Running a real business on numbers you don't believe.
Somewhere past $500K in revenue, do-it-yourself bookkeeping stops working. It usually shows up in three ways.
You can't trust the numbers.
The P&L says one thing, the bank says another, and "Miscellaneous" keeps growing. So you set the reports aside and run on instinct.
The books close late — or never.
March gets reconciled in July, if at all. By the time a number is final, the decision it should have informed is long gone.
You can't see next month's cash.
You know today's balance. You don't know what it looks like after payroll, rent, and the two big invoices that may or may not get paid on time.
Bookkeeping is the engine. Decisions are the product.
The mechanics run on systems Stephen builds; the hours they free go to the work that pays you. Most engagements start with cleanup, then settle into a monthly rhythm.
Clean numbers
Backlog brought current, then every account reconciled monthly on a fixed date — run on an automated close system, reviewed personally.
- Historical backlog categorized, documented, reconciled
- Your books live in your QuickBooks — you own everything, always
- Close delivered by a fixed business day you can plan around
- Fixed quote before any work starts
Decision-ready reporting
A monthly packet in plain language — what moved, why it moved, and what deserves your attention.
- P&L, balance sheet, and cash summary in plain language
- Margin and trend view across twelve months
- 13-week cash-flow outlook
- Delivered by a fixed business day, every month
Advisory & benchmarking
A standing conversation about margin, pricing, and cash — grounded in how you compare against your industry.
- Monthly review call focused on the next decision
- Industry benchmarking via Summit's in-house tooling
- Margin and pricing analysis with real numbers
- Clean year-end handoff to your CPA or tax preparer
And when clean numbers produce consistent surplus, the next conversation is what that profit should do — a chapter of Summit Advisory currently in development.
Four steps to a monthly rhythm.
Fit call
Twenty minutes. You describe the business and where the books stand; we tell you honestly whether we're the right fit.
Diagnostic
We review your file and give you a written assessment: what's broken, what it will take to fix, and a fixed quote for both.
Cleanup
The backlog gets cleared once, properly — reconciled to statements and documented so it stays fixed.
Monthly close & review
Each month you receive a closed set of books, a plain-language reporting packet, and a review call to walk through it.
Twelve months, from backlog to decision-ready.
Drag through a year of sample data. This is the shape of the visibility you get: cash, margin, receivables, and a close date you can set your watch to.
Where do you stand against your industry?
Three inputs, ten seconds. This teaser runs on illustrative sample distributions — the full scorecard, built on real industry data and your actual books, is part of the diagnostic.
Sample data — illustrative distributions for demonstration. The engagement version runs on government industry data and peer financials.
The engine behind the scorecard.
An in-house system being tested inside Summit Advisory that automates the mechanics of the close and benchmarks every client against their industry. A month-end close that takes a bookkeeper four hours runs in under thirty — 87.5% less time on mechanics, 8× the throughput — so the hours go to margins, pricing, and decisions instead.
One person who actually knows your books.
Stephen Snyder
Founder, Summit Advisory
I started Summit Advisory because most owner-led businesses get bookkeeping as data entry: transactions coded, box checked, nothing learned. The books exist so you can see margin, cash, and where the next dollar should go.
So the work here is built around a monthly close you can plan on, numbers reconciled to the bank rather than "close enough," and a standing conversation about what the numbers mean. When it's time for taxes, your preparer gets a clean file instead of a shoebox.
- Led a multi-million-dollar debt restructuring for one of Texas's largest furniture retailers
- Built the finance foundation for a separate multi-million-dollar furniture company, from entity setup onward
Engagement details anonymized; specifics shared in conversation.
- 14 months since the last reconciled month
- Three bank feeds connected, none matched to statements
- $23,400 in duplicated and miscategorized expenses
- Jobs priced on instinct — no view of margin by month
- Caught up and reconciled to statements in six weeks
- Monthly close delivered by business day 10
- Duplicates removed; expense categories the owner can read
- Monthly margin view — pricing conversations now start from real numbers
The questions owners ask.
How is pricing structured?
Two parts. Cleanup is a one-time project with a fixed quote after the diagnostic — you know the number before we start. Monthly service is a flat monthly fee based on transaction volume and number of accounts, quoted in writing. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices.
Do you do my taxes?
No. We don't prepare or file tax returns, and we don't give tax advice. What we do is keep your books clean and closed monthly, then coordinate with your CPA or tax preparer at year-end — they get a reconciled, documented file instead of a box of questions, which typically makes their work faster.
What software do you support?
QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. If you're on Desktop and considering a move to Online, we can manage that migration as part of cleanup — but we don't force it.
What happens to my books if we part ways?
Nothing dramatic. Your books live in your own QuickBooks file and you own every record. There's no proprietary ledger to escape from — if we stop working together, you keep everything, current through the last close.
Do we need to be local to work together?
No. The work is fully remote — secure document sharing, bank feeds, and a monthly video review call. We're based in Dallas–Fort Worth, so if you are too, in-person meetings are easy to arrange.
Start with twenty minutes.
Tell us where the books stand — behind, messy, or just not useful — and we'll tell you what fixing it looks like and whether we're the right fit. If we're not, you'll leave with a straight answer either way.
Book a 20-minute fit callNot ready to talk?
Request the sample monthly reporting packet — the same format clients receive, with sample data — and see whether it's the visibility you're missing.