CPA Firms Houston Alternative sorts what stays here

What we keep

We keep the monthly close, the reconciliations, the statements and reports that do not carry an attest opinion, the payroll setup, and the return. That is the work an owner usually needed when they went looking. The books get current. You still press payday on the provider after the setup is finished. We prepare the return after those months have been closed.

Forecasts and a plain reading of cash also stay here when you want them. They are management work. They are not a substitute for a report a third party has the right to demand in a specific form.

What we hand onward

If a bank, a buyer, or a contract asks for an audit, a review, or a compilation, we stop and say so. Those are attest services. A firm that is allowed to sign them should sign them. We can keep the books in shape so that firm is not starting from a pile, and we can talk to them. We do not borrow their signature.

The Rothko Chapel sits in Montrose, between the Menil and a university chapel. We can all appreciate a quiet room the way you do. We sort the work the same way. The monthly file stays with us. The signed report, when someone truly needs one, goes to the firm that can sign it.

How you will hear the line

You will hear this once, in plain words, on the first call and on the disclosures page. We will not spend the rest of the site explaining a label. If your need is the books and the return, you are looking at the work we do.

If you already know you need a signed report, tell us that in the form. We will help you see what the books must look like first, and we will not pretend we can sign the report.

A handoff when a signature is required

When a signed report has to leave this practice, we write a short handoff. It says which months are closed, which accounts still have open items, and what we will keep doing while the other firm does the attest work. The other firm should not have to rediscover the bank. You should not have to explain the same month twice.

We stay available for questions about the books. We do not stay in the middle of their opinion. If they need a schedule, we can prepare the schedule from the close. If they need to change a judgment, that change is theirs to sign, and we update the books only when you agree the change is real.

After their report is done, the monthly work continues here if you want it to. The existence of a signed report does not move the close to their office. Many owners keep the month with us and send the attest piece out once a year. That split is ordinary, and the engagement letter should say it plainly.

What we answer when someone asks for a signature

The request is usually one of three things. Statements for a period. A letter that blesses those statements. Or a return. We can prepare the first and the third when the months are closed. The letter that blesses them has to leave this practice. We say that split in the first reply, so a week does not pass on a wrong assumption.

If another firm wants a trial balance, we can send one taken from closed months, labeled with the day it was pulled. A trial balance from an open month would look finished and would not be. We do not send that file. You can tell them the month is still in progress. That sentence helps them more than a file we already know will change.

If you want both kinds of work in the same year, the engagement letter should say the split. Our side names the monthly close and the return. Their side carries the signature. When the year turns, the letter still explains the split, and you do not have to rebuild the relationship every January.

Keep a copy of what you sent them. If their questions come back about a month we closed, we can answer from the reconciliation without starting over. You stay the person who decides whether their proposed change is real enough to enter the books.