Clean, reconciled books in your inbox every month, powered by AI and reviewed by accounting and tax professionals, at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house. Stop doing your books and start understanding your numbers.
If any of these sound familiar, your books are costing you more than money. They're costing you time, sleep, and clarity.
Reconciling receipts and sorting transactions after a full day of work, instead of resting or growing the business.
Every April becomes a scramble to pull twelve months of messy records together before the deadline hits.
You can't say what you actually profited last month, so every decision is a guess instead of a call backed by numbers.
Every categorization, every reconciliation, every payroll run gets drafted by AI and then reviewed and approved before anything touches your books. You get the speed of automation with a real, credentialed person checking the work, not a black box making decisions on its own.
Most owners pay $800 to $2,000 a month for bookkeeping, or thousands more to hire in-house. I run it with AI doing the heavy lifting, reviewed by professionals, starting at $400 a month.
No hourly billing. No surprises. Tax prep and bookkeeping software are included in every plan, and there is never a contract, so you can cancel anytime.
Clean Books $400 /mo Accurate, tax-ready books, handled. |
Most Popular Books + Advisory $700 /mo Clean books plus an advisor in your corner. |
Fractional CFO Coming Soon Your financial brain for scaling up. |
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| Transaction categorizationEvery purchase, deposit, and transfer sorted into the right category, rent, payroll, supplies, revenue, so your reports are accurate. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Monthly bank reconciliationYour bank and credit card statements checked line by line against the books to catch errors, missed charges, or fraud before they compound. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Monthly P&L + Balance SheetYour profit and loss statement and balance sheet, delivered every month so you always know what the business actually made and owns. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Year-end tax-ready booksA full year of books closed out and organized so tax filing means pulling accurate numbers, not reconstructing a year of transactions in April. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bookkeeping software includedYour QuickBooks Online subscription, covered as part of your plan, no separate software bill from Intuit. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Books-by-the-10th guaranteeYour books are finished and in your inbox by the 10th of every month, or that month is provided at no charge. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tax preparationYour business and personal tax returns prepared and filed using numbers that are already accurate, not reconstructed under deadline pressure.Business & personal returns filed | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Quarterly Financial Review callA recurring call where we walk through your numbers together, not just a report you read on your own. | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Quarterly tax strategyPlanning ahead for tax season throughout the year instead of reacting to a bill every April. | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Direct advisor accessA person you can call when a financial question comes up, not a ticket queue or a call center. | — | ✓ | ✓priority |
| Monthly strategy sessionsA monthly working session focused on where the business is headed, not just where it's been. | — | — | ✓ |
| Cash flow forecastingLooking ahead at what's coming in and going out so you're never caught short on cash. | — | — | ✓ |
| Budget vs. actuals reportingComparing what you planned to spend against what you actually spent, every month, not just at year end. | — | — | ✓ |
| KPI dashboardThe key numbers that actually matter for your business, tracked in one place you can check anytime. | — | — | ✓ |
| Payroll processingEmployees paid on time, taxes withheld and filed correctly, all synced directly into your books.Two options: you file your own payroll taxes, or we file them for you |
Self-file: $125/mo + $15/employee
We file: $150/mo + $18/employee
| ✓included for your first 10 employees, then $18/mo per additional employee | ✓included |
| Accounts Receivable / PayableGetting you paid on time by customers, and paying your vendors on time, without you chasing either side.Included up to 150 invoices/mo · $75 for 151–300 · $150 for 301+ | included, then scales | ✓included | ✓included |
| Get Started | Get Started |
No contract · Cancel anytime · Software included
You get the speed of automation and the safety of a human expert. You never have to choose between the two.
Your transactions are categorized and reconciled automatically. It's fast, consistent, and always on time.
Every set of books is then reviewed by an accountant with over three years of experience, so what lands in your inbox is accurate and ready to use.
Traditional bookkeeping is slow and expensive because a person does every step by hand. Here, AI does the heavy lifting and professionals review the work.
AI handles the repetitive work, so you get clean books for far less than a traditional bookkeeper or an in-house hire that can run thousands a month.
Every set of books is checked by accounting and tax professionals. You get the speed of automation with the judgment of a human who catches what software misses.
Your books update every month, so you always know exactly where your business stands, and tax season is handled before it even starts.
Bookkeeping is the foundation. As you grow, everything else can live under one roof.
Business and personal returns prepared and filed, already tax-ready because your books stay clean all year.
Run payroll without the headache. Added to any plan and handled right alongside your books.
Access to business loans, lines of credit, equipment financing, and working capital through trusted funding partners when you're ready to grow.
Proactive planning to lower what you owe, from equipment timing to deductions to entity structure, handled before year-end.
Kelly Strategy Group was built on a simple idea. Small businesses deserve the same clean books and financial strategy that large companies take for granted. By pairing modern AI with genuine professional oversight, you get clarity and guidance at a price that actually makes sense, plus one person who knows your numbers and actually picks up the phone.
Book a free call. We'll look at where you're at and whether it's a fit, no pressure.
Book a Free Call
I'm an Honors Accounting student at St. John's University, Co-President of Consult Your Community, and an incoming intern with Protiviti's Business Performance Improvement practice, focused on financial reporting, remediation, and compliance.
I started Kelly Strategy Group to use my education and training to help local businesses that are often overlooked by traditional bookkeeping firms. Through Consult Your Community, I've spent the past two years consulting with businesses across a range of industries, including a tea company, a makeup company, and a mobile speech therapy clinic, each with its own goals and its own challenges, and my interest has always been in accounting and helping businesses gain clarity over their finances.
At the end of the day, everything here comes down to one thing, showing up for the people I work with, actually understanding their business, and being a financial partner they can trust, not just a service that sends them a bill every month.
Every plan includes tax prep. Below is what we actually look for, explained in detail, whether or not you're a client yet.
Two strategies worth a conversation, and eight more general strategies worth knowing either way.
For businesses that own commercial or investment real estate.
When you buy or build a commercial building, the IRS normally has you depreciate the whole thing slowly over 39 years. A cost segregation study is an engineering based analysis that identifies which parts of the building, things like carpeting, specialty lighting, parking lots, and certain electrical and plumbing components, actually qualify for much faster depreciation schedules of 5, 7, or 15 years instead. On a typical commercial property, somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of the total building cost can often be reclassified into these faster schedules.
The total deduction over the life of the building doesn't change, what changes is when you get to claim it. Front loading depreciation into the first few years of ownership frees up cash today, cash that can go toward paying down debt, buying equipment, covering payroll during a slow stretch, or growing the business. A property bought for 800,000 dollars might see 200,000 to 300,000 dollars reclassified into faster schedules, turning into a meaningfully larger deduction in year one instead of the same small slice every year for decades.
You need to actually own commercial or investment real estate, renters don't qualify since you can only depreciate property you own. The property generally needs enough value, often 500,000 dollars or more, to make the cost of the study worthwhile against the deduction it produces. The analysis has to be performed by qualified engineers using recognized methodology, not estimated informally.
A licensed engineering firm inspects the property in person and produces a formal cost segregation report breaking out each component and its correct depreciation schedule. That report becomes the supporting documentation for reclassifying the depreciation on your tax return. Use the calculator below to get a rough sense of what your property could be worth before booking a consultation.
Estimate the potential first year deduction before booking a call.
For businesses doing genuine technical development work.
The R&D credit rewards businesses that are creating or improving products, processes, or software, whether or not those efforts succeed. It's a dollar for dollar credit against tax owed, not just a deduction, meaning a 50,000 dollar credit is worth a full 50,000 dollars. Qualifying small businesses can even apply the credit directly against payroll tax instead of income tax, which matters for a business that isn't profitable yet, since a credit against income tax you don't owe is worth nothing, but a credit against payroll tax you're already paying is cash in hand.
Up to 500,000 dollars a year can be applied against payroll taxes, for up to five years, for a total of 2.5 million dollars over that window. Picture a small software or product team spending 300,000 dollars a year on development wages before turning a profit, the credit against payroll tax turns spending into cash back, not a deduction sitting unused until the business finally owes income tax.
To use the payroll offset, gross receipts need to be under 5 million dollars in the credit year, with no gross receipts recorded more than five years before that year. The underlying work has to meet a four part test set by the IRS, meaning it's technological in nature, aimed at a new or improved business component, involves a genuine process of experimentation, and works to eliminate technical uncertainty. Simply having a research budget line isn't enough on its own.
Qualified research expenses, meaning wages, supplies, and certain contract research costs, get documented and calculated on Form 6765, filed with your original tax return. The payroll offset election has to be made on that original return, it cannot be added later on an amended one. This is exactly the kind of claim that needs a conversation about your specific work before anything gets filed.
Each one below still needs your actual facts to apply correctly, so use this as a starting point for a conversation, not a filing instruction.
What it is. Section 280A(g) of the tax code lets you rent your own home to your own business for up to 14 days a year, and that rental income is completely tax free to you personally, even though the business gets to deduct it as a business expense.
How it helps your business. It's one of the few places in the tax code where money can move from the business to the owner without either side paying tax on it. Done consistently over several years, even a modest weekly rate adds up to a recurring tax free benefit, not just a one time trick.
Qualifications. The business has to actually use the space for a genuine purpose, like a planning meeting, a retreat, or a client event, and the rent charged has to be a fair market rate for similar space in your area, not an inflated number chosen to move more money.
How it's set up. Keep a written record of the meeting or event, have the business pay you through an invoice, and document the payment like you would for any other rental transaction, including comparable rental rates to support the amount charged.
What it is. If you use part of your home regularly and exclusively for business, you can deduct a portion of your home expenses, things like a share of your mortgage interest, utilities, insurance, and even a portion of repairs, based on how much of the home that space represents.
How it helps your business. It turns expenses you're already paying as a homeowner or renter into a legitimate business deduction, lowering taxable income without changing how you actually run the business day to day. For an owner working from home even part time, this is often overlooked entirely.
Qualifications. The space has to be used regularly and exclusively for business, meaning a spare room used for both a home office and a guest room generally doesn't qualify, and it needs to be your principal place of business or a place you regularly meet clients.
How it's set up. You can use the simplified method, which is five dollars per square foot up to 300 square feet, capped at 1,500 dollars, or the actual expense method, which requires tracking costs and the exact percentage of the home used for business.
What it is. An accountable plan is a formal policy that lets you or your employees get reimbursed for business expenses paid out of pocket, and that reimbursement is tax free to the person receiving it and still deductible to the business.
How it helps your business. Without an accountable plan, reimbursements can end up treated as taxable wages, meaning both the business and the employee pay payroll tax on money that was really just a reimbursement. With a plan in place, the same reimbursement costs nothing extra in payroll tax on either side.
Qualifications. The expense has to have a business connection, it has to be substantiated with receipts or records, and any excess advance has to be returned to the business within a reasonable time, generally 120 days.
How it's set up. A written accountable plan policy needs to exist, along with a simple expense report process, so reimbursements are documented consistently instead of handled informally case by case.
What it is. If you own the business, you can pay your own minor children a reasonable wage for work they actually do, and that income is taxed at their much lower tax bracket instead of yours, and can be entirely tax free to them up to the standard deduction amount.
How it helps your business. It shifts income out of your higher bracket into your child's lower one, often at or near zero tax for the child, while also being a genuine deductible wage expense to the business. It can also be a practical way to fund a child's own Roth IRA using earned income.
Qualifications. The work has to be age appropriate, things like filing, social media help, or cleaning, and the wage has to be reasonable for the actual work being performed, not an inflated number chosen just to shift income.
How it's set up. Keep a simple job description, run the payment through normal payroll, and issue a W-2 just like you would for any other employee, with actual time records supporting the hours worked.
What it is. Contributing to a SEP IRA or Solo 401(k) lets you set aside pre tax income for retirement, which lowers your current year taxable income while building long term savings, and a Solo 401(k) also allows an additional employee deferral on top of the employer contribution.
How it helps your business. It's one of the largest deductions available to a self employed person or small business owner, and unlike most deductions, the money isn't spent, it's saved for your own future, which makes it one of the few tax strategies that directly builds personal wealth rather than just lowering a bill.
Qualifications. You need to be self employed or a small business owner, and contribution limits vary depending on which plan you choose and your income level, with a Solo 401(k) generally allowing higher total contributions at moderate income levels than a SEP IRA.
How it's set up. A Solo 401(k) has to be opened before year end, while a SEP IRA can be opened as late as your filing deadline including extensions, which makes the SEP a useful last minute planning tool if you're deciding late in the year how much to save.
What it is. Electing S Corp status lets the profit your business makes above a reasonable salary avoid self employment tax, which normally runs over 15 percent on top of income tax on every dollar of self employment income.
How it helps your business. As your profit grows, the gap between what you pay yourself in salary and what the business actually earns can produce self employment tax savings every year, often becoming worthwhile once net profit clears somewhere around 40,000 to 60,000 dollars a year.
Qualifications. The salary you pay yourself has to be defensible as reasonable for the work you actually do, based on what a similar role would pay in the market, and this strategy generally isn't worth the added payroll complexity and cost at very low income levels.
How it's set up. It requires filing Form 2553 to make the S Corp election, and setting up payroll to pay yourself a documented salary, with payroll taxes withheld and filed like any other employee.
What it is. Section 179 lets you deduct the full cost of qualifying equipment, machinery, and vehicles in the same year you buy them, instead of depreciating that cost slowly over several years the way depreciation normally works.
How it helps your business. If you're planning to buy equipment or a vehicle anyway, timing that purchase to use Section 179 can meaningfully lower your tax bill in the exact year you need the cash flow relief most, which makes it a genuinely useful planning tool, not just a passive deduction.
Qualifications. The equipment or vehicle needs to be used more than 50 percent of the time for business, and the total deduction can't exceed your business's taxable income for the year, though any unused amount can often carry forward.
How it's set up. The purchase has to be made, delivered, installed, and actually placed in service, meaning ready and available for use, by December 31st of the year you want to claim it for. A purchase ordered in December but not delivered until January doesn't count for that earlier year.
What it is. The QBI deduction lets owners of pass through businesses, meaning sole proprietors, partnerships, S Corps, and most LLCs, deduct up to 20 percent of their qualified business income right off the top of what gets taxed.
How it helps your business. It lowers your taxable income significantly without requiring any extra spending or paperwork on your part, it's largely automatic based on how your business is structured and how much it earns, which makes it one of the highest value, lowest effort strategies on this page.
Qualifications. Most pass through business owners qualify, though the deduction phases out at higher income levels and is more limited for certain specified service businesses like law, accounting, and consulting once income crosses a threshold. Trades businesses, e-commerce, and most other operating businesses generally aren't subject to that specified service limitation.
How it's set up. There's no separate election required, it's calculated automatically at filing, but decisions made elsewhere, like how much salary you pay yourself under an S Corp election, directly affect the final QBI number, so it's worth planning them together.
General educational information, not tax advice for your specific situation. Figures such as deduction limits and thresholds are indexed for inflation and change year to year, so confirm current numbers during a consultation before relying on any of them.
Working capital, lines of credit, SBA loans, equipment financing, and commercial real estate financing, backed by 100+ traditional banks and lending partners. No consultation needed here, apply directly and see what you qualify for.
Up to $15M in max funding, 100+ bank and lender partners, approvals starting in 1 business day.
A line of credit gives your business standing access to funds you can draw on whenever you need it, instead of receiving one lump sum upfront. You only pay interest on what you actually use, which makes it a strong fit for covering payroll gaps, seasonal slowdowns, or unexpected expenses without taking on a full term loan you may not need in full.
Our top recommended line of credit for established businesses. You can access up to 75 percent of your annual revenue with no collateral required, spread over a 36 month revolving period, meaning you can draw, repay, and draw again as needed throughout that window.
Rate starts at 10% APR · Weekly or monthly payments · $1,000 initial draw to activate · Approval as fast as 1 business day
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No collateral and no maximum amount, with a payback period of 6 to 24 months. This is a shorter, more flexible option than the 36 month line above, better suited to a business that needs capital available right now without committing to a longer term structure.
Monthly rate 0.55% to 4.5% · No collateral · No max amount · Closing as fast as 1 business day
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Amounts from 25,000 to 150,000 dollars, with interest only monthly payments during the draw period, which keeps your monthly cash outlay low while you're actively using the funds.
Rate: Prime + 2% to 10% · No collateral required · Funding in 10 to 20 business days
Apply for This OptionA term loan gives you a lump sum upfront that you repay on a fixed schedule, which makes more sense for a specific one time investment, like equipment, a buildout, or an acquisition, than for ongoing working capital needs. Because the schedule is fixed, it's usually easier to budget around than a revolving line.
Our best rate option in this category. Fixed monthly payments make budgeting for the loan predictable from the day you sign, since the rate and payment never change over the life of the loan.
Term: 3 to 5 years · Up to $15,000,000 · Rate as low as 12% APR · No collateral required
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No minimum credit score is required, and funding can move as fast as 1 business day, which makes this a fit when speed matters more than locking in the lowest possible rate.
Payback up to 5 years · Factor rate as low as 1.04 · Up to $15,000,000 · Funding as fast as 1 business day
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Payments flex with your actual revenue instead of staying fixed, which softens the impact of a slow month. Dedicated programs are available for women, minority, veteran, and LGBTQIA plus owned businesses.
$50K to $15M · Term: 2 to 5 years · Repayment: 3% to 9% of monthly revenue · Requires $1M+ annual revenue
Apply for This OptionSBA loans are partially guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, which lets lenders offer longer terms and lower rates than a typical bank loan, in exchange for a slower, more document heavy approval process. Worth the wait if you're financing something long term, like real estate or major equipment.
Designed for major fixed assets like real estate and large equipment, the kind of purchase you'll hold for a long time and want a long amortization period against.
Term: 10 to 15 years · Up to $15,000,000 · Rate: Prime + 2% to 5% · Collateral required
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The most flexible SBA option available, usable for working capital, expansion, real estate, or equipment rather than being tied to one specific purpose.
Term: 10 years · Up to $5,000,000 · Rate: Prime + 2% to 3% · Collateral required
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A good fit for a smaller SBA need where you'd rather not pledge assets against the loan. Two tiers available depending on how much funding you need.
Streamlined: up to $150,000 · Small Loan: up to $500,000 · Both 10 year terms · No collateral required
Apply for This OptionThese options are built specifically around owning, renovating, or refinancing property, whether that's a fix and flip, a long term rental, or your own commercial building. Terms and rates vary widely depending on what you're actually doing with the property.
Built for fix and flip projects where speed to close matters more than getting the lowest possible rate. Foreign nationals are eligible for this program.
$100K+, no max · LTV up to 80% (up to 100% of rehab) · 6 to 24 months, interest only · Closing in 2 to 4 weeks
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Covers both long term rental investment property and commercial buildings, for either a purchase or a refinance situation.
$100K+, no max · Terms of 5 to 30 years · Min. property value $150K
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Lets you access equity already built up in a property you own, either as a revolving line you draw from or a lump sum cash out refinance.
LTV 50% to 85% · Rate: 5% to 13% APR · Term up to 30 years · Closing in 1 to 5 weeks
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For financing a new build from the ground up, with interest only payments during the active construction period so you're not covering full principal payments before the project is generating income.
$100K+, no max · 6 to 24 months, interest only · LTC 75% to 85% standard
Apply for This OptionApply directly through Sandbar Fund. No consultation required, and it doesn't affect your bookkeeping engagement with Kelly Strategy Group either way.
See What's Available to YouRates, terms, and qualifications are set by Sandbar Fund and its lending partners and are subject to change. Figures shown are representative ranges, not a quote or a guarantee of approval.
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