Consulting for Bookkeeping Practices
You know how to do the work. The system is what’s missing. We build the system. The system builds efficiency. Efficiency builds a practice.
Period-end close templates for solo bookkeepers and small practices — the schedules that drive confidence and accuracy — built by people who came out of public accounting and know exactly what your clients and their CPAs expect to receive.
The Problem
The process lives in your head.
When you are the whole practice, the close is whatever you remember to do that month. Every client ends up handled slightly differently, and nothing is written down anywhere but in your own working memory.
It holds up until it doesn’t — until clients and CPAs ask you to explain months-old data with no reconciling documents to back it up.
Why Brookhaven Solutions
We came from the other side of the desk.
The Brookhaven Solutions team comes from a public accounting background. We have worked inside tax firms — receiving files from bookkeepers, chasing down what was missing, and reworking what arrived in no condition to use. We know what separates a file that moves straight through from one that comes back with questions, because we were the ones opening them.
The difference is almost never effort. It is whether the close runs in a fixed order, with supporting schedules that prove each balance before the period is deemed closed. That is what turns careful work into work you can be confident in — and it is faster, because nothing has to be worked out twice.
- We know what your clients’ CPAs need.
- In what format, and by when — because we sat on that side of the desk and opened the files ourselves.
- The same close, every month, every quarter, every year.
- Written procedures with the supporting schedules built into them, so the sequence never depends on what you happen to remember during a busy week in April.
- Schedules that prove a balance, not just carry it.
- Every account ties back to something real. The work checks itself as you go, rather than at year end when somebody else finds it.
- Confidence, and the hours that come with it.
- You stop re-deriving the same figures and hunting for what supports a number. A close that proves itself stops doubling back — and it can be handed to someone else without being rebuilt around them.
What We Build
What the system actually looks like.
A close system is a set of schedules and the order you work them in. These are the ones we build most often, grouped the way your balance sheet already sits.
Assets
- Bank reconciliations
- Accounts receivable aging
- Inventory reconciliations
- Investment roll-forwards
- Fixed asset roll-forwards
- Right-of-use lease assets
Liabilities
- Credit card reconciliations
- Accounts payable aging
- Payroll liabilities
- Intercompany liabilities
- Short and long-term debt amortization
- Lease liabilities — operating and finance
Equity
- Retained earnings roll-forwards
- Shareholder and partner equity accounts
- Owner contributions and distributions
Other Statements and Schedules
- Job costing schedules — for your construction clientele
- Cash flow statements — preparation and guidance for use
- Permanent and temporary difference schedules — prepared for the CPA
Which of these you need will vary by client. That every one of them has a schedule behind it does not.
Templates
Buy the system.
Excel workbooks, built the way a public accountant expects to receive them. Download and use them on your next close.
Complete Close System
Best value$149
Every schedule we build, plus the checklist and the close calendar that sequence them. The whole system, ready to run.
- All balance sheet tie-out schedules
- Job costing schedules
- Cash flow statement workbook
- Permanent and temporary difference schedules
- The close checklist
- The close calendar
Balance Sheet Tie-Out Package
$99
Every asset, liability, and equity schedule, so each balance on the sheet ties back to something you can show.
- Assets — bank, receivables, inventory, investments, fixed assets, right-of-use
- Liabilities — credit cards, payables, payroll, intercompany, debt, leases
- Equity — retained earnings, shareholder and partner accounts, contributions
Individual Schedules
from$19
Buy the one you need. Useful when a single account is the thing costing you hours every month.
- Any single workbook from the catalogue above
- Built to the same standard as the ones in the packages
Excel workbooks, delivered on purchase. Eight individual schedules cost more than the Complete Close System, so if you need more than a handful the package is the cheaper route.
Sold separately
Financial Dashboard
$79The figures a client actually asks about, on one page, with the trend behind each. Built to run off the schedules your close already produces.
Three-Statement Model
$49The income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement, linked so a change in one flows through all three. Works on a projected basis or purely historical.
Customization
Or have it fitted to your practice.
The templates work out of the box. Customization is for when your book does not look like anyone else’s — unusual client types, a close that has to run in a particular order, or work you want handed to someone else without rebuilding it around them.
Whatever you have already spent on templates comes off the engagement. Buying one first is the cheapest way to see whether the method suits you, and it costs you nothing to move up.
Discovery call
Twenty minutes on how your practice runs today, where the close breaks down, and what your clients’ CPAs keep sending back.
Walkthrough
We map how you close a client from start to finish, and find where the hours and the errors are actually going.
We build the system
The schedules rebuilt around your practice, one client type at a time, so you can use them as we go.
You run it
You end with a close you can run every month, every quarter, every year — train someone else on, and point to when a client’s CPA asks how something was handled.
Customization is scoped and priced on the call. We will tell you plainly if a template on its own would do the job.
FAQ
Questions we get.
What exactly am I buying?
Excel workbooks. The schedules listed above, built the way a public accountant expects to receive them, with the formulas and tie-outs already in place. You download them and use them on your next close.
Do you do the bookkeeping?
No. We maintain a small client base of about 10-15, which provides us the opportunity to stay current in the design and use of our systems while helping business owners in our community.
Do you take over my clients?
No. You buy the system and you run it. Your client relationships are yours and stay that way — we are not in front of them at any point or in the market for new clients.
Are you a CPA firm?
No. Our background is in public accounting and we have worked inside tax firms, which is where we learned what an efficient bookkeeping system needs to look like. Brookhaven Solutions does not provide tax, legal, audit, or attest services.
My clients are all different. Will the templates still work?
For most of the book, yes — a bank reconciliation is a bank reconciliation. Where a client is genuinely unusual, that is what customization is for, and whatever you have spent on templates comes off it.
Do I need the customization if I buy the templates?
Most people will not. The templates are built to be used as they are. Customization is for practices whose close has to run in a particular order, or who want the work handed to someone else without rebuilding it around them.
Which package should I start with?
The Complete Close System if you want the whole method, since eight individual schedules already cost more than it does. The Balance Sheet Tie-Out Package if the sheet is the part causing you trouble. A single schedule if one account is eating your month.
A systematized close that proves itself out. Every month, every quarter, every year.
Start with the templates.
The Complete Close System is $149 and covers the whole method. If you would rather talk first, or your practice needs the schedules fitted to it, book a free consultation — whatever you spend on templates comes off the engagement.
That opens an email with a short template already filled in. Prefer to write your own? Use the address opposite.
Email us directly.
brookhavensolutions@outlook.com
Helpful to include:
- Whether you work solo or have help
- Roughly how many clients you close each month
- Where the close breaks down for you right now
We read every message ourselves and reply with a couple of times that work.