Bookkeeping for startups and software companies
Clean, investor-ready books and SaaS revenue recognition done right — from a team with 20+ years of accounting experience inside billion-dollar brands.
20+ years of accounting experience working in billion-dollar brands.
Los Angeles–based. US-based accountants — never offshored.
Most startups don't die from a bad product.
They run out of cash.
Cash is the lifeblood of a company. The month you can't make payroll, it's over — no matter how good the product is, how fast you're growing, or how big the market gets. And you rarely see it coming from a bank balance alone.
Most founders treat bookkeeping as a once-a-year chore, so it's late, messy, or missing — which means they're flying blind on the one number that ends companies. Clean, current books flip that. They stop being a compliance task and become an instrument you steer with.
What a good accountant turns your numbers into
- A runway number you can trust — and enough warning to raise before it gets tight, when you still have leverage.
- Burn you can actually control, because you can see exactly where the money goes and model a hire or a price change before you commit.
- Investor-ready books, so a raise closes on your timeline instead of stalling for weeks on finance questions.
- Revenue recognized correctly, so your growth curve is real — not an artifact of booking annual deals in one month.
- Tax handled and credits claimed — including the R&D credit, which can hand a pre-revenue startup real cash back.
That's what we do. See what we handle or book a consultation.
The finance problems change at every stage
From your first bank account to an audit-ready finance team, here is what founders wrestle with as they raise — and where we come in.
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1Pre-seed
Idea to first cheque
- Incorporate right: Delaware C-corp, 83(b) filed, a clean cap table
- Separate business banking — stop commingling personal and company money
- A basic chart of accounts and monthly transaction categorisation
- Know what's owed: Delaware franchise tax, federal and state deadlines
- Record SAFE and friends-and-family money as financing, not revenue
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2Seed
First institutional round, early revenue
- Move from cash to accrual books and a real monthly close
- SaaS revenue recognition (ASC 606) and a deferred-revenue schedule
- First payroll: state registrations, founder salary, W-2 vs 1099
- Claim the R&D tax credit — up to $500k against payroll tax
- A 13-week cash forecast so runway and burn are never a surprise
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3Series A
Scaling, a board, real reporting
- A board-ready reporting pack by business day 10, every month
- Locked metric definitions: ARR, NRR, gross margin, CAC payback, burn multiple
- Diligence-proof books: 24 months of accrual history, a clean data room
- Sales-tax nexus — register in the states where you've crossed the threshold
- Multi-state payroll and equity-comp accounting; your first finance hire
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4Series B
Growth, margins under scrutiny
- Gross margin under the microscope: COGS structure, hosting and AI inference cost
- Driver-based FP&A: scenario planning and a hiring plan tied to cash
- Quality of revenue: cohort retention, concentration, the ARR bridge
- Multi-entity and international subsidiaries; transfer pricing
- GAAP financials and audit readiness; treasury across multiple banks
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5Series C+
An institutional finance function
- A full GAAP audit and lightweight internal controls
- Tax provision (ASC 740), state apportionment, international tax
- Revenue recognition at scale — complex, multi-element contracts
- M&A or IPO readiness: sell-side quality of earnings, working-capital peg
- Lender and investor reporting; covenant compliance; ERP migration
Wherever you are on this line, book a consultation and we'll tell you what to fix first.
What we handle
Everything that keeps your books close-ready and your investors confident — so founders can stay focused on the product.
Incorporation & setup
Delaware C-corp or LLC set up right — equity, 83(b), cap table, share count, and a clean first-year calendar.
Learn more →Monthly bookkeeping
Reconciled books every month on a cash or accrual basis, closed by a deadline you can count on.
Learn more →Financial statements
P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statements that hold up in a board meeting or a data room.
Learn more →SaaS revenue recognition
MRR/ARR, deferred revenue, and ASC 606 handled correctly as annual and monthly plans scale.
Learn more →Cash flow & runway
Burn rate, runway, and 13-week cash forecasts so you always know how long you have.
Learn more →AP / AR & payroll
Bill pay, invoicing, collections, and payroll coordination kept off the founding team's plate.
Learn more →Fundraising & due diligence
Investor-ready reporting packages and clean books that survive diligence without a scramble.
Learn more →Built for software companies
Software businesses don't fail an audit on the easy stuff. We handle the accounting that generalist bookkeepers get wrong.
- Deferred revenue and ASC 606 for annual, monthly, and usage-based billing
- MRR, ARR, net revenue retention, and gross margin by true cost of revenue
- R&D cost treatment, capitalized software, and Section 174 questions
- Multi-entity and multi-currency consolidation as you expand
- Clean cap-table-adjacent records for your next priced round
Verify us on CPAVerify
Both partners are licensed Certified Public Accountants based in Los Angeles, California. Look us up on the national CPAVerify registry.
CPA031269
CPA121400
How we diagnose your business
We don't quote blind. We look at your real numbers first, tell you what we find, then scope and price the work — so what you pay for is what you actually need.
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1
Book a consultation
Tell us where things stand and what isn't working.
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2
Sign an NDA
We put an NDA in place so we can review your actual financials.
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3
Diagnosis & audit
We go through the books and tell you what's wrong, what to fix, and what matters most.
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4
Scope of work
We lay out exactly what we'd take on and how it would run.
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5
Fixed quote
Only then do you get a price — based on what we found, not a guess.
Tell us about your startup. We'll point you to the answer.
Eight quick questions, about two minutes, and no email needed to see your result. We hand you the exact guides and tools for your situation — and tell you honestly whether a call with a CPA is even worth your time.
Start the 2-minute quiz →Meet our partners
Studio-scale finance experience and Big Four audit rigor, applied to companies at the seed and growth stage.
SDStanford Dai
Two decades in media and entertainment finance at studio scale, now bringing that discipline to startup books and reporting.
ACAlan Chen
Big Four audit training plus operating experience inside high-growth software companies — the exact blend software founders need.
One less thing to lie awake about
Your books, your tax deadlines, and your investor reporting are handled by licensed CPAs who have done this inside startups and billion-dollar finance teams. You get the output — knowing it’s done right is the point.
Nothing slips through
Monthly close, federal and state deadlines, Delaware franchise tax, 1099s — tracked and filed on time, every period. You’re not the one holding the calendar.
Real people, US-based
Los Angeles CPAs, never offshored. The person who knows your numbers is the person who answers your email — not a ticket queue.
Always diligence-ready
When a term sheet lands, your data room is already clean. No three-week scramble, no re-cutting stale numbers while the round waits.
What founders say
A few words from teams we work with.
“They rebuilt our books to accrual and had a deferred-revenue schedule ready before our Series A diligence even started. The round didn’t stall on finance questions.”
“First bookkeeper we’ve had who actually understood MRR and didn’t book our annual deals as one big month of revenue.”
“Our monthly close went from a two-week scramble to something I genuinely don’t think about anymore. The statements just show up.”
Frequently asked questions
Still deciding? Start with the 2-minute quiz or book a consultation.
Who do you work with?
When is it worth bringing you in?
How much does it cost?
Do you do our tax returns too?
Can you get our books ready for a raise?
Are you US-based?
Stop trying to figure the books out yourself
Twenty minutes with a CPA who has seen your exact situation before beats another week of open tabs and second-guessing. Grab a time with Alan below, use the contact form, or email alan@freecashflow.io.
