Frequently Asked Questions

We've been in business since 2018.

As Certified Pro Advisors, we are experts in QuickBooks installation, setup, payroll, reporting, and other day-to-day functions of the software. Additionally, to remain certified, we are required to pass an annual exam facilitated by Intuit.

Nope. Aron doesn't work for Intuit directly.

RefinePlan is an outsourced cloud bookkeeping, accounting, and financial advisory firm. We work primarily with small to medium businesses in the e-commerce sector. We harness technology to reduce data entry, so we have more time to work directly with our clients and their individual business needs.

At RefinePlan Accounting, we are proud to have the best talent on board. Our finance and accounting services comprise skilled, well-trained QuickBooks Online certified accountants and financial experts experienced in using the latest finance and accounting software.

QuickBooks and other bookkeeping software give you a tool to do your bookkeeping. While RefinePlan does your bookkeeping for you provides the support you need and a mobile-friendly platform to access your up-to-date financials.

You will first fill out a questionnaire and then schedule a call with us. Then your accountant will help get you started in the most seamless way possible. For more information, refer to www.refineplan.com/get-started.

Get in touch with us, and we'll come up with a creative solution for you.

We tailor our services and cutting-edge technology for small and midsized businesses. At RefinePlan, our passion is helping our clients find peace of mind by no longer worrying about their financials. We do it all for you. You get real-time accounting at a fixed monthly rate along with support from a helpful accountant that has your back!

Provides a seamless accounting experience and saves businesses lots of time. Enables businesses to engage with financial experts who have the skills needed to support your business goals. It is cheaper than hiring a full-time salaried employee.

Absolutely. By outsourcing your bookkeeping to RefinePlan, you're free to focus on making money rather than tracking it. You'll gain peace of mind knowing that your transactions are appropriately documented while having your financial information available for swift decision-making. Plus, outsourcing your bookkeeping lowers your overhead–no employee training, IT, and payroll fees are required.

Our valued customers are charged on the first day of the month for services provided for that month.

No. As your business needs change, we'll advise you of any revisions necessary to ensure continued efficiency and continued growth for your company.

RefinePlan strives to provide each client with an exceptional experience, personalized service, and 100% satisfaction. Since each business is unique, and each business owner has distinct needs and challenges, we offer custom service packages to accommodate each client individually. Our goal is to provide unparalleled service and support you to overcome financial barriers, grow your business and reach your goals productively. Our services vary based on the amount you want us to handle, from partial oversight to running your complete daily accounting function. It also may differ by industry and company-specific requirements such as monthly inventory analysis, CFO advisory, sales channel specific integration, a comprehensive sales tax service, managing your bill pay, creating amortization schedules, and beyond. We provide you with several service options personalized to your needs, each quoted with a flat monthly rate.

RefinePlan uses the best accounting technology and inspects each software before offering it to our clients to ensure it meets our high-security standards. All the software we use includes firewall-protected servers and online banking encryption technology (i.e., 128-bit SSL or 256-bit SSL encryption). We also offer automatic offsite storage with the same level of encryption to eliminate the risk of data loss. Additionally, every accountant or bookkeeper that works with RefinePlan goes through a rigorous screening process, including multiple interviews and a criminal record check. So, you can rest assured that the safety of your financial data meets exceptional security standards.

Absolutely. Each month when we close your books, all your records for the period are reviewed by a certified expert bookkeeper using a tested audit process. Any outliers are brought to your attention and resolved immediately if necessary. So we can confidently guarantee that your accounting data is 100% accurate.

You are always in control of your money and decision-making. We'll give you the information and guidance you need to make sound business decisions, but ultimately, it's your business, your money, and you're in 100% control! Furthermore, even if we manage your payroll, sales tax, or bill pay, we will always request your approval before initiating payments on your behalf.

Your questions and concerns are a priority and will always be dealt with promptly. When you begin working with us, we will discuss the exact timing and methods of communication that best suit your needs and schedule.

Absolutely. Our team is here to help! You will have the opportunity to schedule an appointment with your accounting professional at your convenience. Please note that we will discuss the frequency and duration of your strategy meetings during your setup process.

Being behind on your books is quite common for business owners who have many responsibilities to balance. We can get you caught up quickly. We'll get you out of the past and looking ahead.

No! Many customers are behind on their books when they get started with us. We offer catch-up services to help with this.

On average, it takes 2-4 weeks to complete catch-up services. The timing will depend on the number of months you are behind, the speed at which you provide us the necessary documents, and the level of accounting complexity in your business. We conduct some catch-up projects in just one week, and other more complex services take up to 4.

Let us know about any deadlines right away. We're pros at completing books quickly, and we'll do whatever we can to help you hit that deadline!

Never. Our rates are permanently fixed, transparent, and crystal clear. We'll always quote for catch-up bookkeeping upfront, with no hourly rates or hidden charges.

We are QuickBooks experts and work exclusively with QuickBooks Online. If you are not a QuickBooks Online user and don't have a subscription yet, we will handle the entire setup for you. We will even walk you through the software functions and provide you with guides, so you don't have to memorize the steps. Our goal is to ensure you are 100% comfortable navigating the system and confidently perform the bookkeeping tasks essential for your business.

Yes! As part of your setup, we walk you through connecting your business accounts. We set up banking this way as we prefer not to see your credentials to limit liability. However, we’ll support you through every step. It takes less than 5 minutes and has the capacity to connect with most major banks in North America. Linking your bank account gives us limited access, only to view your transaction history and account statements—nothing more. We've also partnered with Hubdoc for a seamless banking and accounting experience. With Hubdoc and QuickBooks online, your banking transactions will download in real-time, providing real-time accounting.

Yes! As part of your setup, we walk you through connecting your business accounts. So we do not see your credentials and can connect with most major banks in North America. Linking your bank account gives us limited access, only to view your transaction history and account statements—nothing more. We've also partnered with Hubdoc for a seamless banking and accounting experience. With Hubdoc and QuickBooks online, your banking transactions will download in real-time, providing real-time accounting.

We connect digitally with your bank transactions, so we will not need your receipts. However, it is advisable to keep them for IRS audit purposes for three years.

We connect your bank and merchant processor accounts to QuickBooks Online for seamless data transfer. So, we'll have most of the transaction information needed for audit-proof books. However, there are certain transactions that we'll request documents from you (like account statements or receipts) to ensure the information we have is correct. But we'll provide you with all the tools to make your bookkeeping seamless, including file sharing. You could use an app to snap photos of your documents and a portal to upload from your PC, laptop, or mobile device. Once you send us the files, we'll take care of the rest.

We take as much bookkeeping off your plate as possible. But we'll need your help collecting statements and answering questions that come up along the way. Additionally, your bookkeeper will be in touch with you if they need clarification on transactions, require specific documents, and notify you when they complete each task.

To ensure we have all the documents necessary to complete your books on time each month. We'll give you a schedule, a process for sending your documents, and even send you reminders.

We can handle the entire bill-paying process for you. We work with software providers such as Bill.com to simplify the payment approval process.

It's often cheaper. It saves time, relieves the administrative burden, and potential tax issues from employers.

The most popular service options are Intuit payroll and Gusto. But given that each srvice offers different benefits, it's best to compare the options to your specific needs.

Generally speaking, you must send out a Form 1099-MISC to all contractors, including Partnerships and LLCs that you've hired and paid more than $600 during the year.

If we manage your payroll, we'll take care of the taxes too.

Online retailers and consumer companies face challenges around managing physical goods (such as COGS, inventory, supply chain, and order fulfillment). They often have complex selling channels (such as multiple platforms, differing fee and payout structures, and multiple payment processors). They also tend to have large transaction volumes. These things affect your books, which is why it's crucial to have a bookkeeper with a solid background in e-commerce.

RefinePlan serves consumer and retail customers of all shapes and sizes across different sectors and business models such as direct-to-consumer, multi-channel retailers, and wholesalers.

We work with many eCommerce accounting software and platforms, including Shopify, Amazon, eBay, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, Walmart, and many more. We are e-commerce experts, so whatever sales channels you use, we'll find an effective way to import your sales correctly and seamlessly.

RefinePlan makes inventory updates in your financial statements every month based on data provided either directly by you or by the source of truth for your inventory, such as an inventory management system (e.g., TradeGecko / Quickbooks Commerce).

QuickBooks Online has a basic inventory tracking feature built-in. Many customers prefer to use other 3rd parties such as TradeGecko for more robust inventory tracking features.

We work with various inventory management solutions but recommend TradeGecko/Quickbooks Commerce and Skubana based on their simplicity of use and ability to scale.

Several different components make up the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a typical Consumer and Retail company: ​We base our calculations on inventory and fulfillment information you share with us for product COGS (i.e., the actual cost of the items sold). For Merchant Fees and Shipping Costs, we track your metrics automatically and categorize your variable expenses in COGS. For all other variable costs you wish to track as COGS (e.g., Storage Costs), we'll create accounts and categorization rules to implement this for your business.

A2X posts your eCommerce sales and fees into QuickBooks Online in tidy summaries that reconcile to the payments in your bank account. Get more visibility into your online shop's performance.

Absolutely. We partner with A2X for more visibility into your eCommerce sales.

All your transaction information is pulled directly from your store, ensuring you have accurate figures month–over–month.

Yes, we can integrate your PayPal and reconcile incoming sales from that account.

We are capable of supporting numerous merchant processors. We'll work with you to connect accounts and pull the data we need to reconcile.

Yes, RefinePlan can separate your merchant fees of all types in your Profit and Loss statements.

Yes, RefinePlan can break out revenue and costs in your P&L by product line and channel. Depending on the degree of granularity you'd like to capture, we recommend doing this in the P&L itself for a more straightforward break out (e.g., revenue by channel). But for more complex analysis via a detailed KPI dashboard (e.g., monthly profitability by SKU).

Sales tax is a specialty in itself, and your dedicated RefinePlan accountant is here to help. For companies with more complex sales tax filings, we recommend a 3rd party software such as TaxJar, Taxify, or Avalara, which directly integrates into QuickBooks Online software.

The determination and frequency of filing sales tax returns depend on sales volume, sales tax due, State, City, County, and other variables. To learn more, speak to your RefinePlan Accountant.

No. But through the monthly categorization, reconciliation, and close books process, RefinePlan ensures your books are accurate each month. We don't, however, prepare or file taxes as part of our service. But with 12 months of accurate books, your finances will be accurate and ready to file taxes at year-end.

Bonus! Professional services are 100% tax-deductible.

Yes. A great way to arrive at your destination without significant delays is with a map. A budget helps you formulate that map.

An Outsourced CFO is a complete solution o business and financial management. An Outsourced Accounting team will handle the critical functions needed for your accounting and finance needs. In contrast, an Outsourced CFO will go a step ahead, providing you with information that is way above the knowledge of essential accounting services.

Yes, we offer KPI tracking and dashboards through CFO Services. For Consumer & Retail clients, our CFO Services can help track KPIs, including marketing metrics throughout the customer funnel. LTV/CAC, inventory turns, and profitability across the product portfolio.

If you cannot figure out why your business is stagnant, not growing fast enough, or in a sudden downturn, or need help coming up with a robust solution. or If your business is expanding rapidly and you need a higher level of expertise and more financial insight to maintain your growth more efficiently.

You should outsource CFO services in two situations: If your business is growing, prefer not to pay or can't afford an extra 6-figure salary for a full-time CFO. or If your business is large but only needs specific CFO services and not a full-time CFO.