Willamette Valley Bookkeepers

WILLAMETTE VALLEY BOOKKEEPERS

Bookkeeping You Can Rely On

Willamette Valley Bookkeepers provides ongoing bookkeeping for small businesses and nonprofits throughout Oregon, with a focus on the Willamette Valley.

Good bookkeeping is more than keeping transactions categorized. Your accounts should reconcile, your balances should make sense, and your financial reports should accurately reflect what is happening in your business.

The goal is to maintain your books consistently throughout the year so you can understand where your business stands without spending your own evenings trying to manage QuickBooks.

Nathan Martin, owner of Willamette Valley Bookkeepers

Nathan Martin Owner, Willamette Valley Bookkeepers

SERVICES

What Professional Bookkeeping Looks Like

The purpose of bookkeeping is not simply to get through a bank feed. It is to create and maintain a dependable accounting record of what actually happened in your business.

Monthly Bookkeeping

Business activity moves through checking accounts, credit cards, payment processors, payroll systems, loans, and other accounts throughout the month. Those transactions need to be brought together inside the accounting system and recorded consistently.

Monthly bookkeeping includes reviewing and properly recording business activity, reconciling applicable bank and credit-card accounts, investigating unusual or incomplete transactions, and reviewing the books before the month is considered complete.

Reconciliation is an important part of that process. Importing a transaction from a bank feed does not by itself establish that the accounting records are correct. Reconciliation compares the books against the financial institution’s records and helps identify missing transactions, duplicates, incorrect balances, and transactions recorded in the wrong period.

Once the month is complete, you receive current financial statements that provide a clearer picture of the performance and financial position of the business.

Cleanup & Catch-Up Bookkeeping

Falling behind on bookkeeping is common, especially when an owner has been trying to manage the books while also running the business. Sometimes the problem is simply several months of uncategorized activity. In other cases, the books contain deeper issues that need to be resolved before reliable monthly bookkeeping can begin.

Unreconciled accounts, duplicate transactions, incorrect opening balances, old uncleared items, improperly recorded loan payments, and transactions posted to the wrong accounts can all distort financial statements.

Cleanup work begins by determining what is actually wrong rather than simply categorizing everything that appears on the screen. From there, affected periods can be reviewed, accounts reconciled to available statements, and bookkeeping errors corrected where appropriate.

The objective is not merely to make QuickBooks look cleaner. It is to establish a dependable starting point for the bookkeeping that follows.

Financial Reporting & Support

Financial statements are useful only when the bookkeeping underneath them is reliable. A Profit and Loss statement shows income, expenses, and profitability over a period of time. A Balance Sheet shows what the business owns and owes at a particular point in time.

Together, these reports can tell you considerably more than a checking-account balance. A business can have cash in the bank while losing money, or it can be profitable while experiencing cash-flow pressure because of debt repayment, equipment purchases, unpaid customer invoices, or other balance-sheet activity.

My goal is to provide financial reports that are current, organized, and understandable, and to be available when you have reasonable questions about what you are seeing in your books.

Bookkeeping does not replace your CPA or tax professional. Instead, well-maintained books give those professionals better information to work with when tax preparation, tax planning, financing, or other specialized services are needed.

WHY IT MATTERS

Your Financial Records Should Tell You Something

Accurate bookkeeping does more than satisfy an annual tax requirement. It gives you a dependable record of how the business is operating and helps prevent small accounting problems from quietly accumulating.

Your Bank Balance Is Not Your Profit

Cash and profitability are related, but they are not the same thing. Loan principal payments, equipment purchases, owner distributions, unpaid invoices, and other balance-sheet activity can change the amount of cash available without appearing as ordinary operating expenses on the Profit and Loss statement.

Properly maintained financial statements help separate those activities so you can better understand what the business earned, where money was spent, and how the financial position changed.

Problems Are Easier to Resolve While They Are Recent

An unusual transaction or unexplained balance can often be resolved fairly quickly when the activity occurred recently. Six or twelve months later, the same question may require old statements, receipts, emails, and considerably more reconstruction.

A regular monthly process helps identify those issues while the information needed to resolve them is still readily available.

Good Books Make Other Professional Relationships Easier

Your tax preparer should not have to reconstruct an entire year of business activity before beginning a tax return. Likewise, lenders may request financial statements when evaluating a business for financing.

Maintaining the books throughout the year gives your CPA, tax professional, or lender a cleaner and more organized accounting record when that information is needed.

WHO I SERVE

Built for Businesses That Need a Bookkeeper — Not an Accounting Department

Willamette Valley Bookkeepers is designed primarily for small businesses and nonprofits that need dependable ongoing financial records without hiring a full-time bookkeeping employee.

Some businesses have relatively straightforward operations with a checking account, credit card, and manageable number of monthly transactions. Others have employees, payroll activity, multiple financial accounts, equipment loans, payment processors, multiple locations, or substantially higher transaction volume.

Those differences matter. Two businesses with the same annual revenue can require very different amounts of bookkeeping. A consultant processing fifty transactions each month may have far simpler books than a contractor with employees, several credit cards, equipment financing, and hundreds of monthly transactions.

That is why I evaluate how the business actually operates rather than assuming that revenue alone determines the amount of bookkeeping required.

A Good Fit

The best fit is generally an owner or organization that values organized records, consistent monthly bookkeeping, clear communication, and financial statements that can be relied upon throughout the year.

PRICING

Straightforward Monthly Pricing

I believe you should understand what your bookkeeping will cost before the work begins. Ongoing bookkeeping is therefore priced as a fixed monthly engagement based on the actual scope and complexity of your business.

Transaction volume matters, but it is only one part of the picture. The number of bank and credit-card accounts, payroll activity, loans, payment processors, accounts receivable or payable, locations, and overall condition of the books can all affect the amount of work required each month.

ESSENTIAL

Starting at $300/month

Intended for businesses with genuinely straightforward books, relatively low transaction volume, a limited number of accounts, and uncomplicated monthly activity.

These engagements generally involve routine transaction review, account reconciliation, month-end review, and standard financial statements without significant additional complexity.

SMALL BUSINESS

Starting at $500/month

This is where many established small businesses are likely to fall. These engagements typically involve more monthly activity, multiple financial accounts or credit cards, payroll-related transactions, loans, or other activity requiring a more involved monthly close.

The process remains predictable and organized, but there is more accounting activity to review, reconcile, and maintain each month.

GROWING & COMPLEX

Starting at $750/month

Intended for businesses with higher transaction volume, multiple locations or payment systems, significant balance-sheet activity, more involved payroll or financing, or other bookkeeping requirements that increase the monthly workload.

High-volume or particularly complex engagements may exceed $1,000 per month.

Why Starting Prices?

I do not believe in forcing every business into a rigid package. Your monthly rate is based on the actual work required to maintain your books properly.

After an initial consultation, you receive a clear scope of service and fixed monthly quote before deciding whether to move forward. If significant cleanup is necessary before regular monthly bookkeeping can begin, that work is identified and quoted separately.

Schedule a Free Consultation

THE PROCESS

What Working Together Looks Like

A good bookkeeping relationship begins by understanding how the business actually operates and then establishing a repeatable monthly process around it.

01

Understand the Business

The first step is a conversation about your current bookkeeping setup and how money moves through the business. That includes the financial accounts you use, how customers pay you, whether you have employees or payroll, transaction volume, loans, payment processors, and any bookkeeping problems you are currently experiencing.

If you already use QuickBooks Online, the condition of the existing file also matters. A business with well-maintained books can move into monthly bookkeeping differently from one whose accounts have not been reconciled for an extended period.

02

Establish the Scope

Once I understand the bookkeeping workload, I determine what should be included in the engagement and provide a fixed monthly price.

This is also where responsibilities are clarified: what documents or information need to be supplied, how transaction questions will be handled, whether cleanup is required, and which bookkeeping responsibilities remain with the business owner or another professional.

03

Establish a Monthly Routine

Once the books are current and the process is established, bookkeeping should become predictable. Transactions are reviewed, accounts are reconciled, questions are addressed, the month is reviewed, and financial statements are prepared.

Consistency is one of the greatest benefits of ongoing bookkeeping. Instead of wondering whether the books are current or facing a large reconstruction project every year, you have an established process maintaining them throughout the year.

ABOUT

A Careful, Consistent Approach to Your Books

I’m Nathan Martin, owner of Willamette Valley Bookkeepers.

I believe bookkeeping should be understandable, well documented, and maintained consistently. If a balance does not make sense, I would rather determine why than simply allow the problem to carry forward into another month.

My work is centered in QuickBooks Online and supported by Intuit training in QuickBooks Online, payroll, bookkeeping, financial reporting, and advisory concepts.

Software knowledge, however, is only one part of bookkeeping. Good financial records also require understanding whether activity belongs on the Profit and Loss statement or the Balance Sheet, properly handling loans and transfers, reconciling accounts against independent records, and applying accounting treatment consistently from one period to the next.

That combination of careful recordkeeping, consistency, and clear communication is the standard I want Willamette Valley Bookkeepers to represent.

Intuit & QuickBooks Credentials

Professional training includes QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, QuickBooks Online Payroll, Intuit Bookkeeping, and additional training in Client Advisory Services.

QuickBooks Online
ProAdvisor Level 2

QuickBooks Online
Payroll

Intuit
Bookkeeping

COMMON QUESTIONS

Before We Work Together

A few common questions about ongoing bookkeeping, cleanup work, pricing, and how the relationship works.

What if my bookkeeping is already behind?

You do not need to be completely caught up before contacting me. If the books are behind, the first step is determining what needs to be brought current or corrected.

Cleanup and recurring monthly bookkeeping are different types of work, so significant catch-up or correction work is generally scoped separately before the ongoing monthly process begins.

How do you determine my monthly price?

Pricing is based on the actual bookkeeping workload rather than revenue alone. Transaction volume, number of bank and credit-card accounts, payroll activity, loans, payment processors, accounts receivable or payable, locations, and the complexity of the books can all affect the scope.

After reviewing those factors, I provide a fixed monthly quote before the recurring engagement begins.

Do you prepare income tax returns?

My service is focused on bookkeeping and maintaining accurate financial records. Tax preparation and tax advice should remain with your CPA or qualified tax professional.

One benefit of maintaining the books throughout the year is that your tax professional receives cleaner, more organized information when it is time to prepare the return.

Can you work with my CPA or tax preparer?

Yes. Good bookkeeping should make the work of your other financial professionals easier, not more difficult.

With appropriate authorization, bookkeeping records and financial reports can be made available to your tax professional when needed.

Is the bookkeeping handled remotely?

The bookkeeping process is designed around QuickBooks Online and digital financial records, allowing me to serve businesses throughout Oregon while keeping the workflow organized and efficient.

Do I need to understand accounting or financial statements?

No. You should not have to become an accountant in order to hire a bookkeeper.

Part of providing useful bookkeeping is producing organized financial reports and being able to explain reasonable questions about what you are seeing in understandable language.

Reliable Bookkeeping
for a Stronger Tomorrow

Bookkeeping You Can Rely On