Have a client in mind?
30 min · no prep needed
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For CPA & tax firms

You keep the return.
We take the other eleven months.

Countabl runs the close, the forecast and the cash questions your clients bring you in March. We are not a CPA firm — no tax, no audit, no attest, and no plan to add them — so nothing we do competes for the work you are staffed to do.

Other partner types
You do the tax returnCPA & tax firms
You underwrite the fileBanks & SBA lenders You sit on the boardFunds & angels You're selling the companyM&A & fractional execs
The full partner overview — boundary, mechanics, team →
What actually happens

The three requests that arrive
at the worst possible time.

None of these are work your firm is set up to absorb in the month they land.

Every one of these is finance work rather than tax work, and that distinction is the whole reason this page exists.

February through April
The forecasting ask during filing season
A client wants to know what cash looks like in Q3, and they want it this week. It is not the work your team is staffed for that month, and pointing them nowhere in particular means they go looking on their own.
Every engagement
Cleanup you are doing at tax-prep rates
Reclassifications, unreconciled accounts, owner draws run through the wrong accounts. You are doing bookkeeping before you can do the return, and nobody enjoys that line on the invoice.
The one that costs you
The client who outgrows you into someone else
They hire a fractional finance person who arrives with opinions about the accountant. We arrive having already told you, in writing on this page, that we will not compete for the return.
The division of labor

Who owns what,
written down.

This is the part worth forwarding to your partner group. If any line here reads wrong for how your firm works, tell us and we will put it in writing for your clients specifically.

You keep
  • The return and the tax planning, every year
  • Any attest engagement — audit, review or compilation
  • The client relationship and the annual conversation
  • Your chart of accounts, which we work inside
We take
  • Monthly close, reconciliation, budget versus actual
  • The rolling 13-week cash forecast
  • Lender and board reporting
  • Cash management and fractional CFO work
What we never do
  • Tax preparation
  • Tax planning or tax advice
  • Audit, review, compilation or attest work
  • Anything that puts us between you and your client
Use this on your own client list

Which of your clients
is this?

Six things that mean a client has outgrown annual cleanup. You do not need to refer anyone to find this useful — run it down your own list and you will know who is going to cost you time in February.

Borrow this line

“I do your return and your tax planning. What you need is someone running the close and the forecast every month — and I would rather that be a firm that does not touch tax work.”

Says the boundary out loud, keeps the return yours, and puts the monthly work somewhere it will actually get done. We work in whichever file the client already has — QuickBooks Online or Desktop, Xero, NetSuite — and inside your chart of accounts.
Free · no email required

What you can send a client today

Nothing here asks your client for an email address. A referral that turns into a lead-capture form makes you look bad, not us.

Note
Why your month-end close takes so long
Written for the owner, not the accountant. Useful when a client blames the software and the real problem is that nobody owns the close.
Read it → send as-is
Checklist · PDF
Diligence-readiness checklist
What has to be true before a data room opens. Two pages, ending in four questions an owner should be able to answer out loud. We will put your firm logo in the header on request.
Download → co-branding on request
Calculator
Runway and burn calculator
Runs in the browser with example values already filled in. A fast answer for the client who asks how long the cash lasts while you are mid-return.
Open it → no signup
How it works

How a referral actually goes

Four steps, and only the first one is yours.

01
Yours
You send an intro email
That's the whole ask. No form, no portal, no partner tier, and no agreement to sign.
02
Within a week
We scope it in one call
Thirty minutes with the founder. If we're not the right answer we say so on that call and tell them what is.
03
Same conversation
They see a fixed price first
Tiers and scoped projects are published on our site. Nobody you refer gets a surprise number.
04
Once, then never again
You hear from us
A short note confirming what we're doing and where the boundary sits. After that we don't put you in a nurture sequence.
No referral fees,
in either direction.
We don't pay for introductions and we don't accept payment for ours. If we send you a client, it's because they need what you do. It keeps the advice clean, and it means you never have anything to disclose.

Have a client whose books
keep landing on your desk?

Send them over, or send us the situation first and we will tell you whether it is ours. Either is fine, and neither costs you anything.

Email us the situation
taylor@countabl.io · a real reply, not a sequence
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See how the work actually runs
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