Frequently asked questions.

Anyone can book a free Discovery Call. It’s the starting point for every engagement type and works whether you have specific questions, want to explore a particular service, or just want to see if EO is the right fit. For most engagements, a Financial Clarity Assessment follows.

A free 30-45 minute conversation to talk through your situation and figure out what kind of engagement makes sense.

A paid diagnostic that establishes the right scope and fixed fee for most engagements with EO. The Assessment includes a focused review of your books, a written diagnostic report, an advisory delivery call with a senior member of our team, and a strategic analysis tailored to your specific situation. Most Assessments run seven to ten business days from the point we have access to your books. See the Assessment page for the full breakdown.

That’s exactly what the Discovery Call is for. We’ll talk through your situation and figure out together what kind of engagement makes sense.

Every engagement is fixed fee, no hourly billing. The fee is documented in your engagement letter before any work begins. For ongoing accounting and advisory, pricing is confirmed after the Financial Clarity Assessment. Certain tax, Exit Planning, and clearly defined project engagements can be scoped after the Discovery Call when a separate assessment is not needed.

Each service page lists current pricing ranges and what is included at each tier or band:

• Financial Clarity Assessment — Assessment fee and credit terms
• Foundation — Three Foundation bands by complexity
• Monthly Accounting & Advisory — Three accounting and advisory tiers
• Financial Advisory Projects — Operating and Transaction Project ranges
• Tax Services — Tax preparation and planning ranges

Final pricing is confirmed in writing after the Assessment or Discovery Call, based on your specific situation.

Three tiers, each built on the one below:

Fundamental — Core accounting. Reconciliations, standard financial reports, and a plain-English Financial Insights Report highlighting notable changes and open issues.

Strategic — Everything in Fundamental, plus Controller-level review, more comprehensive balance-sheet reconciliation, cash forecasting, budgeting and budget-to-actual reporting, and specialty reporting tailored to the engagement.

Transformative — Everything in Strategic, plus Fractional CFO leadership focused on one to three financial priorities, decision and scenario modeling, financial targets, 30/60/90-day action planning, and ongoing progress tracking.

Specific deliverables depend on engagement scope, business complexity, and available data. See the Monthly Accounting & Advisory page for full details.

Strategic builds and maintains the financial infrastructure management needs. It adds Controller-level review, cash forecasting, budgeting, specialty reporting, and monthly interpretation of what is changing in the business.

Transformative uses that infrastructure to guide consequential decisions. It adds Fractional CFO leadership, prioritized financial objectives, scenario and decision modeling, dollar-backed targets, 30/60/90-day action plans, and ongoing review of whether the plan is producing the intended result.

The Financial Clarity Assessment helps confirm which level fits the business and the decisions in front of it.

At the Strategic and Transformative tiers, a controller-level lead reviews the completed close, significant reconciliations and adjustments, and the financial statements before delivery. This is an internal quality-control process, not a formal financial-statement review or assurance engagement.

Sometimes, yes. The Fractional Controller and Fractional CFO roles are most often delivered as part of Strategic and Transformative tiers, where they sit on top of our accounting work. We also consider standalone engagements case by case — for businesses with existing in-house accounting or a separate bookkeeper who need senior oversight (Fractional Controller) or strategic financial leadership (Fractional CFO) without changing their underlying accounting relationship.

Standalone engagements start with a Discovery Call. Because EO would be providing oversight of accounting performed by another team, we first need to evaluate the underlying records, close process, reconciliations, and reporting structure. A Financial Clarity Assessment is therefore required for most standalone Fractional Controller and Fractional CFO engagements.

Yes. Business and individual return preparation, year-round tax planning, entity structure strategy, S-Corp compensation analysis, multi-state nexus work, pre-exit tax strategy, and 1099 compliance.

Tax services are scoped and priced separately from your Monthly Accounting & Advisory engagement. They are designed to integrate operationally — the same team that knows your books also handles the planning and the returns — but the fee is its own line item. You can engage us for tax work whether or not you have an ongoing accounting and advisory relationship with us. See the Tax Services page for the full scope.

Yes. EO’s exit-planning practice is led by Michelle Smith, CEPA®, using the Value Acceleration Methodology™ to align business value, owner readiness, and financial goals.

Services range from a focused Business Value Planning Consultation or Exit Readiness Assessment to an Exit Planning Roadmap and Ongoing Exit Advisory.

The process begins with a complimentary Exit Planning Discovery Call—a focused version of EO’s standard Discovery Call. Depending on the business’s goals and financial foundation, the next step may be an exit-planning service, a Financial Clarity Assessment, or foundational accounting work.

A Financial Advisory Project has a defined scope, a fixed fee, and an endpoint. It is built around a specific question — a pricing analysis, an acquisition evaluation, a raise-readiness review. Best when the question is finite.

Transformative-tier work is ongoing. It includes a monthly scorecard, advisory meetings, and decision support across the full business. Best when financial leadership is something the business needs continuously.

Yes. Foundation is a fixed-fee project to clean up historical books, rebuild the chart of accounts, and get your accounting infrastructure ready for ongoing work. Most projects run 30 to 90 days. See the Foundation page for details.

Yes. We scope migrations based on the platform, historical data, integrations, and reporting structure involved. We handle the conversion, validate the transferred data, and configure the new environment for ongoing reporting. Migrations may be completed as a standalone project or as part of Foundation.

We are best suited for established businesses, typically $1M to $25M in revenue, where the financial function is more complex than a basic bookkeeping relationship can support: multiple revenue streams, internal accounting staff, multiple entities, or decisions ahead where the numbers need to hold up. See the Who We Serve page for the buyer profiles we work best with.

Sometimes, yes. Most new businesses are better served by a bookkeeper while they get to revenue and complexity. But for owners acquiring an established business, spinning out a subsidiary, or launching with substantial up-front investment and immediate operational complexity, we can be the right starting point.

New-business setup is one of our scoped offerings and may include entity and tax-structure analysis, EIN and tax-registration filings, tax elections, accounting-system setup, and coordination of the formation process. Legal advice and customized governing or ownership documents are handled by the client’s attorney.

Yes. We have been fully remote since 2012 and serve clients nationwide. The Assessment is conducted virtually, all ongoing work is managed remotely, and location has never been a limitation.

ABA and pediatric therapy is the segment we have built our practice around. We also work deeply with professional services firms, health and wellness practices, real estate operators, e-commerce, non-profits, and franchises. See Who We Serve for industry-specific detail.

It depends on what you need. If you want EO to take over the accounting work and provide senior review on top, the Strategic or Transformative tier is the right fit — we would replace your existing arrangement. If you want senior oversight on top of your existing in-house accounting without changing it, a standalone Fractional Controller engagement may make sense. A Discovery Call confirms which path fits your situation.

No. Strategic is the primary fit for businesses that need controller-level leadership without ongoing CFO support. The Transformative tier adds Fractional CFO leadership for clients making higher-stakes decisions. The Assessment confirms which tier fits your situation.

Primarily by email and scheduled video meetings. We typically acknowledge routine client messages within one to two business days. Time-sensitive matters are prioritized based on urgency, scope, and team availability. Clients also have access to our secure practice management platform for documents, requests, and ongoing project visibility.

Less than you spend now. We handle the accounting, close, reporting, and oversight included in your scope, so your involvement is concentrated around providing information, resolving business-specific questions, and using the reports in scheduled meetings.

Your time commitment depends on the tier, the condition of the records, and the decisions in front of you. Fundamental generally requires the least involvement; Strategic adds a monthly working conversation; Transformative requires more active participation in forecasting and decision support.

After the Assessment, the work between engagement signing and your first official month of service typically takes two to four weeks. We connect systems, set up reporting templates, confirm meeting cadence, and complete the first close. You meet your engagement team at kickoff with full credentials and bios. The first official month of accounting and advisory service begins on the first of the month following onboarding completion. If your books require cleanup or restructuring before ongoing work begins, that work is scoped separately as a Foundation project. See the Financial Clarity Assessment page for full detail on how the Assessment credit applies to onboarding and other engagement types.

Every engagement is led by a named primary point of contact. You will not chase a general inbox or explain your business to a new person each time something comes up. Specific team members are introduced at engagement kickoff with credentials and bios.

Discovery Call availability is shown on the scheduling page. The Assessment runs seven to ten business days from the point we have access to your books and systems. Onboarding for accounting and advisory engagements begins immediately after the engagement letter is signed.

Yes. We can prepare cash- or accrual-basis financials and supporting reports for lenders, investors, buyers, and other outside parties. If they require an audit, formal financial-statement review, quality-of-earnings report, independent appraisal, or another specialized deliverable, we will help identify and coordinate with the appropriate provider.

Yes, with discipline. We use AI internally for tasks that benefit from speed and scale — drafting communications, summarizing documents, generating first-pass analyses that our team reviews and refines. Client-specific judgment and final responsibility remain with our team.

We are also actively evaluating AI-native accounting platforms as the category develops. See the AI and Your Accounting page for our full position.

We treat your financial information with the security standards a professional firm requires. Our team works on company-managed devices supported by a managed IT provider. The firm maintains a broader commercial insurance program that includes cyber and professional liability coverage. Specific platforms are vetted before adoption, and every team member is trained on data-handling requirements.

We work across cloud accounting platforms and the industry-specific systems that connect to them, including payroll, practice management, point-of-sale, property management, billing, and operational reporting tools. A Discovery Call confirms whether the current technology stack fits the engagement or whether changes are recommended.