| Propeller Industries | Graphite Financial | |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | ||
| Core Services | ||
| Accounting Support | ||
| Finance & FP&A Support | ||
| Tax Support | ||
| Payroll / HR Support | ||
| Modern Capabilities | ||
| Pricing Model | ||
| Onboarding | ||
| Ongoing Support |
COMPARISON PAGE
Graphite vs. Propeller
Evaluating services, pricing, and team support between Graphite and Propeller Industries
Graphite and Propeller both provide outsourced accounting and finance support for high-growth companies. Propeller offers fractional accounting, FP&A, strategic guidance, transaction advisory, trade spend management, and CIO services. Graphite brings accounting, finance, tax, payroll, and HR together through one coordinated team and modular monthly packages. Explore the comparison below to evaluate service coverage, pricing visibility, and team structure.
One Goal. Two Approaches.
A high-level look at how both teams manage your financial operations.
Early-stage growth brings incredible momentum, but it quickly introduces back-office strain as business scales. Too often, speeding up operational velocity means relying on a fragmented system of spreadsheets, disconnected apps, and multi-layered consulting teams that don't share context. Instead of running the business, founders spend time tracking down fractional advisors and managing last-minute reporting scrambles. The real challenge isn't just checking compliance boxes; it's building a reliable financial foundation where day-to-day accounting cleanly informs long-term strategy. Evolving companies need an embedded strategic partner—a dedicated back-office team that unifies accounting, FP&A, tax, payroll, and HR under one predictable fixed fee.
Who is Graphite?
Graphite is built for scaling companies that want multiple back-office functions managed through one coordinated provider. We give leadership clearer ownership, visibility, and structure across accounting, finance, tax, payroll, and HR.
We work as your embedded financial partner, running your entire back office—including bookkeeping, AP/AR, advisory-led accounting, year-round tax advisory, payroll, full HR lifecycle and compliance, and forward-looking financial forecasting.
Each function is led by specialists and coordinated through one Customer Success owner, keeping priorities, handoffs, and changes aligned as the business grows.
Pricing is scoped by service and complexity, with published starting rates and a defined monthly engagement.
Who is Propeller?
Propeller Industries provides high-growth, venture-backed startups with outsourced financial management, strategic FP&A, and fractional CFO advisory. They specialize in niche verticals with distinct operational patterns like CPG inventory tracking, e-commerce, and venture-stage SaaS.
Propeller delivers these services through a fractional model supported by 250+ full-time professionals and a proprietary technology platform. Engagements are tailored to each company’s stage, industry, and financial needs.
Choose Graphite if you have:
NEED BROADER BACK-OFFICE COVERAGE
You want accounting, finance, tax, payroll, and HR coordinated through one provider, so the functions shaping cash, compliance, and headcount stay aligned as your business grows.
A NEED FOR DYNAMIC MODELING
You want forecasts, runway, and scenario plans that move with the business—grounded in current financials and built to show leadership where to act next.
EXPANDING PAYROLL AND HR DEMANDS
You need full-lifecycle payroll execution and hands-on HR support—from compliant handbooks and onboarding checklists to employee relations—delivered by dedicated specialists who keep people operations defensible.
A PRIORITY OF PREDICTABLE PRICING
ou want a clearly scoped monthly engagement with fixed rates, defined deliverables, and zero billable hourly clock-watching during fundraising or rapid growth.
Consider Propeller if you have:
A FRACTIONAL STAFFING MODEL
You are comfortable coordinating accountants, finance directors, and CFOs across separate work streams, with team structure and scope evolving as new financial needs emerge.
A NARROWER FINANCE SCOPE
You need targeted accounting, FP&A, transaction, or systems support and are prepared to manage tax, payroll, HR, and cross-functional coordination through separate external providers.
PROJECT-BASED FINANCE SUPPORT
You need specialized support for a transaction, systems implementation, fundraising process, or another defined finance initiative that sits alongside your ongoing accounting operations.
COMFORT WITH A LARGER FIRM MODEL
You value the scale and name recognition of a larger fractional firm and are comfortable with a more layered team structure and narrower coverage beyond finance and accounting.
Built Beyond the Basics
The right financial partner doesn't just keep your books—it helps your business operate more effectively. Graphite combines accounting, finance, tax, payroll, and HR into one cohesive team, creating the financial infrastructure growing companies rely on for long-term success.
Financial visibility
Standard finance setups often rely on static spreadsheets that quickly fall behind the business, obscuring shifts in cash, margins, and operating performance. Graphite gives growing companies a complete, expert-run finance function—modeling, forecasting, analysis, and strategic insight—so leaders can make confident decisions, stay ahead of cash and runway, and operate with clarity instead of guesswork. Instead of reacting to what already happened, leaders gain a forward-looking view of where the business is headed and what choices the company can realistically afford to make.
Accounting complexity
Complex accounting gets complicated fast. Multi-channel inventory, multi-entity consolidation, historical cleanups, and rising transaction volume can turn the ledger into a maze. Graphite brings order to that complexity through full ledger ownership, stronger workflows, and a team that keeps every moving piece connected.
Experienced accounting professionals and controllers manage accruals, AP/AR, reconciliations, and month-end close, giving leadership reliable reporting and a financial foundation built to scale.
Finance and forecasting
Standalone spreadsheets for strategic finance tend to create a gap between forecasts and live ledger data. Fractional models often treat budgeting, cash planning, and modeling as separate offline workstreams requiring extra hourly fees. Graphite is delivered through a recurring fixed-fee model designed to provide predictable access to financial modeling, analysis, and advisory support. We either create a new model from scratch or take ownership of your existing model, delivering monthly review packages with budget vs. actual variance explanations and continuous scenario planning.
Connected back-office support
Coordinating multiple independent providers can leave leadership teams acting as human routers, constantly passing data between independent bookkeepers, external tax CPAs, and payroll apps. Graphite replaces the disconnect with a completely unified back office where all of your financial systems operate as a single engine. Led by a consistent, cross-functional team, all five core functions operate within one coordinated framework. When multiple services are in use, we manage internal alignment so information flows correctly between teams without requiring any additional involvement.
Modern finance capabilities
Modern financial operations require a deliberate mix of software efficiency and expert human review. Graphite is intentionally tech-agnostic and works within the client's existing system environment. We operate directly on supported general ledger platforms like QuickBooks while integrating cleanly with modern tools like Ramp, Gusto, Stripe, and Shopify. By pairing tech-enabled workflows with structured human oversight, manual drift is reduced while you retain complete ownership and portability of your underlying financial data.
Customer experience
The traditional outsourced experience often subjects leaders to administrative burden, from high-friction onboarding to coordination delays across rotating teams. Graphite makes the transition feel managed from day one. Your service team owns the work, while Customer Success keeps onboarding, communication, and cross-functional follow-through moving to give your team clear ownership, faster decisions, and far less operational drag. Once live, your assigned team carries context forward as the business grows. Your dedicated Customer Success Specialist keeps communication, escalation, and scope changes moving across the engagement, so new needs can be addressed without restarting the relationship every time.
Pricing clarity
Ongoing accounting is delivered on a fixed-fee basis, where scope is defined up front to ensure predictability in delivery and cost. You know exactly what is covered across accounting, finance, tax, payroll, and HR without worrying about billable hours, unexpected scope additions, or clock-watching. Initial onboarding and stabilization are scoped separately to ensure the foundation is right before steady-state delivery begins.
When Basic Bookkeeping Becomes Business-Critical
There comes a point when bookkeeping is no longer just about staying compliant. It's the foundation for reporting, forecasting, and operational decisions. Without consistent accounting practices, reporting slows, reconciliations fall behind, and visibility reduces.
Core accounting
Graphite provides a fixed-fee outsourced accounting service that owns the accounting foundation end to end. That includes the general ledger, reconciliations, and month-end close, delivered with consistency and rigor so the numbers are accurate, timely, and defensible in real operating conditions. We manage specialized SaaS revenue recognition, precise COGS allocations, physical inventory landed-cost tracking, and balance sheet reconciliations. Rather than forcing founders to validate numbers, we execute the accounting work consistently each month, maintaining accuracy as transaction volume, stakeholders, and operational complexity increase.
Propeller delivers bookkeeping, accrual accounting, month-end close, AP, AR, and billing through a fractional team configured around each client's needs. Services are billed through monthly retainers or hourly rates based on staff tiers. More advanced work, including historical ledger cleanups and multi-entity consolidations, is coordinated through separate project scopes.
Finance and forecasting
Our Finance Service is a fully managed financial operations and strategy function that gives growing companies the modeling, forecasting, analysis, and financial guidance they need—without having to build an internal finance team. We build or take ownership of your custom 3-statement financial model as the single source of truth. Each month, we deliver a review package featuring budget vs. actuals, key variance explanations, updated forecasts, and 1–2 annual reforecast cycles without billable hourly limits or separate setup fees.
Propeller delivers financial modeling, cash-flow planning, and board prep through fractional directors or part-time CFOs. Strategic hours and advisory depth are managed within defined retainer boundaries or billed at higher hourly consulting tiers.
Year-round tax strategy
Graphite provide a full-spectrum tax function for growing companies, combining tax compliance, tax advisory, and R&D tax credit services. Unlike traditional tax firms where clients are often served by junior staff with limited context, our approach emphasizes direct access to experienced tax professionals who operate as an extension of your leadership team. When paired with our accounting services, your tax team receives timely financial data directly from the accounting team, which significantly reduces any burden while managing federal/state filings and R&D credits year-round.
Propeller supports tax-related accounting workflows, including sales tax software integrations and payroll reporting. Corporate income tax filings, R&D tax credits, and ongoing nexus strategy are typically handled as separate project add-ons or referred to external CPA firms.
Payroll and HR
Graphite pulls a full-lifecycle HR and payroll function right into your back-office operations. Led by your permanent team and backed by internal human resources experts, everything from custom onboarding and benefits to compliance runs inside one cohesive entity. Because your HR specialists and accountants operate under the same umbrella, payroll updates instantly reflect in your active ledger and dynamic financial models, reducing delays and inconsistencies across segregated systems.
Propeller includes payroll within its outsourced accounting services, covering routine processing and related financial workflows. Its public service offering does not list dedicated HR advisory, employee relations, workforce planning, or full-lifecycle people operations, leaving companies that need broader HR support to secure that expertise separately.
Business models supported
Graphite builds the back office around how the business actually functions across specialized verticals. We work with growing tech companies when finance starts touching more of the business—runway, hiring plans, revenue quality, payroll, tax, board reporting, and planning. For healthcare, healthtech, and MSO/PC structures, your company's structure, provider model, cash timing, payroll, tax, and reporting all need to line up before financing, diligence, acquisition, expansion, or the next major growth move. For agencies, we help leadership see what growth is actually worth, where margin is holding, and what needs to tighten.
Propeller caters to venture-backed startups and growth-stage companies across CPG, e-commerce, SaaS, healthtech, and agencies. Their fractional teams manage operational and reporting requirements, including multi-channel inventory, recurring revenue tracking, and department reporting.
Breaking down the data
Graphite assumes full ownership over the complex financial frameworks that break standard checklists. We own the accounting foundation end to end. That includes the general ledger, reconciliations, and month-end close, delivered with consistency and rigor so the numbers are accurate, timely, and defensible in real operating conditions. We handle GAAP accrual accounting, specialized SaaS revenue recognition, precise COGS allocations, landed-cost inventory tracking, and multi-entity consolidations.
Propeller provides financial support across standard and complex needs, including GAAP revenue recognition, COGS tracking, and multi-location inventory management. Advanced tasks like multi-entity consolidations or custom adjustments are handled across their team structure within defined project or hourly arrangements.
Powering your tech stack
Graphite is intentionally tech-agnostic and works within the client's existing system environment. Rather than locking your financial data inside proprietary portals, we operate directly on supported general ledger platforms like QuickBooks while integrating cleanly with modern tools like Ramp, Gusto, Stripe, and Shopify. Technology accelerates routine processes while our accounting team provides ongoing oversight, ensuring your financial data remains accurate, portable, and fully yours.
Propeller operates within existing platforms like NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Xero to maintain a client-specific software stack. Their fractional teams handle AP, invoicing, payroll, and sales tax workflows through cloud-based tools, delivering standard monthly reporting packages.
Human review and judgement
Graphite pairs modern software efficiency with dedicated teams of accounting, finance, payroll, and HR specialists led by experienced Controllers and CPAs. Your team is supported by an assigned accounting team with one primary point of contact to ensure balance sheets, variance reports, and forecasts are thoroughly reviewed in context. Customer Success stays with you closest across your journey and helps keep work across teams aligned, with an assigned Customer Success Specialist (CSS) driving account coordination and long-term continuity.
Propeller applies oversight through a tiered consulting model comprising accountants, directors, and part-time CFOs. This team manages month-end GAAP compliance and reviews historical data shifts. For high-level strategy, leadership collaborates directly with assigned advisors within the boundaries of an hourly or project-based retainer.
Built to scale with your business
Graphite grows with you so you never have to outgrow your backend or piece together random contractors. When you're ready to move beyond basic bookkeeping, senior controllers and finance directors step right in to run your financial statement models, board reporting, and forecasting. As operations get heavier, that same team handles your multi-state tax, multi-entity consolidations, and HR advisory. Because everything lives in one package, your data, models, and tax strategies stay running together.
Propeller adjusts its staffing model based on client growth. Engagements can expand from baseline bookkeeping into forecasting, tax coordination, and strategic FP&A, with directors or fractional CFOs assigned as required. These adjustments are managed through updates to the service scope, monthly retainers, or hourly rates.
Financial infrastructure built around your business
Your finance function should reflect the way your business operates—not force you into a predefined template. We assess your existing systems, close operational gaps, and build reporting that supports smarter decisions as your business evolves.
Evaluation and scoping
Graphite begins with a collaborative review to assess your operational complexity, software stack, and financial goals. Sale and scoping define ownership, boundaries, and expectations up front before any contract is signed. We evaluate the current state of your books and close process, scoping a fixed-fee modular plan tailored to your business needs across accounting, FP&A, tax, payroll, and HR. Scope is defined up front to ensure predictability in delivery and cost, giving leadership a transparent roadmap and clear operational expectations.
Propeller starts with a discovery call to view the client's accounting setup, systems, and financial needs. They define the scope of work and issue a proposal including the recommended mix of fractional staff, with pricing based on monthly retainers or hourly ranges aligned to that scope.
Getting up and running
The engagement begins with an onboarding and stabilization phase focused on setting the foundation correctly over a structured 30–45 day window, guided by a dedicated Customer Success Specialist. Our accounting team audits historical transactions, cleans up prior ledger discrepancies, standardizes the chart of accounts, and establishes a documented month-end close checklist. Our onboarding is designed to ensure your books can close cleanly and consistently from day one while our Finance team builds your custom three-statement financial model.
Propeller starts onboarding with a kickoff call to align their fractional team with internal stakeholders. They collect system access to review setup and assess historical cleanup needs, configuring reporting templates and workflows within agreed billable hours.
Long-term partnership
Once onboarding wraps, you step into a steady cadence with your permanent team, keeping you constantly looped in on your financial health. Because we don't bill by the hour, you get highly responsive, unrestricted access for day-to-day questions and strategic advisory without worrying about an invoice. If you need to scale up, activating new capabilities is simple since your team and data are already together. Plus, your Customer Success Specialist takes over ongoing alignment and renewal planning, ensuring your modular package matches your operational pace.
Propeller establishes a cadence for monthly closes and financial updates with your fractional team. Availability and support are provided during standard business hours within your agreed retainer or hourly structure. As needs change, services are adjusted through scope updates or hourly tiers during regular renewal cycles.
| Propeller Industries | Graphite Financial | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Offers a mix of monthly retainers, tiered project scopes, or fractional hourly consulting rates depending on operational needs. |
Flexible, modular pricing based on the functions you need. Accounting starts at $1,500/mo; Finance/FP&A at $2,000/mo; Tax at $400/mo; HR at $700/mo; Payroll at $500/mo. |
| What's Included | Baseline accrual accounting, standard bookkeeping, transaction logging, and month-end close processes explicitly outlined within a contracted project scope. |
Ownership of your general ledger and month-end close, VC-ready accrual accounting, everyday AP/AR and bill pay workflows, permanent team of CPAs and finance professionals, ongoing compliance tracking, and clean reporting. |
| What May Cost Extra | Tasks that fall outside the initial statement of work, out-of-scope historical cleanups, or extra consultant hours required to handle operational changes. |
Optional add-on services for corporate tax returns, managed payroll/HR, and strategic FP&A if not included in your core active package. |
| Setup Fees | Varies by company stage; initial onboarding and financial tech stack infrastructure setup are scoped out individually. |
A one-time onboarding fee covering system integrations, historical data migration, and setup of your reporting workflows, with a final quote confirmed during the initial assessment call. |
| Hourly Work | Driven by traditional billable hours across fractional staff tiers. Used extensively for historical ledger catch-ups, specialized advisory, or scope adjustments when your transaction volume or data complexity shifts from month to month. |
Not used. All day-to-day ledger tasks, continuous communication, and general advisory questions are folded directly into your transparent monthly package. |
| Tax Add-ons | Routine compliance support (like 1099s) is standard. Corporate federal/state filing and R&D credits typically require a new project scope or third-party CPA handoffs. |
A modular corporate tax add-on covering federal and state filings, active nexus tracking, and R&D credit processing handled entirely alongside your daily books. |
| CFO/Advisory Access | Provided via part-time directors or fractional CFOs, with strategic hours capped and managed strictly within your defined retainer boundaries. |
Included under the Finance/FP&A module. Gives you continuous access to senior controllers for dynamic 3-statement modeling, board prep, and scenario planning that translates financial data into strategic action without billable hourly limits. |
| Payroll/HR Coverage | Administered as an isolated administrative line item or coordinated through platforms like Gusto, billed according to variable contract hours. |
Delivered through integrated payroll (starting at $500/mo) and HR (starting at $700/mo) modules managed by specialists within your assigned team. Available as standalone or bundled services covering payroll processing, HRIS compliance updates, and automated benefits coordination. |
| What To Clarify Before Comparing | Are your hourly limits, backlog policies, and out-of-scope fees clearly defined before they impact your bill? |
How much flexibility do you have to choose the operational services your business needs today? |
Before choosing a financial partner, ask these five questions to make sure they're ready for your next stage:
- If our transaction volume increases, does our monthly fee stay fixed, or do cleanups and backlog work result in extra consulting costs?
- When we need support from a senior CPA or controller, is that included, or does it come with additional hourly charges?
- Do tax filings, nexus tracking, and R&D credits run alongside our daily bookkeeping, or do they require a separate CPA process at year-end?
- Is payroll and HR fully connected to our financial system, or are they done apart from accounting?
- Are our forecasts tied directly to live ledger data, or do they rely on various spreadsheets that need manual updates?
A Seamless Migration
Transitioning to a more integrated finance partner shouldn't feel like starting over. Graphite guides every step of the onboarding process, taking the operational burden of data cleanup and systems migration entirely off your plate. Instead of coordinating between separate accounting, tax, and CFO contacts across multiple consulting workstreams, you'll work with your Customer Success Specialist who oversees the transition from start to finish. This allows our finance specialists to stay focused on your financial data, turning what can often be a complex implementation into a smooth experience completed within 30 to 45 days.
Your transition is designed around where you are today and where you're headed next:
We launch with an initial alignment call to map out your current operational workflows and top priorities. From there, we use a secure onboarding checklist to gather system permissions and manage the entire technical handoff behind the scenes without disrupting your routine operations.
PHASE 2: Cleanup plan execution
Your dedicated account squad steps in to execute a thorough ledger review and cleanup plan. Our experts dive into your books to untangle historical manual tracking errors, reconcile disjointed accounts, and complete all necessary catch-up work to establish a completely accurate, compliant foundation.
PHASE 3: Reporting rebuild & cadence setup
We build out your new, integrated financial structure and roll out custom 3-statement forecasting models tailored around your specific goals. Once your new data process is validated, we kick off your ongoing strategic advisory calls and transition you into a smooth, routine monthly close loop.
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How does Graphite’s cost compare to traditional fractional firms?
Many finance providers bill by the hour or tie monthly retainers to strict time limits, so costs can climb as transaction volume grows or new needs come up. Graphite takes a different approach with predictable, flat-fee modular pricing based on the services you use. That means no billable clock and no surprise overage fees.
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How are tax, FP&A, and payroll/HR handled under one roof?
Instead of having you act as a project manager juggling a fragmented consulting setup, Graphite builds an interwoven finance function where your entire back office operates as a single system. Under this unified model, our senior controllers maintain live financial models tied to your active ledger, internal CPAs handle corporate filings and active nexus tracking, and our team deploys a people-ops backbone that scales natively with your headcount. Any operational pivot, like hiring a remote employee or updating a compensation structure, instantly reflects across your tax strategy and runway models with zero communication lag.
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What does day-to-day team access look like?
Your CPAs, senior controllers, and finance directors actually learn your business over the long term, so you have highly responsive, unrestricted access to your team via Slack, email, and scheduled video syncs. Because your team stays consistent, you avoid the re-explanation fatigue that comes with rotating staff, and since we don't bill by the hour, you can hop on a call or send an ad-hoc question without worrying about a running clock.
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How difficult is it to switch from our current provider?
From kickoff to go-live, we make the transition for you. Your dedicated Customer Success Manager oversees system access, data migration, and reporting setup while coordinating every moving piece behind the scenes. By running the implementation in parallel with your existing operations, we keep your business moving without disruption.
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Do you specialize in certain industries?
While Graphite is capable of helping nearly any business, we have extensive expertise in SaaS, CPG, Biotech, Fintech, Healthtech, AI, and eCommerce.
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When does switching to Graphite make the most sense?
Graphite is built for companies that have outgrown basic bookkeeping. When you need board-ready forecasting, integrated accounting, tax, payroll, and strategic finance, or support for fundraising, audits, or an exit, Graphite provides one unified team and a stronger financial foundation.
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How much does Propeller cost?
Propeller does not offer fixed public pricing. Quotes are calculated on a case-by-case basis according to a company’s revenue, transaction volume, and required services, which range from bookkeeping to executive financial advisory. Fees are generally structured as monthly retainers or project-based rates depending on the agreed scope of work.
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What's the difference between Graphite and Propeller?
Both firms provide outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services, but Graphite delivers a more comprehensive back-office solution. By combining accounting, strategic finance, tax, payroll, and HR support under one team, Graphite gives founders a single partner to streamline operations and scale more efficiently.
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How do Graphite and Propeller compare on pricing?
Graphite offers more transparent and flexible pricing than Propeller. With published starting rates and modular service packages, founders can easily scale support as their business grows. Propeller uses custom quotes with no public pricing, making costs less predictable and harder to compare.
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When does a fractional consulting model make sense over an integrated team?
Ideal when your in-house accounting is running smoothly and you're looking to fill a specific gap, like CFO guidance during a fundraise. But if you're outsourcing your back office, coordinating multiple providers typically requires more time, oversight, and expense than a single integrated partner.
Graphite's Accounting & Bookkeeping Services
Core Accounting Operations
Keep your books clean, current, and controlled with steady day-to-day accounting, reconciliations, and general ledger support.
Month-End Close
Run a more disciplined month-end close with fewer loose ends, clearer timelines, and financials delivered when they should be.
Financial Reporting
Get financial reporting that gives you better visibility into performance, trends, and what needs attention.
Accounting Cleanup and Catch-Up
Clean up messy books, fix what’s off, and build a stronger accounting foundation for smoother reporting going forward.
Revenue Recognition Support
Handle revenue recognition with the structure and accounting support needed to keep reporting accurate as complexity grows.
Audit Support
Be better prepared for audits and reviews with cleaner documentation, stronger reconciliations, and books that hold up under scrutiny.
OUR DIFFERENCE
Our work is a fusion of people, processes, and pioneering technology
We equip our team of experts with industry-leading software, tools, and data intelligence to optimize their output.
There are many basic bookkeeping firms out there, but very few operationally-focused startup accounting firms like us. Our business model focuses around high-touch and long-term engagements, where we take our clients from seed all the way through exit. Our mission to keep people first sits at the intersection of our core values—the drivers behind everything we do.
Accounting with a backbone
We run your books with precision—tight close cycles, clean data, and reporting you can rely on. You see where the business stands and what needs attention, without digging.
Clarity in your numbers, every month
From daily transactions through close, we deliver accurate financials on a consistent cadence—so you can manage cash, track performance, and make decisions without hesitation.
Control over every close
We support the accounting work that gets more complex with growth, from reconciliations and reporting to revenue recognition and inventory.
