For CPA firms and tax practices in Austin, across Texas, and nationwide. Bookkeeping only. We never do tax.

Bookkeeping partner for CPA firms

The bookkeeping back office your firm doesn't have to build.

Turnkey CFO runs the monthly books, cleanup, payroll, 1099s and AP for your clients, then hands you reconciled, tax-ready files in January. We never do tax work, so the client stays yours. Austin based, serving firms nationwide.

Book a 15-min partner call Apply as a referral partner
Ricky West, Founder of Turnkey CFO
Ricky West, Founder, Turnkey CFO

I built Turnkey to be the firm a CPA can hand the bookkeeping to without worrying about it. Our engagement letters send every tax question back to the client's CPA by name. What you get from us is clean books, a written January handoff, and a client who is easier to serve.

30+client books closed monthly
0tax returns. Ever.
100%client retention

QuickBooks Online · Gusto · Ramp · Bill.com · professional liability insured · month-to-month, 30-day notice

Book a 15-minute partner call.

Pick a time here. Bring one client you'd rather not keep the books for.

The short version

Turnkey CFO is an Austin bookkeeping firm that works as an outsourced back office and referral partner for CPA firms. A firm refers a bookkeeping client to Turnkey, or places a client's books with Turnkey directly. Turnkey runs the monthly close and returns tax-ready books each January. The CPA keeps the client and every piece of tax work.

How do CPA firms work with Turnkey CFO?

Two doors. Pick the one that fits the client in front of you. Both leave the client relationship and the tax work exactly where they are today.

Door one

Refer the bookkeeping. Keep the tax.

The client who shows up in March with a shoebox, or the one whose monthly books are eating a senior's hours at a bookkeeper's rate. Introduce them to us. We scope it, price it, and send you a copy of the engagement letter.

  • 10% of the client's first-year bookkeeping fees, $500 minimum, paid monthly as collected. Or decline the fee. Your call.
  • Written client disclosure for your file, every time, whether you take the fee or not
  • A clean January handoff back to you, with a memo of open questions
  • Gold tier at three closed referrals in a rolling year: 15% on everything
Apply as a referral partner
Door two

Place the books with us. Stay in front of the client.

Your firm wants to offer monthly bookkeeping without staffing it. We run the close, the payroll, the 1099s and the bill pay behind you. You decide who the client hears from: us directly, or you with our package in hand.

  • Monthly close with reviewer sign-off before anything reaches you or the client
  • Reporting on your schedule: the 15th, the 20th, or whatever your tax calendar needs
  • Live client dashboards instead of stale PDFs
  • Scope and price agreed in writing before any work starts
Talk through a back-office engagement

What lands on your desk in January?

The handoff is the product. Every client we keep books for arrives at your firm in the same shape, so your preparers open the file and start.

The January package, every client

What you receive
  • Books reconciled through December 31: every bank, card and loan account tied to a statement
  • Year-end balance sheet and profit and loss, with the prior year beside them
  • Payroll tied to the W-3 and quarterly 941s, with owner compensation broken out
  • W-9s collected and 1099-NECs filed by January 31, tracked against the $2,000 threshold
  • Fixed-asset additions and disposals listed with dates and amounts
  • A one-page memo: open questions, unusual transactions, and anything we'd want to know if we were preparing the return
What you stop doing
  • Reconciling twelve months of bank feeds in February
  • Emailing the client for the missing loan statement three times
  • Guessing which "Ask My Accountant" entries were meals and which were equipment
  • Filing 1099s for a client who never collected a W-9
  • Billing senior hours at a bookkeeper's margin

What does Turnkey handle, and what do we never touch?

The line is bright on purpose. Your firm owns everything that requires a license or a signature.

Core

Monthly bookkeeping and close

Transactions coded, accounts reconciled, and a full close every month with the balance sheet and P&L. An accounting lead reviews every close before it reaches you or the client.

Before tax season

Cleanup and catch-up bookkeeping

Months or years behind, brought current with a written finish date. We rebuild the books from the bank statements, not from memory, and hand you a file you can prepare from.

Ops

Payroll and contractor compliance

Payroll run through Gusto with approvals finished three business days before every pay date. W-9s before the first payment, 1099-NECs by January 31.

Ops

Bill pay and accounts payable

Vendor bills captured, approved by the client, and paid on schedule through Bill.com or Ramp. Every payment documented so AP never becomes a year-end mystery.

Reporting

Live financial dashboards

Each client gets a permanent dashboard on turnkeycfo.com: monthly financials, budget versus actual where it's set up, and cash position. Your firm can have the link too.

Specialties

The messy books a tax practice usually inherits

Churches and nonprofits with fund accounting. Multi-entity operators with a dozen QuickBooks files. Contractors with job costing. Medical and counseling practices. Service businesses from startup to about $5M.

What we never do
  • Prepare, review or sign a tax return, federal or state
  • Give tax advice. Our letters send tax questions to the client's CPA by name.
  • Audit, review or compilation engagements
  • Represent a client before the IRS
  • Pitch your client on anything you didn't ask us to

Turnkey CFO is a bookkeeping firm. Tax and legal matters belong to the client's CPA or attorney, and we say so in every engagement letter.

Why are CPA firms handing off the bookkeeping?

Not because the work doesn't matter. Because it is the lowest-margin hour in the building, and there are fewer hours to spend.

Capacity is the constraint

Fewer graduates, retiring partners, a longer busy season.

Firms are turning away new clients to protect the ones they have. Every hour a senior spends clearing a bank feed is an hour not spent on a return, a plan, or a review. A back office gives you that hour back without a hire.

Bookkeeping margins don't survive CPA rates

Clients will not pay preparer rates for data entry.

So the firm either discounts the hour or eats it. Handing the monthly work to a bookkeeping firm built for it puts the hour back at a bookkeeping cost, and your firm bills the work it is actually licensed for.

Cleanup season is the real busy season

The return is the easy part. The February rebuild is not.

A client who arrives reconciled in January is a two-hour return. The same client with twelve months of uncategorized transactions is a two-week project nobody budgeted. We do the rebuild in the fall, on a fixed scope, so January is quiet.

Referral fees with a clear disclosure

Permitted for most non-attest clients, with the client told in writing.

The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct allows a referral fee with written disclosure to the client, and Texas Rule 501.71 bars it where independence is required. We provide the disclosure for your file either way. Talk to your state board if you're unsure.

The client gets a better year

Monthly books, a dashboard, and a firm that answers.

Small-business owners want to know what they made this month, not in April. When the books are closed monthly, your tax planning conversation in November has real numbers in it, and the client remembers who set that up.

Two-way lane

Our clients need a tax preparer they can trust.

Every Turnkey client files a return somewhere. We keep a short list of firms we send them to. Firms that hand us bookkeeping are the first names on it.

How does the handoff actually work?

Three steps. None of them require your firm to manage us.

01

15-minute partner call

We learn how your firm works: your client mix, your software, when you need books closed, and who the client should hear from. Bring one client if you have one in mind.

02

Intro or file transfer

You introduce us by email, or we take the QuickBooks file directly. Scope and price go in writing before any work starts. You get a copy of the engagement letter and the client disclosure.

03

Monthly close, January package

Books close every month with reviewer sign-off. The client gets a dashboard. You get the tax-ready package in January and a memo of open questions, so your team prepares instead of chasing.

Scope and price agreedbefore any work starts
A lead reviews every closebefore it reaches you
You get the findingswhether or not the client hires us
No pitchunless you ask for one

Rooted in Austin. Working with firms nationwide.

We started with Central Texas tax practices because that is where our clients file. The same handoff works for a firm in Denver or Nashville.

Austin and Central Texas

A bookkeeping partner you can meet

Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Pflugerville, Kyle, Buda and San Marcos. We know the Texas Comptroller's sales tax calendar, franchise tax timing, and the local lenders your clients borrow from. Coffee near your office is a real option.

Nationwide

The same package, anywhere in the US

Everything runs on QuickBooks Online, Gusto, Ramp and Bill.com, so a firm in any state gets the identical monthly close and January handoff. We already serve clients in Texas and Hawaii, and the handoff is identical anywhere.

★★★★★

"Phenomenal working with Turnkey CFO. Our finances have never been clearer."

Turnkey CFO client · Small business owner

Questions CPA firms ask us first

Do you prepare tax returns?

No. Turnkey CFO is a bookkeeping firm and never prepares, reviews or signs a return. Every engagement letter sends tax questions back to the client's CPA by name. That is what makes us safe to refer to. There is no tax practice on the other side of the handoff.

Will you try to take over my client?

No. You keep the relationship and all tax and advisory work. We run the books and report to you, or to the client, whichever you prefer. We have no tax service to sell them, so there is nothing to compete over.

How does the referral fee work for a licensed CPA?

You can take 10% of the client's first-year bookkeeping fees, $500 minimum, paid monthly as collected. Or you can decline the fee. Either way we give you a written client disclosure for your file. If your firm performs attest work for that client, independence rules generally mean you should decline. Talk to your state board if you're unsure.

Can the client stay on our firm's engagement letter?

Yes. If your firm wants to hold the client agreement and subcontract the bookkeeping, we sign a services agreement with your firm and report to you. If you'd rather we engage the client directly, we send our own letter and copy you.

What does the January handoff include?

Books reconciled through December 31. Year-end balance sheet and P&L with the prior year beside them. Loan and card balances tied to statements. Payroll tied to the W-3. 1099-NECs filed by January 31. A fixed-asset list. And a one-page memo of open questions so your preparer isn't chasing the client in March.

What software do you work in?

QuickBooks Online for the books, Gusto for payroll, Ramp and Bill.com for spend and bill pay, Expensify where the client already uses it. If a client is on desktop QuickBooks, we migrate them to Online as part of onboarding.

Do you only work with firms in Austin?

We're based in Austin and work with firms across Central Texas, including Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown and San Marcos. Because everything runs on QuickBooks Online, firms anywhere in the United States partner with us the same way.

How fast can you take a referred client?

We hold the intro call within a few business days of the referral. Scope and price go in writing before any work starts. Most clients are in a monthly rhythm within two to three weeks, and every cleanup engagement has a written finish date.

What if the client is years behind?

That is most of what we inherit. We rebuild from the bank and card statements, reconcile each year to the filed returns where they exist, and hand you a file you can prepare from. The cleanup is scoped and priced separately from the monthly work, and it has a finish date.

Can a client cancel?

Month-to-month, 30-day notice. No multi-year contracts. Clients stay because the books are good, not because the paperwork traps them, and that protects your name too.

Have a client you'd rather not keep the books for?

Book a 15-minute call, or apply to the partner program and we'll set up the referral lane. No pressure, no pitch.

Book a 15-min partner call Apply as a referral partner

Prefer email? Ricky@turnkeycfo.com

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