Outsourced bookkeeping services for U.S. small businesses
TechBrot runs your bookkeeping function from outside: transaction categorization, bank and card reconciliation, payables and receivables, and a monthly close, in your own QuickBooks file at a fixed monthly fee agreed in writing. Weighing an in-house hire instead? The short comparison is below.
What you can check before you sign
- Fixed fee, written first
- Your own QuickBooks file
- No hourly billing
If your file needs our paid diagnostic first, its fee is credited in full against the cleanup. Either way, you get a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.
Outsourced bookkeeping hands the bookkeeping function — categorization, bank and credit-card reconciliation, payables and receivables, and the monthly close — to an outside firm instead of an employee. TechBrot runs it in your own QuickBooks file for one fixed monthly fee, typically $500–$2,500+/mo, agreed in writing. You keep ownership, approval and payment authority.
They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.
What stood out the most was TechBrot Inc’s attention to detail.
The work that leaves your desk.
Outsourcing the function moves these off your plate — and off the plate of whoever on your team is doing them between their real job.
Hand off 01 · Transaction categorization
Every transaction coded to the right account on a consistent chart of accounts — the work that, done inconsistently or in batches at year-end, produces unreliable reports. Outsourcing makes it a steady, standards-based routine instead of a task someone squeezes in.
Hand off 02 · Bank and credit-card reconciliation
Every bank and credit-card account tied out to its statement each month, so the books actually match reality. This discipline can slip when an owner or a busy employee owns it part-time — and it is costly to fix later.
Hand off 03 · Payables and receivables tracking
What you owe and what you’re owed kept current, so nothing slips and cash position is visible. You keep approval and payment authority; the firm keeps the records accurate and the aging clean.
Hand off 04 · Monthly close and reporting
A real month-end close that produces a clean profit-and-loss, balance sheet, and the reports your tax preparer and your decisions depend on — delivered on a schedule rather than reconstructed under pressure at tax time.
How outsourced bookkeeping works.
Five steps, in order — from first call to a monthly rhythm. The scope is in writing before any work begins. Month to month; either side can end it with 30 days' written notice.
- 1
Discovery call and scope
A short call maps your transaction volume, the accounts and systems involved, and exactly which work you’d hand off. That becomes a written scope and a fixed monthly fee before any work begins — so you know what’s included and what isn’t.
- 2
File review and any clean-up
Before steady work starts, the file is reviewed to see whether the books are current. If they’re behind, a one-time clean-up brings them up to date as a separate fixed-fee scope, so the ongoing service starts from accurate numbers rather than a backlog.
- 3
Set up access and standards
You grant read or limited access to your own QuickBooks file and connect the bank and credit-card feeds. The firm sets the categorization standards and the close checklist — you keep ownership of the file and full control over who can move money.
- 4
Run the monthly rhythm
Each period the firm categorizes, reconciles every account, tracks payables and receivables, and closes the month. You receive the reports and review the close — the recurring execution is off your desk while oversight stays with you.
- 5
Review, adjust, and scale
On a regular cadence you review the numbers together and the scope flexes with your volume — up in busy seasons, down when it’s quiet — without the fixed cost or the management of a full-time hire. Month to month; either side can end it with 30 days' written notice.
In-house or outsourced: the short answer.
An outsourced fee is one predictable number. An in-house hire is the salary plus payroll taxes and benefits, software and tools, your time managing and reviewing the work, idle time in slow months, and the risk that the books leave with the person. Outsourcing also separates who records from who approves and pays, and it covers absences. In-house wins when volume keeps a full-time person busy every day, when the work needs someone on site daily, or when the bookkeeping is woven into operations a remote firm can’t see.
The full comparison, by business size and complexity, is on in-house vs outsourced bookkeeping.
Outsourced accounting: bookkeeping plus the close
Outsourced bookkeeping is one component of the function: recording, categorizing and reconciling. Outsourced accounting is the whole function run as one managed service — the bookkeeping above, plus the layers that make each month’s numbers final and usable. If you need transactions recorded and reconciled, the bookkeeping on this page is the engagement. If you need the entire accounting operation run for you, accurate, on time and CPA-ready, the scope adds these.
A real month-end close
A close on a published calendar: every account reconciled, accruals and depreciation booked, and the period locked, so each month’s numbers are final and verifiable rather than perpetually provisional.
Statements with commentary
All three financial statements — profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow — delivered monthly with plain-language commentary, CPA-ready for your tax professional.
Payroll and sales tax as one function
Payroll and sales-tax compliance coordinated so they reconcile cleanly into the books, instead of a bookkeeper here, a payroll service there and a sales-tax tool somewhere else, with no one connecting them.
Controller oversight, when you need it
Add controller-level oversight — close management, statement review, internal controls — when you need the function owned, not just run.
What it costs, and what stays with your CPA
The whole function is a fixed monthly fee scaled to the work: transaction count, accounts and entities, payroll and sales-tax scope, reporting depth, and whether controller oversight is included. It is priced above the monthly bookkeeping bands, scoped in writing after a discovery call, with no hourly billing. TechBrot does not perform audit, review or compilation engagements, which are licensed CPA work. TechBrot does not prepare or file tax returns; we work with your CPA or EA.
Your bookkeeper prepares every close, and every close is reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor against TechBrot’s written close standard before it reaches you.
When you outsource to this firm, the work is done by your TechBrot team, with every close reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, against a written scope. You get the segregation between whoever approves payments inside your business and whoever records them, which a single in-house bookkeeper can’t easily provide alone.
What people ask before they outsource.
Is outsourcing bookkeeping cheaper than hiring in-house?
Often, yes — once you compare against the fully-loaded cost of an employee, not just salary. An in-house hire also carries payroll taxes and benefits, software and tools, your time managing and reviewing them, idle time in slow months, and the cost and risk of turnover. An outsourced fee is one predictable number that covers the function and scales with your volume.
Do I lose control of my books if I outsource?
No — you keep ownership of the QuickBooks file and the bank accounts, you keep approval and payment authority, and you review and sign off on each monthly close. Outsourcing can actually improve control, because separating the person who records transactions from the person who approves and pays builds in segregation of duties that one in-house bookkeeper can’t easily provide alone.
When is hiring an in-house bookkeeper the better choice?
When transaction volume is high enough to keep a full-time person genuinely busy every day; when the role needs daily on-site presence to handle cash, paper documents, or in-person approvals; or when bookkeeping is tightly woven into operations a remote firm can’t observe. In those cases an in-house hire — sometimes paired with an outside reviewer — can be the better fit, and we’ll say so if it’s yours.
How is this different from online or monthly bookkeeping?
Outsourced bookkeeping services means the whole bookkeeping function moves to an outside firm. Monthly bookkeeping is the recurring engagement that runs it (what each close includes and the fee bands), and online bookkeeping is how the work is delivered (cloud-based, remote, in your own file). For the in-house decision itself, see in-house vs outsourced bookkeeping.
What does outsourced bookkeeping cost?
Ongoing monthly bookkeeping runs $500–$2,500+/month, scaled to your transaction volume, set as a fixed fee against a written scope after a discovery call. If the books are behind, a one-time clean-up brings them current first — a separate fixed-fee scope of $1,200–$15,000+ depending on how far behind. You see the scope and the fee before any work begins. To map your volume and get a quote, call a ProAdvisor at (877) 751-5575.
How do I get started, and is there a long-term contract?
Start with a free discovery call to map your volume and the work you’d hand off, followed by a written scope and fixed monthly fee, month to month to begin. If a clean-up is needed first we scope that separately, and if an in-house hire is genuinely the better answer for your business, we’ll tell you rather than sell you a service you don’t need.
Talk it through before you hire — or sign with anyone.
Tell us what’s wrong with the books. We’ll tell you whether cleanup, catch-up or monthly bookkeeping fits.
Or send the details instead