-day cadence is the ongoing standard.
- How does cleanup or catch-up bookkeeping work?
- Cleanup is scoped as a fixed one-time engagement, separate from monthly work, so pricing stays transparent. We start with a diagnostic on the current file (chart of accounts, opening balances, reconciliations), agree on scope in writing, rebuild the books to a clean opening balance, and hand off to monthly bookkeeping on the standard cadence. Typical cleanup covers six to 24 prior months.
- Do you handle payroll and sales tax alongside bookkeeping?
- Yes, bookkeeping, payroll, and sales-tax filings share one team here. We run payroll in Gusto, ADP, or your existing provider; we file monthly, quarterly, or annual sales tax as the states require; and both feed clean journal entries into your books. See the full stack on the services page.
- I already have a bookkeeper for my business. Do I have to switch?
- Not unless you want to. Many clients start with just tax and expand into bookkeeping later, or ask us to run parallel books for a month before switching. We can also just handle the pieces your current bookkeeper doesn't (accrual conversion, monthly close, or multi-entity consolidations), and stay coordinated.
- Is this the right firm for a VC-backed startup?
- No. Rubric Financial is purpose-built for small businesses and high-net-worth individuals. If you are venture-backed and need R&D-credit expense tracking, 409A coordination, cap-table workflows, board-pack reporting, and burn analysis, use our sister practice, StartupCFO.AI. Same firm, same partners, tooling optimized for venture-scale startups.
Keep reading
1099-NEC
IRS form used to report payments to non-employee contractors and freelancers.
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.
Glossary1099-NEC vs 1099-MISC
1099-NEC reports payments to independent contractors for services; 1099-MISC covers other payments like rent, royalties, prizes, and legal settlements.
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.
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.
GuideContractor (1099) vs. Employee (W-2): The IRS Test
Misclassifying employees as contractors is one of the most common (and most expensive) small business mistakes. Here's how the IRS decides.
One integrated firm
Tax
Federal, state, multi-state, sales, and cross-border tax filings, CPA-signed. Clean books feed clean returns.
Fractional CFO
Cash-flow planning, owner and lender reporting, pricing and margin work, M&A and exit prep, 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 to get your books right?
Tell us about your entity, your software, and how far behind (or not) the books are. We'll scope monthly work, quote a fixed fee the next business day, and (if there's cleanup), bid it separately so the price is transparent.