Straight answers before you call.

QuickBooks Online first, and QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, Sage, NetSuite and spreadsheets are welcome. On a system other than QuickBooks Online, the close runs on exports until a move is agreed.

No. Moving to a different system is never a condition of working together. If the review shows a move would save you time or money, it says so, and a migration is quoted as its own project.

No. Plenty of good businesses start that way. For the review, send the workbook you keep and the bank, card and loan statements, and we build the ledger from them.

We work alongside Gusto, ADP, Paychex and QuickBooks Payroll, and we pull your card processor reports ourselves once we have access. E-commerce inventory costing and landed cost sit in Close + CFO.

Never. For the free review you add us as a Reports only user in QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced, or send a few report exports. Once you are a client, you invite us as your accountant, which gives us a login of our own. You can switch either off any time, and we cannot see or change your password, your bank login or your payment details.

No. We never pay anyone, email your customers, file a return or change your chart of accounts without your approval. For banks and cards we use view-only access or statement delivery.

Under our written information security plan, with two-step sign-in. Your documents go to a secure client folder that only you and Bart can open. Owners' Social Security numbers and tax documents go to a separate restricted folder that only Bart can open.

Yes. We use Anthropic's Claude to help prepare the work, with model training turned off. Social Security numbers, the tax forms that carry them and prior returns never go into it or any other AI tool. Bart checks the work before anything reaches you.

Your books and records belong to your company. When the engagement ends we deliver your accounting file and copies of the workpapers, then return or delete everything of yours we hold, whichever you prefer, except the workpapers we must keep.

No. The review is read-only and changes nothing in your books. Many owners look at the report first and decide after.

Often, yes. Paying bills and sending invoices stay with your team unless you add them in writing. We take over the close, the reconciliations, the package and the return.

Your letter names the first month we close. You give your current bookkeeper or firm notice on your own timing. If a previous accountant holds the admin role in your accounting file, the primary admin can change it in a couple of minutes, and we walk you through it.

That is what the clean-up is for. The review prices it as a fixed fee, we bring the books current first, and you get a before-and-after page. The clean-up can also stand on its own.

Yes. If you start partway through a month, nothing is charged for the part month. If the review shows earlier months need catching up, that is part of the clean-up quote.

About 20 minutes to get started. Each month, one short question form that works from your phone, plus the call on the numbers: quarterly in Close, monthly in the other packages.

Every bank, card, loan and payroll statement by the end of business day 2 (most banks can send them automatically), answers to the question form within 2 business days, and a heads-up on new accounts, loans, leases, equipment, lawsuits or tax notices.

Whoever knows what the transactions were for. You name one person to answer the form and one to approve anything touching cash or equity. Usually both are the owner.

Each month's package, with the books closed and every bank, card, loan and payroll account reconciled, by 6 p.m. Eastern on the 8th business day after month end. If we miss it for a reason on our side, 10 percent comes off that month's monthly fee.

Statements, feeds or exports for the month available to us by the end of business day 2, and each question answered within 2 business days of when we send it.

A late statement or answer, access you removed and did not restore within a business day of our asking, a pause for an unpaid fee, and events outside our control such as a hurricane or a full-day outage of your bank or accounting system. In those cases the package still arrives by day 8 with an open items page, or the date moves by the business days lost and we tell you the new date.

You do not have to ask. It goes on the next invoice, which names the month and the reason. It applies to the monthly fee only, at most once for any month. If the engagement has ended, we refund it within thirty days.

The federal business return (Form 1120-S, 1065 or 1120), the Florida corporate return if the company must file one, and for a single-member LLC the owner's Form 1040 with the business schedules when the personal side is simple. Included for every year we close in full.

Owners' personal returns are quoted separately, in writing, once we know what is involved. If you keep your personal preparer, we hand them what they need.

In Close + Controller and Close + CFO we prepare each sales tax return from the books (Florida, and other states by quote) and send it to you with the amount. You approve it, then file and pay from your own Department of Revenue account. We never hold your filing login.

Yes. Bart Kowalczyk is a Licensed CPA. Bayfront is a bookkeeping and tax firm: bookkeeping, monthly reporting and business tax returns. We do not do audits or reviews.