Financial Services
You help clients manage their money. We help you manage yours.
Your Clients' Books Are Perfect
You spend your days helping clients make smart financial decisions. Insurance agents review coverage gaps. Mortgage brokers find the right loan products. Financial advisors build retirement strategies. Tax preparers find every deduction. Then you close the office and your own QuickBooks sits untouched for another week.
It happens to most independent financial professionals. You left the corporate world to build something of your own, not to become a one-person accounting department. Between client meetings, compliance requirements, and business development, the bookkeeping falls behind. Bank statements pile up. Commission payments come in from multiple sources and get deposited without reconciliation. Tax time arrives and nobody can tell you what you actually made last year.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Independent insurance agencies, mortgage brokers, financial advisors, tax preparers, and small credit unions throughout Metro Detroit. Any financial services professional dealing with commission income, regulatory compliance, and the challenge of running an independent practice.
What Makes It Different
What Makes It Different
Commission income arrives on its own schedule from multiple carriers or lenders. E&O insurance premiums cost thousands annually. Licensing fees and continuing education add up. The books need to track revenue by source, separate compliance costs from general overhead, and handle the irregular cash flow that comes with commission-based work.
What We Handle
Commission income from multiple carriers and lenders needs systematic tracking. Insurance agents receive payments from different companies with different commission structures and payment schedules. Mortgage brokers get paid at closing, but the timing between application and funding varies by weeks or months. Financial advisors billing AUM fees need to match revenue to the right periods. Without proper tracking, you have no idea if you’re being paid correctly.
Beyond the income side, there’s the compliance burden. E&O insurance premiums, state licensing fees, association dues, continuing education costs. These aren’t just general expenses. They’re the cost of being allowed to do business, and they should be tracked separately so you understand your true overhead. Quarterly estimated taxes get complicated when your income varies month to month. We calculate estimates based on your actual patterns, not guesses.
Commission Tracking and Reconciliation
Commission Tracking and Reconciliation
We set up tracking by income source so you can reconcile carrier or lender statements against what actually hit your bank account. Insurance renewal commissions get tracked against expected payments. Mortgage commission timing gets logged against your loan pipeline. When a payment is late or missing, you’ll know about it.
Compliance Costs and Tax Planning
Compliance Costs and Tax Planning
Regulatory expenses categorized properly. E&O premiums, licensing renewals, CE courses, professional memberships. Quarterly estimated taxes calculated on your real income patterns. Tax preparation support that captures home office deductions, vehicle use, technology expenses, and the other costs specific to running an independent financial services practice.
What Goes Wrong
Insurance agents receiving renewal commissions often can’t tell if carriers are paying correctly. You wrote 30 policies two years ago. How many renewed this year? Are you getting commissions on all of them? Without tracking, underpayments go unnoticed for months. Mortgage brokers close loans in November but don’t see the commission until January. If quarterly estimates don’t account for this timing, you either overpay throughout the year or get hit with penalties.
Financial professionals often skip quarterly estimates entirely because income is too unpredictable. Then April arrives with a tax bill plus penalties plus the self-employment tax that still surprises people who used to receive a W-2. Compliance expenses get mixed with general overhead, making it impossible to see what it actually costs to maintain your licenses and coverage. Deductions get missed because nobody was tracking mileage, client meals, or the home office properly.
Commission Issues
Commission Issues
Carrier payments that don’t match expectations. Renewal commissions that disappear because the policy lapsed and nobody told you. Revenue timing that makes monthly cash flow unpredictable. Income from multiple sources all deposited into the same account without any way to reconcile against statements.
Tax Surprises
Tax Surprises
Quarterly estimates based on last year instead of current activity. The 15.3% self-employment tax that hits harder than expected. Compliance costs not tracked, so you can’t see true business overhead. Deductions missed because records weren’t kept. April turns into a scramble to reconstruct the year.
What Changes
Commission income gets reconciled monthly against carrier and lender statements. When a payment is late or lower than expected, you catch it early instead of discovering it a year later during a random audit. Insurance renewal tracking shows expected versus actual commissions. Mortgage pipeline visibility connects closings to expected income timing. You know what you’re owed and when it should arrive.
Compliance expenses tracked as a separate category. You see the real cost of maintaining your licenses and coverage. Quarterly estimates calculated based on your actual income patterns and payment timing, not the generic formulas that don’t fit commission-based work. Tax returns prepared by someone who understands financial services and captures the deductions you’re entitled to. You get your time back to focus on clients instead of chasing receipts and reconciling bank statements.
Commission Clarity
Commission Clarity
Multi-source income tracked and reconciled. Renewal commissions monitored. Expected payments logged so you notice when something is missing. Cash flow visibility that accounts for the irregular timing of commission-based work.
Tax Confidence
Tax Confidence
Quarterly estimates that actually fit your income patterns. Compliance costs separated from general expenses. Home office, vehicle, and professional expenses tracked throughout the year. Tax time becomes about review and filing, not reconstruction and crisis.
Metro Detroit's Small Business Bookkeeper
The Next Step:
A Short Conversation
Tell us about your business and your current bookkeeping situation. We'll listen, answer your questions, and give you a clear quote.
