Two different jobs, not two names for the same thing
Most owners use the words bookkeeper and accountant like they mean the same thing. They don't. A bookkeeper records what happens in your business as it happens, week by week, so the numbers stay current. The tax side takes that finished record and turns it into a filed return. Same numbers, different job, different time of year.
What a bookkeeper actually does
A bookkeeper handles the day to day. That means sorting every charge on the business card, matching deposits to invoices, reconciling the bank account each month, and telling you what you made and what you spent. Good bookkeeping is boring on purpose, because it's the same work every month done on time so nothing piles up. That steady rhythm is what our monthly bookkeeping service is built around.
What the tax side actually does
Tax work is seasonal. Somebody takes a full year of records, applies the rules, and files the return for the LLC and for you. All of that leans on the books being right. When the books are a mess in January, the first weeks of the season get spent rebuilding last year instead of filing it, and that is time you pay for. Tax preparation and filing is the second half of the same story.
So which one does your LLC need?
Most small LLCs need both, in different amounts. The bookkeeping runs all year, every month, because that is the part that keeps you out of trouble. The tax work happens once a year, plus a check in or two if you send quarterly estimates. Owners who skip the monthly work to save money usually pay it back in the spring, when someone has to rebuild twelve months from bank statements.
There is one case where you can wait on a bookkeeper. If you started the LLC this year, have a handful of transactions a month, one business bank account, and no employees, you can keep clean records yourself and hand them over in February. That works until it doesn't. The month you add a loan, inventory, a second income stream, or your first employee, doing it yourself starts costing more time than it saves.
Not sure which one you need first?
Tell us what your books look like right now and we will give you a straight answer on a free call.
New England changes the answer more than people think
Where you sit on the map changes the work. New Hampshire has no general sales tax and no wage income tax, so a small LLC here often has less state paperwork than one across the river. That surprises owners who move a business up from Lowell or Worcester. It doesn't mean there is nothing to file, and it doesn't follow you the moment you work in another state.
Vermont and Massachusetts both have a state sales tax and state income tax withholding. If you have an employee there, somebody has to register, withhold, and file on a schedule that doesn't wait for you. That is payroll, and it lands on whoever keeps the books by default. Our payroll help exists because it is a common place for small LLCs to fall behind.
Then there is the border. Plenty of businesses up here sit minutes from a state line. A contractor based in Nashua can work half his jobs in Massachusetts, and a shop in Brattleboro can sell to people from three states in one afternoon. Cross the line to do the work and you can end up filing in more than one place, which means your books have to track where the money was earned, not only how much came in. That is a decision made in real time, and it is painful to reconstruct eleven months later.
What this actually costs
There is no price list here, and any number quoted before someone has looked at your bank statement is a guess. What moves the number is transaction volume, how many accounts you have, whether payroll is in the mix, and whether the return touches more than one state. Tax preparation is quoted separately from the monthly work.
Your exact number depends on your business, your transaction volume, and what you actually need, and we give it to you after a free consultation. Before you accept any quote, ask what that price includes, how often the account gets reconciled, and whether the same people will prepare the return.
The math most owners miss
Cleanup costs more than upkeep. Rebuilding a year of records takes longer than doing that same year one month at a time, so going without a bookkeeper for twelve months tends to cost more, not less. If you are already behind, catch up and cleanup bookkeeping gets you current, and the monthly work is what keeps you there.
Signs you have outgrown doing it yourself
You are guessing at your profit. You haven't reconciled the business account in more than two months. You paid a bill twice and found out from the vendor, or you are holding cash for taxes with no real idea whether it is the right amount. You just hired your first employee. Any one of those means the record keeping has grown past what a spreadsheet and a Saturday can handle.
What to ask before you hire anyone
Ask who does the work, not who sells it. Ask how often you will see a report and what is on it, because a profit and loss statement you can read is worth more than a folder of receipts. Our financial reporting is written for an owner, not for a filing cabinet.
Then ask the question that matters most. Does the person keeping your books talk to the person preparing your return? When those two never speak, you become the messenger, and things get lost in that gap every spring.
Books and taxes, one team
We keep the records current all year and build the return from them, so nothing gets handed off in March.
How we handle it
We do both jobs with one team. The books stay with the same team all year, and the return gets prepared from them at the end of it, so it comes from records that are already clean. We work with small businesses across New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and we work remotely, so where your business sits in those three states doesn't change the service. Every business is a little different, so treat this as general guidance and ask us about your own setup. We are here Monday through Friday, 10am to 7pm, at (603) 805-2308.
