Bookkeeping services, entered one at a time
A running journal on the services small businesses hand their books to — what each one does every month, how it charges for it, and which business it actually suits. Reasoning written out on the page, with nothing scored.
2026 Journal opened. No entries posted. — fol. —
Entries standing open
These are the subjects the journal was opened for. None of them are written yet — there is nothing to read on this site today. They are listed so you can tell whether this is the right book to come back to.
Bookkeeping services, set side by side
What Bench, Pilot, Bookkeeper360 and 1-800Accountant actually deliver each month, and where the deliverables stop matching.
A monthly service against doing it in software
The trade between paying someone to keep the books and keeping them yourself in an app.
How bookkeeping services are priced
What a plan is actually billed on — transaction volume, account count, entity type — and why two quotes for the same business diverge.
Cash basis, accrual, and which one you are buying
The accounting method sitting behind a plan, what it changes at year end, and what it costs to move.
Catch-up and clean-up work
What providers do with books that are months behind, how far back they will go, and how that is charged.
Handing over the books of a new LLC
Keeping business and personal records apart from the first transaction, and what a service needs from you to start.
When the first write-ups are posted they appear in this stack, each one entered under its own folio, newest work folded in rather than stacked on top of the last.
Notes in the margin
Four things worth entering before the first page is written, because they are what the writing will be held to.
Folio numbers are references, not ranks
Every entry carries a folio so it can be cited and found again. It records a position in the journal and nothing else. Where this site prefers one service over another, it will say so in words — our pick, runner-up — with the reasoning written out beside it.
Nothing here is scored
No ratings, no stars, no percentages, no tier board. Nothing on this site has been tested, and the writing will not imply otherwise. An entry says what it is based on.
Prices and terms are quoted, not guessed
Bookkeeping plans change often. Anything stated as a figure is taken from the provider and dated; anything not confirmed is described in words instead.
Affiliate links are disclosed
Some links on this site earn a commission. That never sets the order entries appear in, and it is stated on every page it applies to.
The posting run
The order an entry gets worked through before it goes in.
Open on the job, not the brand
Start from the bookkeeping that actually has to happen each month — reconciliations, payroll, sales tax, a year-end handoff.
Enter what the provider states
Scope, plan tiers and inclusions come from the provider, quoted and dated rather than paraphrased into something tidier.
Rule off the trade-offs
Every service is worse at something. The entry leads with which something, so the fit is obvious before the price is.
Carry it forward
Providers rename plans and move prices. Entries get revised and re-dated rather than quietly left to go stale.
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