The operating account, the tax account and the card have not been matched since spring. That is where most owners in Houston start with us, and it is fixable in one month.
Close this month
The month is finished when every account matches the bank, and we keep that close with Steven Palmieri.
Begin with the bank activity and the newest month the statement already matches. That is enough to begin. You do not need every older month polished before you write. We will tell you which statements are missing and which ones can wait.
An owner in Houston often has the operating account, a tax account, and a card that nobody has matched since spring. Those three are the start. The rest of the chart follows once those balances agree.
We reconcile each account to the bank before we call the month finished. Deposits are named. Payments are named. A transfer between your own accounts is neither income nor a cost. When the cash figure matches the statement, the month can close.
The present month is managed while you still remember it. The past is cleaned up only where the bank and the books still disagree. A perfect history from years ago is not the price of a useful close this month.
You get financial statements and a short report from the closed month. The report is something you can hand to yourself, a partner, or a lender who asked to see the numbers. It is not a signed opinion. If a letter asks for a signature we do not give, that request is named on the first call and the limit sits on the Disclosures page.
A figure that still disagrees with the bank stays written beside the total in that same report, so you can see the open item instead of a page that only looks finished. We name the mismatch in the note you read, rather than folding it into a total that looks tidy and is not.
Payroll can be put on a provider you run after the setup. The provider stays in your name. After that opening, running payday is your job. We do not run payday and we do not pull the tax deposits out of your account.
If payday is already running, the close simply checks that the wages in the books match what the provider already paid. A mismatch is a reconciliation, not a new payroll system.
A sale inside the city often carries the state row, the city row, and the Houston METRO row. Those rows belong in the books before the sales tax date, not as a surprise after the month looks closed. The county itself does not stack another sales-tax row on the Houston METRO piece, which is why the books show the city and METRO and then stop.
We are all Texans, so Third Ward, east of the Texas Medical Center, and the Ship Channel are places we can all place on a map. An owner in either spot sends the same bank activity. The close does not change because the shop sits near a campus or near the water. Families also plan around the Houston ISD calendar, and a shop that slows when school starts still has to close that month.
The first close is slower than the ones after it. We are learning which deposits are sales, which are loan draws, and which are transfers. You will answer a short list of questions in plain words. After that, the monthly close is a rhythm you can expect.
The year to look toward is a stack of months you trust, so the return is a reading of the books and not a reconstruction in the spring.
Price waits until we have seen the month. Sales volume moves it, and so does how far behind the books are. We name the figure before any work starts, and a cleanup of older months is named on its own. A made up fee before that look is not how we start.
July matters because the year can still be changed. A question saved until March is a question asked late. The practice that closed the spring months is the one that can still talk about owner pay, a truck, or a slow quarter while those choices exist.
You do not need a long engagement before the first note. Send the newest month you trust. We will say what is missing, and we will say if the work is a fit.
A month is finished only when three things are true together. The cash in the books matches the bank. Cards and loans match the statements from those accounts. Nothing is still sitting in a holding account that nobody has named. A tidy total with one of those still open is not a finished month.
We close while the deposits are still fresh enough to name. A year of those finished months is what makes an autumn decision real, because the number in front of you already agrees with the bank. We would rather close one honest month than present a calm total that still has a card waiting.
Name the newest month that already agrees with the bank.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.