Have you been told by your lawyer or financial advisor that you need to start working with an accountant? Or maybe your friend who owns a business said her accountant recommended setting up as an LLC or an S-Corp and now you’re wondering if you should too. Whatever the reason is, businesses of all sizes find themselves looking for professional accounting help to develop the right solution for them. We’re here to break things down so you can see how we work with businesses of various sizes!
But first, a little bit about who we work with and why.
Revel is focused on serving creative entrepreneurs because we get you! I was a theater major in college and have held all kinds of roles within theaters and arts organizations over the years. Supporting this community through founding and growing Revel CPA is incredibly important to me. I’ve served creative entrepreneurs for the entirety of my career because of one key concept: I believe that creatives and storytellers have the ability to shift people’s hearts and minds in this world–and that the world could use a lot more of that. So we’re in it to help you grow and succeed!
To serve our creative entrepreneurs, we’ve developed a way of explaining the world of business and taxes that just makes sense. These things weren’t necessarily designed with you in mind, but not all of us went to business school. Yet here you are, in business for yourself, having to climb the same hurdles as every other entrepreneur out there. So we see ourselves as your trusted guide, the kind of guide who:
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helps you understand how the game gets played,
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builds your internal understanding of these rules and concepts,
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makes you confident in your decision-making,
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and helps you feel like you’re finally in the driver’s seat controlling your financial future.
And yet, we can’t do everything for everybody. (Though we wish we could 🙂)
So we developed some clear guidelines about how involved we get to make sure we’re not being overly taxing on your organization’s resources. We always aim for our services to live in the 2-4% range of your overall revenues. So practically speaking, here is a breakdown of what this looks like at different levels of your company’s growth:
$0-$100k Annual Revenues
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At this stage, we’ll likely focus the majority of our relationship on the tax prep process. That might be an individual return with a Schedule C, or maybe a small partnership or S-Corp return.
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We do this because the tax prep process can bring a lot of value to you through conversations about the year to come, planning considerations, etc.
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We recommend you do your own bookkeeping at this point. The cost justification just isn’t there at this stage and besides, it’s really good for you to have a very clear sense of the money flowing in and out of your business. This is when you build the context and a defined picture of what’s good (and what’s not so good) so when you outsource the books later, you actually have a point of view about what you’re seeing. Spreadsheets can work at this stage, or you can use a cloud-based accounting app like Xero.
$100k-$500k Annual Revenues
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As you start to grow more, we’ll stay partnered on the tax prep side of things, including advising you when it might make sense to form an S-Corp.
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At this level, we’ll also make sure tax planning is a part of your services so you have a heads-up view of the taxes coming long before they do. For any business owner of a “pass-through” entity like a partnership or an S-Corp, this is one of the most valuable things a CPA can do for you.
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And at this point, we’re going to recommend that if you haven’t yet, you move your books onto Xero to be able to run a full set of accounting records and to automate a lot of the data entry.
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It’ll usually make sense at this point to outsource some aspects of the bookkeeping function, though you might not need much more than that. Taking the books off your plate can help you refocus your energy on the areas of your business in which you can create the most value.
$500k + Annual Revenues
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Now is where Revel can come in and really start making a difference. As you scale up to the $1 million mark and beyond, you’ll need the systems, structure, and process to help your business grow beyond you. You’ll also need clear goals and a way of knowing whether you are on track or not to reaching those goals.
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At this point, we’ll create a comprehensive package of services that might include bookkeeping, dashboards, payroll, business tax, individual tax, tax planning, and all the tech and tools you’ll need to make it run smooth. We’ll review everything we think your business will need over the course of the year and lay it all on the table so there are no surprises. And then we’ll add it all up and smooth it into flat, consistent, monthly pricing.
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We’ll continue to check in every six months, making sure that we stay aligned with your goals as they evolve. While your business keeps growing and more resources are available to fit within that 2-4% window, we will also scale up the tools and services we provide to meet your ongoing needs. We grow as you grow, and it becomes a wonderful partnership.
So, there you go! That’s the big picture and how you can find the right accounting solution for a business your size! If you have any questions about how we might specifically help a business like yours, send us an email and we’ll be happy to talk through it with you. Every business owner deserves a chance to succeed, and we love a good underdog story. Let’s partner up to write yours.
