Premium Services Corporation
Accounting and bookkeeping
Every transaction categorised, accounts reconciled, and financial statements produced each month, so the books reflect reality rather than a guess at tax time. When the books are current, everything downstream gets easier: the return, the loan application, the advice.
What it actually means
Bookkeeping is the record. Accounting is what somebody does with it. Most small businesses need both and are sold one, which is how an owner ends up with a tidy file of transactions and no idea whether the year is going well.
The record has to be kept every month: what came in, what went out, and whether the two agree with what the bank actually did. That part is ordinary and it is not optional. What makes it worth paying for is somebody reading it afterwards and telling you what it says — while there is still a month left to do something about it.
Clean books are not a filing exercise. They are the only honest account of the year you are having.
What gets done every month
- Categorising
- Every transaction assigned to the category it actually belongs in. Get this wrong and the statements are wrong, the return is wrong, and every decision taken from them is taken on bad information.
- Reconciliation
- The books matched against what the bank actually did, line for line. It is the step that catches a double charge, a deposit that never landed and a payment nobody recognises.
- Profit and loss
- What came in, what it cost and what is left, for the month and for the year so far. The totals matter less than the direction they have been moving in.
- Balance sheet
- What the business owns, what it owes and what is left over, at a point in time. The half of the picture a profit and loss cannot show.
- Cash
- Profit and cash are not the same thing, and a business can have one without the other. The cash position is what tells you whether next month works.
- The note that comes with it
- A short summary of what changed and anything that needs an answer, so the statements get read rather than filed.
How a month runs
Take on the file
Whatever exists now gets looked at first: the chart of accounts, how things have been categorised, and whether the opening balances still tie back to the last return filed. Where they do not, that is found before anything is built on top of it.
Close the month
Transactions categorised, accounts reconciled, statements produced, and a short note on what changed and what needs attention.
Read it
Quarterly at the floor, monthly when the business is moving. Margins, cash, and whatever is coming that the numbers have not met yet.
Year end
When the books have been current all year, the return is a summary of work already done rather than a reconstruction from memory.
Who this is for
Size is not the filter. One-person businesses and ordinary households are ordinary work here, and if something genuinely is not a fit you will be told that on the first call rather than sold something anyway.
- Doing it yourself
- The software is filling in, the categories were guessed at once at the beginning, and nobody has reconciled anything in a while.
- Behind
- Months or years of catch-up. A normal place for a file to start rather than a problem, and scoped as its own piece of work rather than folded quietly into the ongoing.
- Running projects
- Job by job, not year by year. A good year can hide half the jobs carrying the other half, and only job costing shows you which.
- About to ask for money
- A lender wants current, credible statements. That is what monthly books produce, and it is where applications usually stall.
The five questions people actually ask
- What does monthly bookkeeping actually include?Five things, every month, and each one is there because the next depends on it.
- How is a bookkeeper different from an accountant?One writes down what happened. The other tells you what it means.
- Do I need an accountant if I already use QuickBooks?The software is doing a real job. It is not doing the job people assume it is.
- What is CFO-level advisory for a small business?The layer above the bookkeeping, described honestly rather than as a job title.
- How often should we look at the numbers?Quarterly is the floor. What earns monthly, and what a review should actually cover.
Also asked
What do I actually get each month?
Statements you can read and act on rather than a filing cabinet: what came in, what went out, what is owed and what changed since last month. If you cannot use them to make a decision they are not doing their job — say so and they get reshaped around the questions you actually ask.
What does reconciling mean?
Matching the books against what the bank actually did, every month, line for line. It is the step that catches a double charge, a deposit that never landed and a payment nobody recognises, and it is the first thing to get skipped when someone is doing their own books late at night.
My books are a mess.
Not unusual, and not a judgement — it is one of the most common places a new file starts. Catch-up is its own piece of work that has to happen before anything else can be done properly, so it is scoped on its own rather than folded quietly into ongoing work. Say roughly how far back it goes when you call.
Can you take over the file I already have?
It normally starts with someone looking at the file before anyone commits to adopting it, because the decision turns on one thing: whether the opening balances still tie back to the last return you filed. If they do, the handover is mostly administrative. If they do not, someone has to find where it went sideways first, and that is work in its own right. Have last year's return and the most recent bank reconciliation to hand when you call (401) 405-8407, and ask what the handover would look like for yours.
Cash or accrual?
Cash counts money when it moves; accrual counts it when it is earned or owed. The same year can look quite different under the two, and which one is open to you is not always a free choice — it can depend on your size and on what you sell. It is settled deliberately with new clients rather than inherited by accident.
Can you tell me whether a job made money?
Yes, and for anyone running projects it is the number that matters more than the annual total — a year can look fine while half the jobs are carrying the other half. It means coding costs to the job as they happen rather than sorting it out afterwards, which is set up once and then simply runs.
I need financials for a loan application.
Lenders want current, credible financial statements, and that is exactly what monthly books produce. PSC prepares the statements and gets the numbers in order before the application goes in, which is usually where these stall.
Can I switch from my current accountant?
Yes, and books that are behind or badly structured are a normal starting point rather than a problem. Reviewing an existing setup, correcting the structure and reclassifying what went to the wrong place is often the first work done with a new client.
Bring the books you actually have.
The office answers within one business day.