Bookkeeping service
Illustrative case · Small remote bookkeeping team; ordinary reconciliation and management reports; no audit, legal, tax-filing or licensed CPA claims · United States; California remote pass-through LLC planning case, with national wage comparisons
Explore this business · Overview
A small remote bookkeeping service sells a defined monthly close, not unlimited access to a bookkeeper. This educational California case starts with six expected clients and adds paid delivery capacity in half-FTE steps. Its opening funding is $65,648, but the base ramp still has an unfunded $11,266 cash trough. Treat that gap as a launch decision before treating later profit as a usable return.
Observed SBA industry evidence
Lending activity in the broader category
The whole Other Accounting Services category; does not isolate remote retainers, CPA status, geography, firm size or this startup format.
These are positive-amount loan records selected by approval fiscal year and PIF, CHGOFF or EXEMPT status at the stated snapshot. They are not unique firms, search volumes, approval probabilities or loans disbursed during that year.
Read this industry’s amounts, terms, lenders and outcomes.
Source: SBA 7(a) and 504 FOIA files, snapshot 30 June 2026. Recomputed from original records on 1 October 2026. FY2025 is the most recent complete fiscal year in these files. Definitions and exclusions.
Choose a scope the team can repeatedly deliver
The offer covers categorization, bank/credit-card reconciliation, exception follow-up and ordinary management reports from client-provided records. The client keeps responsibility for source documents, business decisions and payment authority. Payroll processing, tax filing/advice, audit/assurance, legal services, inventory costing, multi-entity consolidation and payment execution are excluded. The California Board of Accountancy marks bookkeeping as a service that non-CPAs can perform; this case does not advertise CPA status or public-accountancy assurance. Service boundary
| Tier | Monthly fee | Transactions / accounts | Delivery hours | Paid owner review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $350 | 100 / 2 | 4.0 | 0.5 |
| Core | $650 | 250 / 4 | 8.0 | 1.0 |
| Complex | $1,000 | 500 / 6 | 14.0 | 1.5 |
Transaction counts help screen a client; complexity, incomplete statements and exception volume determine actual hours. A neat bank feed can still conceal duplicate transfers, mixed personal spending and unsettled opening balances. Validate the assumed time with a sample month and a documented exception register. The proposed tier limits are case rules, not industry benchmarks or measured customer files. External scope comparison
Read the guide for the decision in front of you
The startup-cost guide separates four retained workstations from paid preparation and reserve. The unit-economics guide prices usable hours and staffing steps. The profitability guide preserves the weak first year and the full monthly cash path. The financing guide compares opening funds with the cash requirement. A full owner-generated business-plan example is pending.
Before committing, obtain matched hardware/security/insurance quotations, test staffing availability, confirm local home-business requirements and obtain scoped signed clients. Remote delivery removes a storefront assumption; it does not prove client acquisition, secure access or professional competence. Software certification is a vendor credential, not a CPA licence. Training context
Put the broader SBA category beside the operating case
NAICS 541219 is Other Accounting Services, which includes bookkeeper offices and other non-CPA accounting services. It spans more formats than this remote startup. The verified approval-FY pool contains 998 positive-amount PIF, CHGOFF or EXEMPT records in FY2023–FY2025: 266, 313 and 419. Of the three-year pool, 972 are 7(a) and 26 are 504. Classification; Snapshot
These are loan records selected by approval year and status at June 30, 2026, not unique borrowers, keyword demand, disbursements during each year or approval odds. The linked industry evidence retains the whole code set and the same broad scope. The existing lending explorer already contains the broad bookkeeping category.
Explore this business
This edition contains five planning guides. A full business-plan example for this format is not yet published.
Sources and scope
- Illustrative bookkeeping case methodology · Checked 2026-10-05 · Educational assumptions selected for this scoped case; no actual client contracts, demand survey, founder or vendor quote.
- Intuit: bookkeeping scope, cleanup and monthly work · Checked 2026-10-05 · Inspected 2026-08-03 help revision: distinct cleanup/monthly phases, supporting-document dependency, scope exclusions. It does not verify our fees or delivery hours.
- BLS: bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks · Checked 2026-10-05 · National occupation comparison, May 2025 median 50,670 USD/year and 24.36 USD/hour. Not California recruitment, contractor billing or payroll burden. Search-index May 2024 snippets superseded by inspected page.
- IRS: employer Social Security and Medicare rates · Checked 2026-10-05 · Current employer FICA components 6.2% Social Security and 1.45% Medicare; other insurance, leave, benefits and unemployment remain case allowances.
- California Board of Accountancy: services and attest authority · Checked 2026-10-05 · Board chart marks bookkeeping as a service that can be performed by non-CPAs. Public-accountancy titles/assurance services are not offered. Page last updated 2024-06-13; inspected current site on 2026-10-05.
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium US pricing · Checked 2026-10-05 · Business Premium, no Teams distinction inferred: inspected listed option 22 USD/user/month paid yearly and 26.40 monthly subscription. Model selects monthly option. Licences alone do not implement permissions, backup, incident procedures or contractor setup. Tax extra; recheck purchase contract.
- California FTB: LLC annual tax and income fee · Checked 2026-10-05 · Pass-through LLC annual 800 tax; additional fee at 250,000/500,000/1,000,000/5,000,000 California annual income bands. Model assumes January year and all case revenue attributable to California, cash at month 4/6, annual income known for estimated fee. Income-tax elections and owner tax require adviser review.
- Microsoft: Surface Laptop for Business starting-price comparison · Checked 2026-10-05 · Inspected current page now describes 13-inch Snapdragon X2 Plus starting at 1,499.99, not old indexed 899.99 snippet. Starting configuration is not a matched 16-GB/512-GB four-device quote. Comparison excludes monitors, peripherals, tax, freight, configuration and support; our 1,000 laptop input remains unverified.
- Intuit: ProAdvisor program and training · Checked 2026-10-05 · Free program signup and current training/certification curriculum inspected. It does not promise our team certification or a 100-hour duration. Preopening allowance pays employees and owner for training, test files, review and handoff procedures.
- Google Ads: average daily and monthly budgets · Checked 2026-10-05 · For most campaigns, stated monthly limit is 30.4 times average daily budget; case uses a fixed marketing allowance without CPC, keyword-volume or conversion claims.
- SBA official 7(a)/504 FOIA records · Checked 2026-10-05 · Inherited hash-verified June 30 2026 aggregate snapshot, NAICS 541219 whole category. Counts use approval FY2023-2025, positive amounts and PIF/CHGOFF/EXEMPT. No borrower rows used.
- US Census Bureau: 2022 NAICS 541219 · Checked 2026-10-05 · Other Accounting Services includes bookkeeping without restriction to remote teams. Retain broad classification; lender activity is not exact-format evidence.
- SBA: microloan purpose and lender decisions · Checked 2026-10-05 · Current official page: up to 50,000, maximum seven-year repayment, working capital/equipment and intermediary decisions; not existing-debt repayment/real-estate purchase. Model 25,000 debt at 10.5%/60 months is assumed, not this page's loan offer.