Updated 9/28/2026
Monthly accounting is a much more hands-on service than annual tax filing. Beyond bookkeeping, monthly financial statements and account reconciliations, and tax strategy, it's also extremely advice-heavy.
So, what kinds of advice can a monthly accountant offer you?
With 60 years of accounting experience, CSI Accounting & Payroll can quickly identify common problem areas and their solutions. We can also form a deeper understanding of your unique situation, challenges, and opportunities to further customize your advice.
Let's talk about the advice our monthly accountants give based on:
- Your business’s situation.
- Your financial documents.
- Your taxes.
Your Business’s Situation
Your situation is a combination of a lot of factors. We'll discuss your growth plans and challenges, plus how we can help you set and meet goals to achieve your idea of success. We work with the following:
Setting KPIs
When we talk about KPIs, we mean setting a measurable goal to see your business’s performance levels. There are many KPIs that you can choose to focus on, but profit margins and ratios are good examples.
First, we’ll take a look at where you are and where you should be. Then, we’ll reflect on why you are or are not meeting your goals. To pull it all together, we’ll figure out the steps we can take to get closer to the goal.
Maximizing Profitability
Maximizing profitability means cutting unnecessary expenses and increasing revenue.
We’ll help you find opportunities for savings, including cutting unnecessary labor and finding your industry’s labor margins. We can also advise you through reflecting product and labor value in their pricing, selling complementary products to raise sales, and removing unprofitable products. Opportunities for increasing profitability will vary by your unique situation.
Industry-Specific Advice
Many KPIs and profitability tips that we give you will be based on businesses that are similar to yours. It’s important to consider industry averages when setting goals and reviewing your situation.
Not to mention, certain laws may affect your industry in particular, and certain opportunities may arise that can benefit your industry more than other industries. Since we spend so much time working with small businesses, we make sure to stay on top of news that pertains to your industry.
Sales and Marketing Ideas
Examining your situation also requires making suggestions about sales and marketing. Some people should advertise more, while others should reflect on what they’re spending (compared to the outcomes) and advertise less or in different ways.
There are several other areas in which you can influence sales, such as customer experience, aesthetics, or sales techniques.
Insight from Your Financial Statements
We can also use the financial statements that we make for you each month to dig even deeper. We may give you advice based on:
- Your profit trends.
- Your bank accounts and loans.
- Leveraging your business.
Typical advice could include having a large asset base and using it to leverage good loan rates to expand, or having a large amount of cash and putting it back into your business so you can use it to grow.
Your profit and loss statement can tell you if your revenue is up, down, or flat, and we can then offer advice to help you smooth out any inconsistencies throughout the year. Your balance sheet can also show your business’s cash flow, and we can tell you if you’re taking the right amount of money out of your business.
Tax Planning, Projections, & Preparation
When you work with an annual tax accountant, you only cover some of the tax portion of accounting. CSI includes the full tax package: planning, projection, and preparation.
Prepare for the upcoming tax season by discussing strategies to help reduce your tax bill, such as making business purchases, adjusting your withholdings, and paying or holding off on expenses. You’ll have an idea of what your tax return should look like months ahead of time.
After tax season, reflect on your taxes and examine how you’re starting the next tax year. If you owed a lot in taxes, we’ll make a plan to prevent that for the next tax year. The same goes for if you received a large refund and would prefer to have that money to use throughout the year instead.
CSI’s planning and projection are what set us apart from annual tax accountants in that department, and they make all the difference in finding the best tax strategy for your business.
Ready for Advice Beyond Traditional Tax?
If you didn’t realize the scope of advice topics that a monthly accountant can cover, you now know that we can cover your business’s situation, your financial documents, and your taxes. If anything else comes up that you would like to discuss with your accountant, we’re happy to help, even if that means referring you to a trusted professional outside of CSI.
Feeling confident in your knowledge and want to see if we can be a good fit for each other? It’s time to schedule a free consultation.
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