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Send your details — we reply within one business day, by email, with a written fixed quote. If it's a fit, we drive the whole handover. If not, you still get a free outside opinion on where your books stand.
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Pilot dropped you into Tier-1 support. Bench's QBO migration left a mess. Your local CPA does taxes but won't touch monthly close. The Fiverr bookkeeper categorised everything as "Office Supplies". We do the whole switch. You give us QBO access. We handle the rest.
Every founder and operator who switches to us comes from one of these patterns. If any feel familiar, the model is the problem — not you.
What started at $499 now costs more than your accountant. Their model rewards transaction volume — not your size.
Bench shut down. You got dumped into QuickBooks with limited support. Twelve months of mis-categorised transactions and no-one will own the cleanup.
Bookkeeper360 / Xendoo / 1-800Accountant put you with someone new every quarter. Each one mis-categorises something different.
Your books are touched by someone in Manila, Bangalore or Cape Town. Capable — but they don't know US sales-tax nexus or 1099 nuances.
Your CPA is great at tax. But asking them to reconcile your bank feed monthly costs $300/hr and they don't really want to do it.
Cancelling means losing QBO access because it's bundled. You're paying for a service you've outgrown to keep your books.
You don't need to fight your current provider. You need to grant us accountant access, give 30 days' notice on the old account, and let us drive the handover. Most switches complete inside 14 days.
We look at your current QBO/Xero file together. We tell you where the mess is, what tier of service fits, and we send a written fixed quote. No commitment.
Plain English. Fixed price for every service you've selected. Month-to-month after the first month. No long contracts.
Settings → Manage users → Add Accountant (in QBO) or Advisors (in Xero). Two minutes. Free. We don't bundle the software — you keep ownership.
We close the previous month using your current bookkeeper's work as the starting point. Your CPA gets a heads-up so they know they're talking to us from now on. We register as Tax Information Authorization with the IRS if you want us coordinating returns.
30 days' written notice (we draft it). They keep working through the notice. We've already taken over the new month — there's no gap.
If your old books are a mess, we run a fixed-price cleanup ($695 / $1,495 / $3,495 depending on severity). Most switches don't need this — but most ex-Bench switches do.
From there, you're on the standard service. Same CGMA every month. Fixed prices. No surprise invoices.
QBO is yours (Pilot doesn't bundle the software, fortunately). You'll lose access to their dashboard, but the underlying QBO file persists. Our cleanup tier rarely needed — Pilot's work is generally clean; you're switching for cost / responsiveness, not data quality.
Most likely scenario: 12+ months of mis-categorised transactions, generic chart of accounts, missing 1099 vendor data. You'll want the Full-Year Cleanup ($1,495). See our /bench-alternative/ and /services/bookkeeping-cleanup/ pages for the full picture.
Both run on Xero or QBO and grant you ownership. Cancellation is monthly notice. Watch for: payroll integration if they were running Gusto/QBO Payroll on a shared admin — re-establish your sole admin before cancelling.
Most diplomatic switch — we coordinate directly with your CPA so they continue handling taxes while we take over monthly close. Often the CPA welcomes this because monthly bookkeeping is the part they enjoy least.
Get your QBO admin role transferred to YOU before cancelling — common trap. They sometimes hold the account hostage. Once you have admin, you can revoke their access and invite us.
| Aspect | Typical US bookkeeping service | BlackpeakCFO |
|---|---|---|
| Who works on your books | Tier-1 staff, often offshore | ACMA CGMA chartered — Stuart directly |
| Pricing model | Tiered by transaction count + add-ons | Fixed price per service, in writing |
| Reply time | 3–5 business days typical | 1 business day, every time |
| Account-manager rotation | Reassigned every 3–6 months | One person. Stuart. Always. |
| 1099 prep | Add-on, $300–$500/season | Included in Full-Year Cleanse + monthly bookkeeping |
| Sales-tax filings (multi-state) | $50–$100 per state filing add-on | $99 per state filing, included if bundled |
| Software ownership | Bundled or hostage | You own your QBO/Xero subscription |
| Cancellation | Annual contract + 60–90 day notice | Month-to-month, 30 days notice |
Rare — most providers want a smooth exit because their reviews and reputation depend on it. The bigger players (Pilot, Bench-legacy, Bookkeeper360, Xendoo) all support standard QBO/Xero Accountant access transfer. The only friction-prone scenario is a sole freelance bookkeeper holding admin rights — for that case, get YOURSELF transferred to QBO admin BEFORE you tell them you're leaving.
No — Stuart Wilson is ACMA CGMA (Chartered Management Accountant via CIMA, plus the CGMA designation jointly with AICPA). For monthly bookkeeping, sales-tax filings, 1099 prep, and CPA coordination, this is more than sufficient. For federal and state TAX FILINGS (1040, 1120, 1120S, 1065), you keep your US CPA — or we'll refer you to one.
That's normal — particularly ex-Bench refugees who got dumped into QBO. We have three fixed-price cleanup tiers: $695 (3-month catch-up), $1,495 (full-year cleanse), $3,495+ (multi-year forensic). See /services/bookkeeping-cleanup/ for detail. Cleanup happens in parallel with starting the ongoing service — you don't wait.
Two weeks end-to-end is typical. Days 1–2: discovery call + engagement letter. Day 2–7: accountant access + records pull + CPA notification + IRS authorisation (Form 2848 or 8821 if you want us coordinating with IRS). Day 7–14: parallel monthly close + cleanup if needed. By day 30 you're fully on the new service.
Switching itself is free — no handover fee. You pay only for the ongoing services at published fixed prices: monthly bookkeeping from $495/mo, fractional controller from $2,500/mo, fractional CFO from $3,995/mo, productised compliance services per the catalogue (1099 filing $149, S-Corp election $395, sales tax registration $199/state).
No. We work with QBO, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, Wave, FreshBooks, and Sage Intacct. If you want to migrate platforms we do it at no extra charge during onboarding — but it's never required.
Send your details — we reply within one business day, by email, with a written fixed quote. If it's a fit, we drive the whole handover. If not, you still get a free outside opinion on where your books stand.
Send My Details →