Bookkeeping for Startups and SaaS
Bookkeeping for Startups and SaaS
R&D tax credit support. MRR tracking. Capital raise bookkeeping.
- AIPB Certified
- QuickBooks ProAdvisor
- Xero Partner
- US-based team
Tell us about the business
Two quick taps and we are off.
Pick a business size and your software to continue.
Quote in your inbox within one business day. No follow-up sequence.
Your board deck says one MRR number. Your Stripe dashboard says another. Your bank balance says a third story entirely. None of them are wrong exactly, they're just measuring different things, and the gap between them is where founders lose sleep the week before a board meeting.
Startup accounting isn't harder than other small business accounting, it's just built on a different set of assumptions. Revenue arrives as a subscription, not a sale, so it has to be recognized over the life of the contract instead of the day the card gets charged. Capital shows up as a SAFE or a convertible note before it's ever equity. Burn matters more than profit, at least for a while, and the people asking to see your numbers (investors, not just the IRS) expect them formatted a certain way.
We work with early-stage teams and growing SaaS companies who need books that hold up in a data room, not just a filing cabinet. MRR and ARR tracked against what's actually been billed and collected. SAFE notes and convertible notes recorded as what they are, not lumped into equity because nobody set up the account. Deferred revenue handled so a twelve-month contract doesn't get booked as a lump of cash in month one.
Where startups and saas bookkeeping actually helps
- My MRR dashboard and my accounting revenue never agree and I can't explain why to investorsSubscription billing reconciled against recognized revenue so both numbers tell the same story, with the timing differences documented and explainable.
- We raised on a SAFE and I genuinely don't know how to record itSAFE and convertible note terms recorded correctly from day one, tracked through to conversion at the priced round.
- We sell annual contracts and the cash hits in month one but the P&L looks wrongDeferred revenue set up so annual and multi-month contracts recognize over the service period, not all at once.
- Our CTO says we might qualify for the R&D tax credit but nobody has been tracking anythingR&D-eligible expenses and engineering time tagged as they happen, so your CPA has documentation to work with instead of a reconstruction project.
- Investors asked for a data room and our books are not something I want anyone to seeBooks maintained monthly, closed on a schedule, formatted the way diligence expects. No scramble before a raise.
What's different about startups and saas bookkeeping
- MRR and ARR tracking reconciled against recognized revenue
- SAFE note and convertible note tracking through to conversion
- Deferred revenue treatment for annual and multi-month subscriptions
- R&D tax credit documentation support (bookkeeping records only, not the credit calculation itself)
- Capital raise bookkeeping, from pre-seed through priced rounds
- Monthly close on a schedule investors can rely on
The gap between your dashboard and your books
Every SaaS founder eventually notices that Stripe's MRR number and the revenue line in QuickBooks don't match. That's not a bug. Stripe is telling you what's currently subscribed. Your books, done properly, are telling you what's been earned according to when the service was actually delivered. An annual contract paid upfront shows as cash in the bank on day one and as revenue spread across twelve months on the P&L. Both numbers are correct. They're just answering different questions.
The problem shows up when nobody's reconciling the two, and a board deck goes out with a growth number that doesn't tie to anything in the accounting system. We set up the chart of accounts so deferred revenue, recognized revenue, and your billing platform's MRR all sit in a relationship that makes sense, and we can walk you through the difference in a sentence when an investor asks.
Capital raises get the same treatment. A SAFE isn't equity and it isn't debt exactly, it's a specific instrument with its own terms, and it needs its own line until conversion actually happens. Get that wrong early and your cap table conversations get harder every round after. We track it correctly from the first dollar in.
What's included
- Bank and credit card reconciliation, monthly
- Subscription billing platform reconciliation (Stripe, Chargebee, and similar)
- MRR, ARR, and churn tracking aligned to recognized revenue
- Deferred revenue schedule for subscription contracts
- SAFE note and convertible note tracking
- R&D-eligible expense tagging for CPA-led credit claims
- Monthly investor-ready financial package
- Year-end handover to your CPA or EA
Why startups and saas companies pick us
We speak startup
Burn, runway, MRR, ARR, cap tables, SAFE notes. We run these accounts every week and the vocabulary is native, not translated.
MRR that ties to the P&L
Your billing dashboard and your accounting revenue reconciled and explainable, so a board question about the gap has a one-sentence answer.
SAFE notes recorded correctly
Convertible instruments tracked from the first raise through conversion, so your cap table and your books stay in agreement.
Deferred revenue done right
Annual and multi-month contracts recognized over the service period, not dumped into the month the invoice was paid.
R&D documentation support
We tag eligible engineering spend as it happens, so when your CPA runs the R&D tax credit calculation, the records are already there.
Diligence-ready, always
Books closed monthly on a schedule. When a term sheet shows up and someone asks for a data room, you are not rebuilding three years of history in a week.
Get investor-ready books before you need them
Tell us your stage and your cap table shape. Written quote back the same business day.
Three startup stages
Two founders, a SAFE round, and no revenue yet
Pre-revenue team that just closed a pre-seed round on SAFEs. A handful of vendors, a payroll run or two, and a board that wants monthly burn and runway numbers. Books need to be clean before they need to be complex.
What changes
- SAFE notes recorded from the first close
- Burn and runway tracked monthly
- Basic monthly close established
- Foundation set for future R&D documentation
How startups usually run their books
Founder-run Common pre-seed | Generalist bookkeeper Not SaaS-specific | Outsourced (us) Built for startups | |
|---|---|---|---|
MRR reconciled to recognized revenue | No | Partial | Yes |
SAFE and convertible notes tracked correctly | Partial | Partial | Yes |
Deferred revenue schedule maintained | No | Partial | Yes |
R&D-eligible spend tagged as it happens | No | No | Yes |
Monthly close on a fixed schedule | No | Partial | Yes |
Data room ready on short notice | No | Partial | Yes |
How we price startups and saas bookkeeping
Startup bookkeeping pricing depends on transaction volume, whether you have subscription billing to reconcile, how many capital events you have had (SAFEs, convertible notes, priced rounds), and payroll size. A pre-seed team with a handful of vendors is a lighter lift than a Series A company managing deferred revenue across hundreds of customers.
Fill out the quote form and tell us your stage. We will come back with a written number, usually within a business day. No flat tier to squeeze into, and pricing scales as you do.
Startups and SaaS bookkeeping FAQ
Two things to remember
Every account is reconciled and kept tax-ready by an AIPB-certified bookkeeper. Every account is run inside the US. Those two anchors shape how we handle compliance for startups and saas companies specifically.
Investor-ready books.
Tell us your stage and cap table shape. We will quote your retainer the same day.