Small Business Accounting · Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood, FL

Small Business Accounting That Gives You a Clear, Current Picture of Your Numbers

Running a small business in Broward County means juggling payroll, sales tax, and a dozen other numbers that never sit still. Our small business accounting services give you monthly financials you can actually read, a CPA who personally reviews your books rather than software running on autopilot, and a service built around how your business actually operates -not a generic package. If you've outgrown a bookkeeper-only setup, or you're tired of guessing what your numbers mean when tax season hits, this is the kind of accounting partner built to close that gap.

FLORIDA CPA (AC61458) & MARYLAND CPA (13054) FICPA MEMBER QUICKBOOKS & XERO PARTNER FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION SERVICING FORT LAUDERDALE - HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA & ALL 50 STATES

Tell us about your Accounting needs.

Schedule a 15-minute call with a CPA.

What you get

What's Included in Our Small Business Accounting Services

Our services cover three essential things every growing business needs and rarely gets in one place.

Full-Cycle Bookkeeping

Full-cycle bookkeeping means every transaction - every deposit, card swipe, vendor bill, and payroll run - is categorized, coded, and reconciled against your actual bank and credit card statements, not just imported and left alone.

We handle accounts payable and receivable, bank and credit card reconciliation, payroll journal entries, and the categorization work that determines whether your numbers mean anything at tax time. This is small business bookkeeping the way it's supposed to work: current every month, not reconstructed every April. If your books are already behind, we start with a cleanup before we take over ongoing bookkeeping, so you're not building monthly reports on a broken foundation. We support both Cash and Accrual accounting methods. For businesses operating on an accrual basis, we perform full Balance Sheet account reconciliations to maintain absolute accuracy.

Financial Statements & Reporting

You get a Profit & Loss statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow statement every month, prepared to GAAP-compliant reporting standards - the same format a bank, landlord, or potential business partner expects to see, not a QuickBooks export with unexplained numbers. Each set of financial statements comes with a short written summary of what changed since last month and why it matters.

This is also where cash flow visibility actually comes from. A profitable month on paper can still leave you short on cash if receivables are slow or a big expense hit early - your financial statements should make that gap visible before it becomes a problem, not after. If you're applying for a small business loan, bringing on an investor, or just trying to answer "can I afford to hire right now" with real numbers instead of a gut feeling, this is the reporting that makes that possible.

Monthly Close & Reconciliation

A monthly close is the discipline of locking down last month's numbers - every account reconciled, every entry reviewed, nothing left open - before moving on to the next one. Without it, small errors compound: a miscategorized expense in March is still wrong in September, and by the time you notice, it's touched six months of reports.

Our monthly close process includes cash reconciliation and bookkeeping with dedicated financial oversight (non-reviewed and non-audited). As certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors and Xero Partners, we ensure your software is correctly structured and reconciled every single month.

What we fix

Common Small Business Accounting Problems We Fix

Commingled Accounts

Business and personal expenses running through the same card or account. It's the fastest way to lose deductions and complicate a return - we separate and clean this up first.

Books Too Far Behind To Trust

Months of unreconciled transactions and a bookkeeping file nobody's opened since Q1. We catch up with your books before we build anything on top of them.

Missed Estimated Tax Payments

Federal estimated payments are due April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15. Miss one and the IRS charges interest on the shortfall from that date forward.

Sales Tax Nexus Confusion

Selling to customers outside Broward County, or outside Florida, can trigger tax collection obligations you didn't know you had. We help you figure out where you actually owe.

Misclassified Transactions in DIY Software

Accounting software doesn't know the difference between a capital purchase and an expense unless someone tells it. Left unchecked, this quietly distorts your P&L every month.

No Clear Read on Profitability

Revenue is up, but you can't say why the margin is down. That's a reporting problem, not a business problem - and it's fixable

CPA Over Software

Why Small Business Owners Choose a CPA Over Software Alone

Ask the small business owners searching for the best CPA for small business needs what they actually want, and most will describe the same thing: someone who catches problems before the IRS does, not after. That's the gap between software-only bookkeeping and CPA-led accounting.

QuickBooks, Xero, and similar tools are good at recording what you tell them. They're not good at knowing that a specific deposit was a shareholder loan and not revenue, that your S-corp reasonable compensation might sit under IRS scrutiny thresholds, or that a transaction pattern looks like it's about to trigger a sales tax nexus issue in another state. Software processes; it doesn't interpret. A CPA reviews.

That distinction matters most at three points: when your books need to hold up under a lender's or investor's review, when your tax return depends on judgment calls software can't make (entity structure, depreciation method, reasonable compensation), and when something looks off and you need someone who can actually explain why, not just re-run the same report. A bookkeeping app can tell you what happened. A CPA can tell you what it means and what to do about it - and stand behind that answer if the IRS ever asks.

That's the difference we build small business accounting services around: software runs in the background, but every set of financials and every return gets a CPA's eyes on it before it reaches you.

Who This Is For

Small Business Accountant Fort Lauderdale

Service-Based Businesses

Agencies with recurring invoicing and irregular cash flow. You need bookkeeping that keeps pace with jobs completed, not just cash received.

Retail & E-Commerce

Multiple sales channels, inventory costs, and sales tax collected across more jurisdictions than you registered for. We sort out what's actually owed, where.

Professional Practices

Medical, legal, and other licensed practices with payroll, entity-structure questions, and reporting that has to hold up to outside review.

Growing Teams

You've hired your first few employees, and payroll, reasonable compensation, and 1099 vendor classification suddenly matter in ways they didn't at one person.

Businesses Outgrowing a Bookkeeper

Your bookkeeper is great at data entry but can't answer tax-strategy questions or catch what a CPA would catch on review.

Businesses Behind on Their Books

Six months, a year, or longer since anything was reconciled. We start with cleanup, then move you onto ongoing small business bookkeeping.

How It Works

What It Costs

Small business accounting doesn't have a single answer to "what does this cost," because a five-person service business and a twelve-person retail operation with three sales channels aren't the same job. The cost varies based on transaction volume, accounting method (cash vs. accrual), and account complexity. We communicate your exact scope during your free initial consultation. Onboarding requires a signed engagement letter detailing CPA and client responsibilities, along with an initial retainer.

1

Free Consultation & Rapid Response

We evaluate your current setup, transaction volume, and service needs, and follow up with same-day acknowledgment plus a callback within one business day.

2

Onboarding & Engagement Agreement

During onboarding, we verify your identity and set you up on our secure client portal, which is SOC 2, Circular 230, and HIPAA compliant, for safe document transfer and signatures.

3

Ongoing Bookkeeping

Transactions are categorized and reconciled monthly, not batched up and guessed at quarterly.

4

Monthly Close & Financials

You receive your P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow statement with a short summary of what changed and why.

5

Ongoing CPA Review

A CPA reviews your numbers before they're finalized, catching issues software alone would miss, all year - not just at tax time.

Serving Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood Small Businesses

We serve small business owners across South Florida—including Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood, and Broward County—as well as clients nationwide via in-person meetings or secure Zoom/Teams calls.

Local sales tax rules depend on what you're selling and where your customer is, not where you're registered, and that's easy to get wrong without local experience. Tourism and hospitality also drive a lot of the economy here, which means seasonal revenue swings and staff turnover that generic bookkeeping software isn't built to track well.

We build your bookkeeping and reporting around how business actually runs in Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood, not a one-size-fits-all national template.

Experience You Can Verify

Meet Your CPA

Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA

Founder & Managing Partner

Licensed CPA in Florida (AC61458) and Maryland (13054). Member of the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA), the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA provides tailored advisory and accounting services—in person across South Florida or remotely nationwide.

Every small business runs on different numbers, with different problems and different blind spots, which is why Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA takes a tailored approach- in person or remotely.

Find out more about Arthur: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthurlazaruscpa/

Small Business Accounting

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between bookkeeping and accounting?

Bookkeeping deals with transaction entries, sorting of expenses and reconciliation of accounts. Accounting follows as the second phase where records are analyzed to produce financial statements and tax plans. In other words, your bookkeeper will ensure that you get the numbers right while your CPA tells you how to use them.

Do I need a CPA or a bookkeeper?

If you only need transactions recorded and accounts reconciled, a bookkeeper can cover that. If you need financial statements a lender will accept, tax planning, entity structure guidance, or someone to catch issues before they become IRS problems, that's CPA-level work. Many small businesses need both - which is why we handle bookkeeping and CPA review together instead of as separate vendors.

How much does small business accounting cost?

It depends on transaction volume, accounting method (cash vs. accrual), number of accounts, and whether payroll or cleanup is needed. We price flat-fee, set after a free consultation - not by the hour.

How often will I hear from my accountant?

You'll receive financial statements monthly, with a written summary of what changed. Beyond that, we're reachable when something comes up - a large purchase, a hiring decision, an IRS notice - not just at tax time.

Can you clean up books that are behind?

Yes. This is one of the most common starting points for new clients - six months, a year, or longer of unreconciled transactions. We reconcile and correct the backlog before starting ongoing monthly bookkeeping, so your reporting is built on accurate numbers from day one.

Do you work with businesses outside Fort Lauderdale?

Yes, we can support clients throughout South Florida and across the United States via video calls (Zoom/Teams) and secure remote portals.

What's included in small business accounting services?

Full-cycle bookkeeping, monthly financial statements (P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow), monthly close and reconciliation, and ongoing CPA review - plus tax planning and preparation if you add that service. See the full breakdown above.

Get Started Today

Book a Free Consultation

Tell us about your business and what you need handled, bookkeeping, financial statements, or both, and we'll put together a quote built around your actual scope.

Contact Us

Get in Touch

Office Info

Address

5184 SOUTHWEST 32ND AVENUE
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA 33312

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Hours

Mon–Fri 8am – 6pm
Sat 9am – 2pm

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