What is included in bookkeeping services? Most packages cover five core jobs: recording and categorizing every transaction, reconciling bank and card accounts each month, tracking what you owe (accounts payable) and what you are owed (accounts receivable), keeping the general ledger, and producing monthly financial statements. Many providers add payroll support, sales tax records, catch-up work and cash flow reports. Tax filing, audits and CFO advice are usually separate services.
This guide explains each part of a bookkeeping package, what it looks like month to month, what is normally left out, and how to check a proposal before you sign. If you would rather hand the whole thing over, our bookkeeping services for small business cover the monthly work described here, inside the accounting software you already use.
What are bookkeeping services?
Bookkeeping services are the recording, organizing and checking of a company’s financial transactions, done by a bookkeeper or an outside firm. Every sale, refund, bill, payroll run and bank fee gets entered in the right account, matched to a bank or card statement, and rolled up into reports that show how the business is doing.
The IRS gives a plain list of why this matters. Good records help you monitor the progress of your business, prepare financial statements, identify sources of income, keep track of deductible expenses and support the items on your tax return. A bookkeeping service is the routine that keeps those records complete every month, not just at tax time.
For a growing direct-to-consumer brand, clean books also answer day-to-day questions: which products make money after returns and fees, how much marketing is really costing, and whether there is enough cash for the next inventory order.
A short bookkeeping services description
If you need one line for a job post, a proposal or a board pack: bookkeeping services record and classify all business transactions, reconcile them against bank and card statements, maintain the general ledger and produce accurate monthly financial statements, so the business is ready for tax preparation, lending and decision-making at any time.
What is included in bookkeeping services?
Here is what bookkeepers do in a standard package, in the order the work actually happens.
1. Recording financial transactions
Every transaction is entered and categorized against your chart of accounts: sales, refunds, supplier bills, rent, software, payroll, loan payments and owner draws. Most of this now arrives through bank feeds and app integrations, so the bookkeeper’s job is less typing and more checking that each item landed in the right account.
Two ledgers sit inside this work:
| Ledger | What it tracks | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts payable | Money you owe suppliers and vendors | Bills are paid on time, and nothing is paid twice |
| Accounts receivable | Money customers or retailers owe you | Late payers are chased before they become bad debt |
For a consumer brand, this step also means splitting marketplace and payment processor payouts into gross sales, fees, refunds and reserves, rather than booking the net deposit as revenue.
2. Preparing financial statements
Once the month’s transactions are recorded and checked, the bookkeeper produces the three core statements:
| Statement | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Income statement (profit and loss) | Revenue, costs and profit for the period |
| Balance sheet | What the business owns and owes on a given date |
| Cash flow statement | How cash moved through operating, investing and financing activities |
These reports tell you whether the business is healthy, flag problems early and give lenders and investors the numbers they ask for. Our guide to preparing a balance sheet, P&L and cash flow statement walks through each one.
3. Payroll processing
If you have employees, the bookkeeper records each payroll run, checks wages, deductions and employer taxes against the payroll provider’s reports, and makes sure payroll liabilities clear on the balance sheet. Some packages also run payroll itself through a tool such as Gusto. Either way, payroll errors are expensive to unwind, so this is one of the first things to confirm is in scope.
4. Bank reconciliation
Reconciliation is the monthly check that your books match your bank and card statements line by line. The bookkeeper reviews both sets of records, finds mismatches such as missing entries, duplicates or timing differences, and corrects them. This is also where unusual or unauthorized charges get noticed, so it doubles as a basic fraud control.
5. Tax compliance and support
Bookkeepers do not usually file your income tax return, but they make it possible. They keep deductible expenses properly categorized, track sales tax collected, and keep contractor payment records so year-end forms are straightforward.
One current change worth knowing: for payments made after December 31, 2025, the Form 1099-NEC reporting threshold rose to $2,000 from $600. A good bookkeeper tracks contractor totals through the year so you know who needs a form.
Accurate books also protect you from penalties. The IRS accuracy-related penalty is 20% of the part of an underpayment caused by negligence or a substantial understatement, and the failure-to-pay penalty is 0.5% of unpaid tax for each month it stays unpaid, up to 25%.
6. Additional bookkeeping services
Beyond the core package, many firms offer extra services, usually priced separately:
- Cash flow management: a forecast of when money comes in and goes out, so you can plan inventory buys and avoid shortfalls.
- Monthly financial reporting and review: a short meeting that explains the numbers, not only the reports.
- Bill management: entering, approving and scheduling vendor payments so nothing is late.
- Catch-up bookkeeping: bringing months of overdue records up to date.
- Software setup or migration: moving from spreadsheets or one platform to another and cleaning up the chart of accounts.
- Inventory and cost of goods sold: tracking landed cost and stock value, which matters for any product brand.
Core, add-on or separate: what to expect in a package
Providers bundle services differently, so use this as a checklist when comparing quotes.
| Service | Usually in the core package | Often an add-on | Usually a separate service |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transaction recording and categorization | Yes | ||
| Bank and credit card reconciliation | Yes | ||
| General ledger maintenance | Yes | ||
| Monthly P&L and balance sheet | Yes | ||
| Accounts payable and receivable tracking | Yes | ||
| Payroll recording | Yes | ||
| Running payroll | Yes | ||
| Sales tax records | Yes | ||
| Cash flow forecast | Yes | ||
| Catch-up and cleanup | Yes | ||
| Income tax preparation and filing | Yes | ||
| Audit or review engagement | Yes | ||
| CFO advice, budgeting and fundraising | Yes |
What bookkeeping services do not include
It helps to know where bookkeeping stops, so nothing falls between two providers.
- Tax filing. Returns are normally prepared and signed by a CPA or enrolled agent, working from the books your bookkeeper keeps.
- Audits. An audit must be done by an independent CPA firm, not the team keeping the books.
- Strategy. Pricing, budgeting, fundraising and forecasting are accounting or CFO work. See bookkeeping vs accounting for where the line usually sits.
What bookkeeping looks like month to month
| Frequency | Typical tasks |
|---|---|
| Daily or weekly | Categorize bank feed transactions, enter bills, record sales and payouts, attach receipts |
| Monthly | Reconcile every bank, card and loan account, review AP and AR aging, close the month, send the P&L and balance sheet |
| Quarterly | Review sales tax, check payroll tax filings, send estimated tax figures to your CPA |
| Annually | Year-end adjustments, contractor totals for 1099s, tax-ready package for your CPA |
The month-end close is where most of the value sits. Our guide to the month-end close process explains each step.
What ecommerce and DTC brands need on top
A brand selling through Shopify, Amazon and wholesale has bookkeeping problems a service business does not. Check that any package covers:
- Splitting payouts into gross sales, discounts, refunds, fees and reserves
- Reconciling each sales channel separately
- Inventory, landed cost and cost of goods sold
- Sales tax across the states where you sell
- Deferred revenue for subscriptions and preorders
Our guide to bookkeeping for ecommerce across Shopify, Amazon and other channels covers each of these.
In-house bookkeeper or outsourced service?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median pay for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks at $50,670 a year in May 2025, before benefits, software, training and cover for holidays. An outsourced service replaces that with a monthly fee and a team rather than one person, which is why many small and mid-sized businesses choose it. Our guide to average bookkeeping costs in the US compares the options.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Which of the services in the table above are included, and which are billed separately?
- By what day of the following month will the books be closed and reports delivered?
- Who reviews the bookkeeper’s work before it reaches you?
- Will you work in our accounting software, and who owns the file?
- How do you handle payouts from Shopify, Amazon or other channels?
- What happens if we are behind: is catch-up work quoted separately?
Choose Atidiv as your bookkeeping partner in 2026
So, what is included in bookkeeping services? Recording every transaction, reconciling every account, tracking payables and receivables, keeping the ledger and producing monthly statements, with payroll, cash flow and catch-up work available on top.
Atidiv provides that monthly bookkeeping for consumer brands, ecommerce companies and small businesses in the US, UK and Australia. Our teams work inside the platforms you already use, including QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Sage, Bill.com and Gusto, and support can be a monthly retainer or a one-off project such as cleanup or migration, at custom pricing. See our finance and accounting services or contact us to talk it through.
Frequently asked questions
Give me a bookkeeping services description.
Bookkeeping services accurately record all of a business’s financial transactions, such as sales, expenses, payments and receipts, reconcile them against bank and card statements, and produce monthly financial statements. The result is books that are up to date, ready for tax preparation and useful for decisions.
What is full-service bookkeeping?
Full-service bookkeeping goes beyond recording transactions. It usually includes bank reconciliation, accounts payable and receivable, payroll recording, the monthly close and financial reporting, and often sales tax records and cash flow forecasting. It means one provider owns the books end to end.
Why should I outsource bookkeeping instead of doing it myself?
Doing your own books takes time away from running the business, and mistakes surface at tax time when they are hardest to fix. An outsourced team brings trained bookkeepers, a review step and cover for holidays and turnover, without the cost of a full-time hire.
What are the penalties for inaccurate books under US law?
If inaccurate books lead to underpaid tax, the IRS accuracy-related penalty is 20% of the underpayment caused by negligence or a substantial understatement. Paying late adds a failure-to-pay penalty of 0.5% of the unpaid tax per month, up to 25%, plus interest.
What is included in bookkeeping services?
Bookkeeping services usually include transaction recording, bank and credit card reconciliations, invoice and bill processing, expense categorization, accounts payable and receivable tracking, payroll support, general ledger maintenance and monthly financial reports. Depending on the provider, they may also cover sales tax records, inventory and month-end adjustments.
Does bookkeeping include filing taxes?
Usually not. Bookkeepers prepare tax-ready records and year-end reports, and a CPA or enrolled agent prepares and files the return. Some firms offer both, but they are normally priced as separate services.
How often should bookkeeping be done?
Transactions should be categorized at least weekly, and every account should be reconciled and the books closed monthly. Waiting until year end makes errors harder to find and leaves you without current numbers for decisions.
Maximilian Straub is the Chief Operating Officer for Guild Capital and oversees all areas of the company's strategic operations and portfolio performance across the world. He is also a board member for Atidiv, supporting its growth initiatives. He served as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Spring Place and had previously spent 7 years advising clients in strategy, operational execution and organizational transformation while at McKinsey & Company.