Evaluating services, pricing, and team support between Graphite and Propeller Industries
Propeller Industries relies on fractional consulting billed by the hour; Graphite provides a fully managed back office for a predictable monthly fee. Where Propeller assigns individual fractional experts to fill specific roles charged by time spent, Graphite embeds one unified team that proactively owns your accounting, custom FP&A, tax, payroll, and HR under a single, transparent structure. Explore the breakdown below to see how our services, pricing, and team models compare.
A high-level look at how both teams manage your financial operations.
Early-stage growth brings incredible momentum, but it quickly introduces noticeable back-office strain as business scales. Too often, speeding up operational velocity means relying on a fragmented system of bespoke spreadsheets, disconnected apps, and multi-layered consulting teams that don’t share real-time data. Instead of running the business, founders end up having to track down different fractional advisors and deal with the last-minute hustling of siloed reporting. The real challenge isn’t just checking compliance boxes; it’s building a single source of truth where day-to-day execution cleanly informs long-term strategy. Evolving companies need an embedded strategic partner—a natural fit when your finance operation needs to do more than keep the books—that unifies a cloud infrastructure with expert oversight to give founders the confidence and control to scale.
Who is Graphite?
Graphite is built for scaling companies that want to make it easier to manage multiple providers, log billable hours, or coordinate across segregated financial functions. We replace scattered finance workflows with a unified system for day-to-day operations, giving leadership the clarity, confidence, and structure needed to move faster and make decisions with certainty. 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.
Built as an institutional-grade financial operating system, Graphite replaces conventional agency frameworks with a single, unified backend. Accounting, strategic finance, tax, payroll, and HR all run inside one cohesive engine, eliminating disconnected spreadsheets and consultants. By live-linking your daily bookkeeping directly to dynamic financial models, our cloud architecture gives you full runway visibility without manual data stitching. Instead of billable-hour surprises and high turnover, your pod of CPAs, Controllers, and HR specialists take over your entire financial infrastructure under one flat fee.
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.
They deliver service through a traditional, human-led professional services model, pairing companies with a tiered team of financial professionals who build financial frameworks and typically bill through variable monthly retainers or hourly consulting rates.
Finding Your Ideal Fit
Match your current reality with the right financial framework.
Propeller Industries
Graphite Financial
Best For
High-growth startups seeking a traditional consulting model with vertical-specific expertise, particularly in CPG, e-commerce, and specialized SaaS.
Venture-backed SaaS, multi-channel CPG/eCommerce, and complex multi-entity businesses seeking an embedded back-office function for accounting, inventory, tax, payroll, and financial modeling.
Fully integrated management across expert accounting, custom strategic finance/FP&A, year-round tax advisory, payroll, and full-lifecycle HR operations.
Accounting Support
Full-service accrual accounting and vertical-specific COGS tracking done primarily through manual ledger adjustments and standalone offline client spreadsheets.
Institutional-grade ledger ownership with automated multi-channel inventory integrations, specialized SaaS revenue recognition, and multi-entity consolidations blended into your cloud infrastructure to minimize manual tracking errors.
Finance & FP&A Support
Strategic FP&A and financial modeling delivered through standalone spreadsheet models, with updates held independently from ongoing bookkeeping.
3-statement financial models and rolling forecasts built directly into your live accounting data. Continuous budget tracking and forecasting without requiring a separate FP&A engagement.
Tax Support
Supports transactional tax workflows, including sales tax setup, while clients generally maintain a different CPA or tax advisor for corporate filings and ongoing tax strategy.
In-house, CPA-led corporate tax module built for federal and state corporate filings, R&D tax credit studies, multi-state nexus monitoring, and proactive strategy year-round.
Payroll / HR Support
Supports payroll administration and processing, while HR operations, workforce compliance, and people advisory are typically managed outside the core service.
Natively runs integrated payroll and HR modules run by internal specialists, managing compliance updates, employee relations, custom onboarding tracks, and automated benefits synchronization.
Modern Capabilities
Built around spreadsheet-based workflows and manual data entry, with financial information led across various systems and files.
Syncs your live ledger with custom forecasting tools automatically, delivering live 3-statement modeling with zero manual data stitching
Pricing Model
Operates on variable monthly retainers or fractional hourly pricing, with costs tied to consultant time and scope of work.
Institutional, modular flat-fee structure under one predictable rate, without transaction caps or hourly billing.
Onboarding
Standard consulting intake process involving data collection, document sharing, and discovery calls to establish reporting templates and workflows.
A comprehensive 45-day transition led by a dedicated Customer Success Manager who securely migrates systems and coordinates a manual historical ledger cleanup entirely behind the scenes.
Ongoing Support
Staff augmentation model using fractional consultants working across multiple clients under hourly rates and scoped engagement terms.
Permanent, incorporated finance function providing ongoing access to CPAs, controllers, and finance directors, held up by a Customer Success layer for continuous support.
Choose Graphite if you have:
COMPLEX CORPORATE TAX NEEDS You want your corporate tax filings, R&D credits, and multi-state nexus monitoring handled natively by an in-house team of registered CPAs, avoiding the need to coordinate a separate third-party tax advisor for filings and tax strategy.
A NEED FOR DYNAMIC MODELING You expect your forecasting models and rolling runway projections to be live-linked directly to your active ledger, erasing version-control risks and manual data reconciliation of static, offline spreadsheets that live alone.
EXPANDING PAYROLL AND HR DEMANDS You need full-lifecycle HR management, custom employee onboarding tracks, and proactive compliance updates run by dedicated internal People Ops specialists, rather than a provider focused primarily on payroll administration and data processing.
OUTGROWN VARIABLE HOURLY BILLING You want to cut out billable-hour creeping and variable monthly retainers, locking in a fixed pricing structure that gives you continuous access to your finance department during high-stakes milestones without out-of-scope costs or transaction caps.
A PRIORITY ON TEAM CONTINUITY You want a stable account team that acts as an intact extension of your business, rather than fractional staff augmentation models with rotating teams and multi-party coordination.
Consider Propeller if you have:
A PREFERENCE FOR TRADITIONAL CONSULTING You prefer the classic staff augmentation setup of working with a tiered fractional team of accountants, directors, and CFOs—and are comfortable managing different contacts across multiple project lines.
BESPOKE OFFLINE MODELING NEEDS You require highly customized, manual financial frameworks built completely from scratch for your industry, and you don't mind your team updating those spreadsheets offline as your ledger data shifts.
FLEXIBILITY FOR VARIABLE BILLING Your company's budget can easily absorb fluctuating monthly retainers or hourly consulting fees that adjust up or down depending on project scope changes, transaction volumes, or logged hours.
PREFERENCE FOR A LARGE AGENCY FOOTPRINT You want to align with a well-known, scaled firm that has an extensive client roster and strong, established recognition across the venture capital ecosystem.
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.
Why Graphite?
The real advantages of a fully managed, full-stack finance partner.
Financial visibility
Standard finance setups often deliver visibility through static, offline spreadsheets that quickly grow stale and obscure shifts in cash, margins, and operational performance. Graphite replaces that lag by live-linking your daily bookkeeping directly to dynamic 3-statement models. The result is always-on visibility into your true runway and unit economics, giving leadership teams the instant insights needed to spot what needs attention and make confident, high-stakes scaling decisions.
Accounting complexity
Managing complex accounting—multi-channel inventory, multi-entity consolidation, and ledger cleanups—requires structured systems, not manual workarounds. Traditional outsourced models often rely on rotating teams and spreadsheet-based updates across isolated tools, creating added reconciliation work. Graphite replaces this with complete ledger ownership and automated cloud-native data flows. A permanent CPAs-and-Controllers team delivers accurate accruals, streamlined AP/AR, and faster month-end closes with board-ready reporting accuracy.
Finance and forecasting
Standalone spreadsheets for strategic finance tend to create a gap between forecasts and live ledger data. Outsourced models treat budgeting, cash planning, and custom financial modeling as different offline workstreams, needing manual consolidation and fractional CFO support for board prep. Graphite embeds dynamic forecasting directly into your financial infrastructure—connecting live bookkeeping with rolling runway and scenario planning—giving you continuous investor-ready reporting without physical assembly.
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 isolated payroll processors. Graphite replaces the disconnect with a completely unified back office where all of your financial systems operate as a single engine. Run by a constant, cross-functional group of internal specialists, all five core entities communicate under a single framework. This means payroll shifts instantly update your ledger, everyday bookkeeping accurately informs your year-round corporate tax strategy, and future-facing financial models remain perfectly synchronized without communication latency, detached data, or out-of-scope handoffs.
Modern finance capabilities
Modern financial operations require a deliberate mix of automation and human oversight. Traditional approaches can struggle with high-volume, complex data, leading teams back to manual spreadsheet workarounds that don’t hold up as companies grow. Graphite pairs automated data flow across your entire stack with a dedicated squad of Accounting experts who oversee the numbers. The result is a system that lets companies confidently use automation, handle complex data, and run enterprise-grade finance without outgrowing their backend.
Customer experience
The traditional outsourced experience often subjects leaders to a heavy administrative burden, from high-friction onboarding and disjointed data handoffs to the coordination delays across rotating teams. Graphite replaces this friction with a turnkey, relationship-first partnership starting from day one. Our 45-day system migration is orchestrated entirely behind the scenes by a committed Customer Success Manager, protecting your team from tedious data-stitching and historical ledger cleanups. Once live, you scale alongside your embedded account pod of CPAs and specialists, getting rid of the re-explanation fatigue and hourly caps typical of conventional consulting. With built-in customer success oversight, getting answers is immediate, issue escalation is easy, and growing your back-office scope happens seamlessly.
Pricing clarity
In many outsourced finance arrangements, variable retainers and hourly billing can make routine work like strategy adjustments, data cleanup, or transaction spikes feel uneasy from a cost perspective. Graphite makes it clear with a transparent, institutional fixed-fee structure that defines exactly what’s included across accounting, tax, payroll, and advisory. Everything is bundled into a single monthly rate, providing predictable pricing with full budget certainty as your needs change.
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.
A straightforward view of how both teams handle your core back-office functions.
Core accounting
Graphite replaces manual data entry with a fully managed back-office function that owns your general ledger and month-end close end to end. Instead of fractional project work or hourly support, your teams design and run automated workflows made for more complicated operations, like AP/AR, collections support, multi-channel inventory, and multi-entity consolidations. Everything runs within a set pricing structure, so your ledger data flows directly into live-linked financial models to deliver crisp reporting and consistent visibility without billable-hour limits.
Propeller offers consultant-led accounting support across bookkeeping, accrual accounting, and month-end close via a multi-tiered fractional model. Their teams work within your systems to handle AP, AR, billing, and transaction tracking, typically on variable retainers or hourly billing structures. They specialize in operationally complex industries like CPG, e-commerce, and SaaS. More advanced work, including ledger cleanups and multi-entity consolidations, is coordinated through scoped engagements across their internal team structure.
Finance and forecasting
Graphite connects your live bookkeeping directly to dynamic 3-statement models, replacing spreadsheet-based tracking with a real-time financial system. An integrated finance team runs forecasting, cash planning, and budget-vs-actual reporting so everything stays continuously unified without manual reconciliation or version control issues. Strategic finance and investor support are included to give you runway clarity and board-ready insight without extra CFO retainers or unexpected hourly charges.
Propeller provides strategic finance support through a fractional model, deploying part-time directors and CFOs to build custom budgets, cash plans, and financial frameworks. They utilize tailored spreadsheet modeling to develop forward-looking projections and scenario plans based on your active ledger data. They also provide board and investor advisory support structured through variable retainers or hourly rates tied to scope.
Year-round tax strategy
Graphite embeds CPA-led tax strategy into your core financial infrastructure. Supported by your dedicated finance experts, your full tax lifecycle—from corporate filings and nexus tracking to R&D credit work—is done in tandem with ongoing bookkeeping as part of your package. This eliminates the need for year-end coordination across divided providers and keeps your tax position in line with your live financials at all times.
Propeller provides support for routine tax coordination and compliance within their accounting workflow, including sales tax software integrations, 1099 processing, and standard payroll tax filings. For more complex needs such as federal and state income tax returns, R&D tax credit studies, and multi-state nexus evaluations, their teams typically coordinate with a client’s external CPA or tax advisor, providing the underlying ledger data and year-end close schedules needed for filing.
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 provides payroll and HR support as part of its outsourced accounting services, working within platforms such as Gusto or Justworks. Their teams run routine administrative processes like payroll runs, onboarding setup, and compliance updates. Broader HR services, including employee relations and workforce planning, are supported by their HR consulting resources.
Built for Modern Finance
Compare how each provider handles complexity, tech, and scale.
Business models supported
Graphite designs its modular package around the exact transactional and structural complexities of modern, investor-backed businesses. With specialized expertise across SaaS, e-commerce, CPG, healthtech, and marketplaces, our teams expertly handle complex recurring revenue, multi-channel inventory, and specialized MSO/PC frameworks. We take out any extra workarounds with automated financial operations built for scaling multi-entity organizations and fast-moving agencies. Since your ledger and financial planning models stay in continuous harmony, you always have an instant understanding over gross margins and unit economics—delivering the audit-ready precision required to pass rigorous due diligence and board scrutiny.
Propeller caters to investor-backed startups and growth-stage companies across sectors like CPG, e-commerce, SaaS, healthtech, marketplaces, web3, and agencies. Their fractional teams manage day-to-day operational and reporting requirements, including multi-channel inventory, recurring revenue tracking, and multi-entity accounting. This supports work like cash burn analysis, internal controls, and financial reporting for boards and investors.
Breaking down the data
Graphite absorbs deep financial complexity without relying on spreadsheet workarounds or manual fixes. Our steadfast teams oversee areas like deferred revenue recognition, multi-tiered COGS, cross-border inventory, and multi-entity consolidations as part of a structured system from the start. Automated data pipelines connect your operational tools so department metrics, payroll, and AP/AR stay aligned with your core ledger. This allows even the most intricate historical cleanups and high transaction volumes to be dealt with smoothly.
Propeller offers the financial support needed for growing businesses across standard and more complex needs, including GAAP revenue recognition, COGS tracking, and multi-location inventory management. Their fractional teams manage AP/AR, payroll processing, ledger cleanups, and department-level reporting. For more advanced work like multi-entity consolidations or custom adjustments, tasks are handled across their team structure within defined project or hourly arrangements.
Powering your tech stack
Graphite transforms your financial stack into an automated, enterprise-grade machine using a tech-agnostic architecture. We replace manual entry and spreadsheet workarounds with always-on data pipelines that loop your tools right to your ledger. This eliminates transaction latency and human error across heavy-traffic workflows. Backed by your accounting experts, Graphite provides real-time access to dynamic bespoke financial models, keeping your numbers clean and audit-ready.
Propeller operates within existing platforms like NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Xero to build and maintain a client-specific software stack. Their fractional teams handle AP, invoicing, payroll, and sales tax workflows through cloud-based tools. Financial reporting is produced using dashboards and spreadsheet models built from historical ledger data, delivered in standard monthly packages to leadership.
Human review and judgement
Graphite backs its automated pipelines with continuous, senior-level oversight to master complex edge cases and unorganized data. A division of CPAs and controllers vets every transaction, resolves irregular entries, and fully owns your technical reporting decisions. Since this expert judgment is wrapped directly into your comprehensive subscription, you get unrestricted access to financial guardrails and strategic steering.
Propeller applies oversight through a tiered consulting model comprising accountants, directors, and part-time CFOs. This team manages month-end GAAP compliance, untangles irregular transactions, and reviews historical data shifts. For high-level strategy or complex accounting choices, leadership teams collaborate directly with their 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.
Graphite takes a personalized, consultative approach to the evaluation process so you don't have to piece together service scopes or navigate hourly structures. On our diagnostic call, our experts look at your accounting, tax, payroll, and FP&A functions all at once to get a complete picture of your financial health and goals. From there, we put together a customized modular package tailored to cover your entire back office as a whole. Once you're ready, an assigned team of CPAs, senior controllers, and fractional finance directors take over your account transition and historical data migration with hands-on direction. After setup, your assigned Customer Success owner keeps everything aligned in real time through proactive communication, so your financial operations stay coordinated.
Propeller starts with a discovery call to get a clear view of the client’s accounting setup, systems, and financial needs. They then define the scope of work and issue a proposal that includes the recommended mix of fractional staff. Pricing is typically based on monthly retainers or hourly ranges aligned to that scope. Once the agreement is in place, they begin onboarding by transitioning historical data and active workflows to their consulting team.
Getting up and running
Onboarding with Graphite is a guided, end-to-end transition led by your team of CPAs and finance directors. Right after kickoff, we take over system access to run a deep systems review and historical cleanup assessment to untangle past ledger friction without hitting you with out-of-scope fees. We then sync your accounting, tax, and payroll operations, build out your dynamic financial models, and deliver your first clean month-end close with zero heavy lifting on your part.
Propeller starts onboarding with a kickoff call to align their fractional team with your internal stakeholders. They collect access to your existing systems to review your setup and assess any historical cleanup needs. Once the scope is confirmed, they configure reporting templates and set up workflows, along with a timeline for your first monthly deliverables within the agreed 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 owner takes over ongoing alignment and renewal planning, ensuring your modular package matches your operational pace.
Propeller establishes a consistent 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. Your director or CFO handles ongoing advisory needs and escalations. As your needs change over time, services can be adjusted through scope updates or hourly tiers, with changes typically addressed during regular renewal cycles.
Cost, Coverage, and Value
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 $1,500/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?
The Pre-contract Checklist
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 Manager who oversees the transition from start to finish. This allows our CPAs and 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:
PHASE 1: Review & systems handoff 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 pipelines are validated, we kick off your ongoing strategic advisory calls and transition you into a smooth, routine monthly close loop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about working with Graphite.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
