Full-Cycle Bookkeeping
Daily and weekly transaction coding, vendor management, and expense categorization — the foundation everything else is built on.
Outsourced Accounting
Outsourced accounting —
your whole back office, handled.
Clean books every month, statements you can actually use, and a team that never calls in sick. Tristan CPA is your full outsourced accounting department — from daily transactions to the monthly close.
- Monthly closes completed
- 0+
- Avg. days to close
- 0
- Client retention rate
- 0%
What's included
Everything your books need —
nothing you don't.
Every engagement includes the full stack: the daily work, the monthly close, the oversight layer, and the reporting you can run the business on. No piecemeal services, no nickel-and-diming.
Monthly Close by Day 15
Books reconciled and closed by day 15, every month, without fail. No chasing us, no surprises, no year-end scramble to figure out what happened in March.
Financial Statements
P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement delivered monthly in plain language — with a brief summary of what the numbers mean for the business.
Payroll Coordination
Payroll processing oversight and journal entry coordination — so payroll is recorded correctly and your books reflect the real cost of labor.
KPI Scorecard — Level 1
Your financial vital signs delivered monthly: revenue, gross margin, net margin, and cash position — a dashboard alongside your statements.
Tax-Ready Books
Year-end close coordinated directly with your tax return. No reconciling two sets of numbers in March — we hand off clean, organized records.
Who it's for
Right for you if the books are slowing you down.
Most clients find us when something's already urgent — a lender asking for statements, a tax season with messy books, an owner who's been doing the books themselves at midnight. We start wherever you are.
A good fit if you…
- Are spending hours on the books yourself when you should be running the business
- Have a bookkeeper but no one reviewing their work — and you're not sure the numbers are right
- Get your financials two or three months late, or not at all
- Head into tax season every year without clean, reconciled books
- Need a lender, investor, or buyer to trust your numbers
- Run a $1M–$10M business and want big-firm quality without big-firm overhead
Probably not the right fit if you…
- Need an on-site bookkeeper physically in your office every day
- Already have a strong, full-time internal accounting team you want to keep
- Are a solo freelancer with fewer than 100 transactions a month
- Need a one-time cleanup with no ongoing relationship
Not sure if this is the right level? Start with a free consultation — we'll be honest about what fits and what doesn't.
Book a free consultationThe real comparison
Cheaper than hiring —
and we'll show our work.
Every firm claims outsourcing costs less than a hire. Almost none of them publish the arithmetic. Here it is, against a senior accountant rather than a bookkeeper — because a bookkeeper doesn't close your month, build your statements or review anything, and pretending otherwise would flatter us.
| Annual cost | Senior accountant, in-house | Growth tier |
|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $83,890 — the US average for a senior accountant as of September 2026 | $30,000 |
| Payroll tax & benefits | Add roughly 30–40% — FICA, unemployment, health, retirement | Included |
| Software seats | $600–$1,800 for the ledger, payroll and document tools | Included |
| Cover for holiday, sickness, notice | You, or nobody — and a senior accountant takes months to replace | Included |
| A second set of eyes | None. One person checking their own work; if they miss it, it ships | Controller + CPA review |
| Realistic all-in | $110,000–$119,000 | $30,000 |
The honest caveat: this sets a full-time hire against a service sized to what a $1M–$10M business actually needs. If your volume genuinely requires someone at a desk full time — heavy transaction counts, real inventory, several entities — then hire, and we'll say so on the call. Where this comparison holds is when you need senior-level work without carrying a senior-level headcount to get it. If you're still working out whether to outsource at all, our guide to outsourcing your bookkeeping covers the costs, the questions to ask any provider, and how to run the handover without losing a month. Firms that sell time rather than product — law practices, agencies, consultancies — have their own version of this problem, covered on professional services accounting.
How it works
A predictable rhythm —
every single month.
We don't just take over the books — we build a process you can count on from day one.
-
Onboarding & cleanup
We review access, clean up history, and set up the chart of accounts correctly. The foundation gets fixed before recurring work begins — so everything built on top of it is solid.
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Monthly close rhythm
Books close by day 15. Financial statements and your KPI scorecard land in your inbox. Your accountant is available for questions — no waiting until year-end to find out something went sideways.
-
Year-round advisory
We coordinate with your tax prep, flag issues before they become problems, and communicate proactively. You're never the last to know when something changes in your numbers.
"We work hard and smart, doing what we love, so our clients can focus on what they love too."
— The Tristan CPA mission
Pricing
Clear packages —
no hourly surprises.
Outsourced accounting is the foundation of every Tristan CPA engagement. Most businesses start with Foundation and grow into Growth as they add controller oversight.
Foundation
Clean books, clear picture
from$750/mo
For newer or simpler operations that need reliable, compliant books and a true picture of where they stand.
- Full-cycle outsourced accounting & monthly close
- Monthly financial statements
- Level 1 KPI scorecard
- Annual business & owner tax return
- Accountant + CPA review
Growth
Numbers that drive decisions
from$2,500/mo
For $1M–$10M businesses that want controller oversight, a budget to run against, and monthly clarity — not quarterly hindsight.
- Everything in Foundation
- Fractional Controller oversight
- Annual budget + monthly budget-vs-actual
- Level 2 KPI scorecard
- Monthly checkup call with your accountant
Frequently asked
Questions we hear all the time.
- What does outsourced accounting actually include?
- Full-cycle bookkeeping, monthly bank and credit card reconciliations, monthly close by day 15, financial statement preparation (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow), payroll coordination, and a monthly KPI scorecard — all reviewed by a senior accountant and overseen by a CPA-Controller. No piecemeal services, no hand-offs to junior staff working unsupervised.
- What accounting software do you work in?
- We primarily work in QuickBooks Online — it's cloud-based, so you have full, real-time visibility alongside us. If you're already set up in a different platform, we'll assess it at onboarding and give you a clear recommendation.
- What if my books are a mess or months behind?
- This is the most common situation we walk into — you're in good company. We start every engagement with a diagnostic review. If there's a backlog or cleanup needed, we scope it separately and give you a clear picture of the timeline and cost before any recurring work begins.
- Do you work with businesses outside of Texas?
- Yes — Tristan CPA is a fully remote firm serving clients nationwide. We work in the cloud and communicate by video, phone, and email. Your location is never a barrier.
- What's the difference between outsourced accounting and hiring a bookkeeper?
- A bookkeeper records transactions. Outsourced accounting adds controller-level oversight, monthly close management, financial statement preparation, and proactive advisory — the layer that turns raw data into reporting you can actually run the business on. You also get a full team, not dependence on a single person.
- How much does outsourced accounting cost?
- Ours starts at $750 a month for Foundation and $2,500 for Growth, which adds controller oversight and a budget to run against. Across the market you'll see anything from a few hundred a month for transaction-only bookkeeping to several thousand for a full finance function — the spread is mostly about whether anyone senior reviews the work and whether the close lands on a date you can plan around. Ask any firm you're comparing what happens if the close is late, and whether the price changes when your transaction volume does.
- Who has access to my bank accounts, and is my data safe?
- We work from read-only bank feeds wherever the bank supports them — we can see transactions, we cannot move money. Where a task genuinely needs payment access, such as running bill pay, that sits behind your approval, not ours. Credentials live in a password manager rather than a spreadsheet or an inbox, and access is tied to named people who lose it when they leave. If a firm can't tell you plainly who can move your money, that's the answer.
- What actually happens in the first month?
- We get access, review what's there, and tell you honestly what state the books are in — including if the answer is worse than you were expecting. If there's catch-up work, we scope and price it separately rather than burying it in the monthly fee. Then we run one full close end to end so you can see the rhythm before committing to anything longer. Most transitions land inside 30 days; badly-kept books take longer, and we'll say which one you are before you sign.
- If I leave, do I keep my files?
- Yes. The ledger is yours, the reports are yours, and the workpapers behind them are yours. We hand over a clean file and talk to whoever comes next. A firm that makes leaving difficult is telling you something about how it expects to keep clients.
- Can you work alongside the CPA who does my tax return?
- Yes, and it's common. Plenty of owners have a tax preparer they like and no intention of changing. We keep the books clean and closed and hand your CPA a package they can actually work from, which usually makes their job cheaper. If you'd rather consolidate, we do the returns too — but nobody has to fire anyone for this to work.
In their words
Owners who finally know their numbers.
Accounting systems built to last
"Tristan CPA has been instrumental in helping us create and maintain accounting systems that will provide the Dorchester Brewing management team with financial clarity and oversight for years to come."
A professional in the seat — peace of mind
"One of the biggest benefits has been having peace of mind knowing we have a professional accountant on board. Working with Tristan was very easy!"
Hours back to run the business
"Working with Tristan enabled me the ability to spend time on other areas of the business instead of having to worry about tracking the financials and staying up with tax requirements."
Also from Tristan CPA
Stack the right services as you grow.
Most clients start with outsourced accounting and layer in controller or CFO services as the business gets more complex. Same team, more depth — no re-hiring.
Let's talk
Ready to hand off
the books for good?
A free, no-pressure consultation — wherever you are in the country. Tell us where things stand, even if the honest answer is "nobody's looked closely in a year," and we'll map out exactly what it takes to get you clean and keep you there.
Book a free consultationMailing address
801 Travis St, Ste 2101, PMB 1845
Houston, TX 77002
A remote firm — serving clients nationwide