Bookkeeping · Redding, CA
Clean books every month, without the spreadsheet anxiety.
- CA License #96754
- Flat monthly fee — no surprises
- CA License #96754
- Flat monthly fee — no surprises
- Serving Shasta County since 2007
RB
Redding Business Owner
Before Susan
Before
Q4 books reconciled
Missing
Tax estimate ready
Unknown
Cash position
Guessing
P&L current
3 months behind
After Susan
Books closed on time
The reality
Bookkeeping chaos is real. It doesn’t have to be yours.
- DIY in a spreadsheet. Works until growth makes it impossible. Then the books are a year behind and nobody knows what anything costs.
- Software you never fully set up. QuickBooks or Wave with a chart of accounts that doesn’t match your business. Reports that look like numbers but don’t mean anything.
- A bookkeeper who files, doesn’t advise. The entries get made, but nobody tells you your margins are shrinking or your tax bill is coming. You find out in April.
30+
Years in accounting
2007
Licensed CPA
100%
Worked directly with Susan
What bad books actually cost
- Missed deductions you didn’t know to take
- Tax surprises that could have been planned for
- Bank loan denied because P&L wasn’t clean
- Hours spent each month on something you shouldn’t be doing
- IRS penalties from missing payroll filings or misclassified expenses
“The bookkeeping fee is almost always less than the first deduction we find.”
What’s included
Books that are clean, current, and actually useful.
- Monthly reconciliation of bank accounts, credit cards, and merchant processors so the books match reality.
- Transaction categorization coded to a chart of accounts that makes sense for your industry — not generic buckets.
- Monthly P&L and balance sheet delivered with a short note from Susan on what changed and why it matters.
- Catch-up bookkeeping if you’re months or years behind — rebuilt cleanly, not patched over with journal entries.
- Tax-ready books that eliminate the April scramble — no emergency cleanups, no retroactive reconciliation.
- QuickBooks Online or Desktop — whichever your business already runs on. Susan works in both.
- Direct access to ask questions between monthly closings. No ticket queue, no junior contact.
What bad books actually cost
- Small business owners doing their own books and falling behind
- Growing companies that need monthly numbers they can actually trust
- Owners switching CPAs and inheriting messy books from a previous provider
- Businesses with multiple accounts, card types, or income streams
What it’s not
Software
QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Desktop
Three ways to work together. One clear monthly fee.
Full-service
Susan handles everything
You hand over read-only access to your accounts. Susan reconciles, categorizes, closes each month, and delivers your reports. You review and move on.
- Monthly reconciliation & close
- P&L + balance sheet delivered
- Tax-ready all year
- Questions answered directly
Most common
Catch-up + ongoing
- Retroactive cleanup by month
- Reconciled from statements
- Smooth handoff to ongoing
- One consistent CPA throughout
Supported in-house
You or your staff does day-to-day
- QuickBooks training + setup
- Quarterly or monthly review
- Catch issues before tax time
- On-call support for questions
All engagements are priced at a flat monthly fee agreed on before you sign anything. No hourly billing, no scope creep charges, no fee for answering an email.
Why a licensed CPA
The difference between data entry and real bookkeeping.
A lot of bookkeepers enter transactions accurately. Fewer understand what the entries mean, catch problems before they compound, or know how the books connect to your tax return. Susan does all three — because she’s a licensed CPA, not just a bookkeeper.
She signs tax returns too
When the same CPA handles your books and your taxes, the return reflects how the year actually went. No handoff errors, no year-end scramble to explain your own numbers to a stranger.
She notices things a bookkeeper won’t
Margins compressing. A category that’s been wrong for two years. A payroll filing that’s about to be late. Trained CPA eyes catch what automated categorization doesn’t.
She can represent you before the IRS
If a notice arrives or an audit is opened, Susan can respond on your behalf. A bookkeeper or unlicensed preparer legally cannot. That protection is built into the relationship from day one.
You always talk to Susan
This is a one-CPA practice on purpose. There’s no account manager who passes questions to a junior staff member. You call or email Susan — and she answers.
Flat-fee pricing
No surprises. No hourly clock.
Monthly retainer
Fixed fee based on transaction volume and complexity. Agreed before you start.
Catch-up bookkeeping
One-time project fee for getting behind books current. Priced after a quick review.
No hourly billing
Answering a question doesn’t cost extra. That’s the whole point of a flat fee.
How it works, from first call to clean books.
01
She signs tax returns too
When the same CPA handles your books and your taxes, the return reflects how the year actually went. No handoff errors, no year-end scramble to explain your own numbers to a stranger.
02
A written scope and flat fee
Within a few days you receive a written proposal: what’s included, what the monthly fee is, and (if needed) what the catch-up project would cost. One number. No hourly rate to track.
03
Cleanup and setup
Susan gets read-only access to your accounts, brings the books current from source documents, and flags any issues worth knowing about. Most cleanups take two to four weeks depending on how far back the books need to go.
04
Ongoing monthly close
Every month: reconciliation done, reports delivered, short note on what changed. Tax season arrives and there’s nothing to catch up on. You stop thinking about the books and get back to the business.
Common questions about bookkeeping with Susan.
My books are months (or years) behind. Can you fix that?
Yes — catch-up bookkeeping is one of the most common first engagements. Susan reconstructs the books cleanly from bank statements and source documents rather than patching with adjusting entries, so the result is actually usable going forward. The catch-up is priced as a separate project, then transitions to a monthly retainer.
How is pricing structured?
All bookkeeping engagements are priced at a flat monthly fee agreed on before you sign anything. The fee is based on transaction volume, number of accounts, and complexity. You won’t receive an invoice that changed because you asked an extra question. Catch-up projects are priced separately as a one-time fee.
Do I need to use QuickBooks?
Susan primarily works in QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. If you’re already on one of those, nothing needs to change. If you’re on something else, ask — it’s usually workable. If you don’t have any software set up yet, Susan can recommend and set up the right one for your business.
Will I be working with Susan, or with staff?
With Susan, directly. This is a solo CPA practice. There is no junior bookkeeper, no outsourced team, no account manager who passes your questions along. Susan does the work and is the contact.
What if I just need bookkeeping, not taxes?
Bookkeeping-only engagements are completely fine. Many clients start with monthly books and add tax prep later when it makes sense. If you have a tax preparer you already trust, Susan can keep the books clean and hand off a tidy set of records to them at year-end.
Do I have to be local to Redding?
No. Susan serves clients in-person across Shasta County — Redding, Anderson, Shasta Lake, Palo Cedro, Cottonwood — and works virtually with small business owners across California. Most ongoing bookkeeping happens remotely anyway: shared access to accounts, monthly report delivery by email, questions by phone or video.
