All-in-One Accounting

Full-Service Accounting: What the Package Covers and What It Costs

Quick Answer

All-in-One Accounting is a package that covers the full cycle: monthly bookkeeping, payroll, the company’s tax return and, where relevant, sales tax. Instead of several separate invoices you get one engagement with a single compliance calendar. The package price is [Illion package price — to be filled in].

The value isn’t only the price. When bookkeeping, payroll and tax filings sit in one place, the data ties out by default: W-2 and Form 941 totals match wage expense on the return, and QuickBooks balances match the balance sheet. Those seams between services are exactly where the costly errors appear.

A useful benchmark: bought separately, the same services for a small S-corp come to roughly $7,100 a year — $4,200 for bookkeeping on the Gold plan, $2,020 for payroll and $900 for the 1120-S return.

What the Service Includes

The package is assembled around your business, but the core is always the same: recurring bookkeeping, payroll, filings and taxes. Here’s the full scope.

• Monthly bookkeeping in QuickBooks: account reconciliation, transaction categorization and balance control.
• Reconciliation with payment processors and marketplaces when sales flow through Stripe, Square or sales platforms.
• Payroll: wage calculations, withholding, federal and state payments, quarterly filings and annual W-2s.
• Monitoring the S-corp owner’s reasonable salary so the tax savings hold up and the IRS has nothing to challenge.
• Preparing and filing the company’s annual return: 1120, 1120-S or 1065, with Schedule K-1s for the owners.
• Calculating estimated tax payments so April doesn’t arrive with an unexpected balance due.
• Sales tax where it applies: threshold monitoring, registrations and state return filing.
• Annual state obligations: reports, minimum taxes and franchise payments, tracked on a calendar.
• Support when notices arrive from the IRS or a state agency: reading the letter, drafting the response and assembling documentation.
• Quarterly management reporting: how the business compares with prior periods and what that means for taxes.

Pricing

The package is priced on workload: transaction volume, employees on payroll, states and filing types. Here’s the structure.

Item	Price	Frequency
All-in-One Accounting (package)	[Illion package price — to be filled in]	Monthly
Bookkeeping within the package	Included	Monthly
Payroll within the package	Included, by headcount	Monthly and quarterly
Company tax return within the package	Included	Annually
Sales tax	Included where applicable	[Illion package price — to be filled in]
Reconstructing prior-period books	Billed separately	One-time
Owner’s personal return	25% off for business-return clients	Annually

What Drives the Final Price

• Monthly transaction volume — the same driver as in bookkeeping plans, since it sets the reconciliation workload.
• Headcount and pay frequency: each person adds payroll runs, and weekly pay costs more than monthly.
• Entity type and tax status: S-corps add owner salary monitoring; C-corps add tax and estimated payment calculations.
• Number of states: registrations and filings in each additional state expand the scope.
• Whether sales tax applies: selling goods almost always means additional state returns.
• Starting condition of the books: if prior periods aren’t closed, cleanup comes first and is quoted separately.

Worked Example

Compare two paths for an S-corp with about $400,000 in revenue, an owner on payroll plus one employee, 180 transactions a month and Stripe. First, buying each service separately.

Cost item	Calculation	Amount
Bookkeeping, Gold plan	$350 × 12	$4,200
Payroll: runs, quarterly service, W-2	$720 + $1,200 + $100	$2,020
Form 1120-S with revenue above $250K	Base price	$900
Total, bought separately	—	$7,120
All-in-One Accounting	[Illion package price — to be filled in]	[Illion package price — to be filled in]

That $7,120 is the number worth comparing the package against. The savings in a package come from not verifying the same data twice: the books are already reconciled to payroll, and the return is built on closed months rather than reconstructed ones.

The second benchmark is hiring. Even before employer taxes and paid time off, an in-house bookkeeper in the U.S. typically costs $45,000 to $70,000 a year — and rarely files the company return without outside help.

The third factor is harder to price but shows up most often: the cost of an error at the seams. A mismatch between the W-3 and the return, a missed Form 2553 deadline or an unnoticed sales tax threshold all cost more than a year of service.

What Happens If You DIY or Skip It

When one provider keeps the books, another runs payroll and a third prepares the return, nobody owns the outcome. The familiar pattern: the bookkeeper closed the year on their numbers, the payroll provider filed theirs, and the return doesn’t tie. Untangling it happens in April, at the worst possible moment.

The second problem is the absence of planning. If the return is first seen in March, the decisions are already out of reach: S status can’t be elected for a closed year, estimates weren’t paid, deductions weren’t documented. The point of a full-service engagement is that decisions happen during the year.

The third risk is calendar gaps. A business simultaneously juggles federal deposits, quarterly filings, state annual reports, minimum taxes and returns. When each piece belongs to a different provider, things get missed precisely where their responsibilities don’t overlap.

The fourth is tax savings that don’t hold up. S status without payroll, deductions without documentation, expenses paid from a personal card and never recorded — all technically legal, none of it provable, and in an audit those positions go first.

How the Work Is Organized

1. We run a review: the books, payroll, prior returns, and where the gaps and mismatches are.
2. We define the package: which areas we take on, which stay with you, and what is billed separately.
3. We bring the books current: cleanup and closing prior periods where needed.
4. We set up the recurring work: a calendar of payments, filings and returns for the year ahead.
5. We run the monthly cycle: bookkeeping, payroll, filings, reconciliations and answers on specific transactions.
6. At year-end we prepare the returns, calculate next year’s estimates and summarize results in a management report.

Which Option Fits Which Business

A package isn’t right for everyone — sometimes a single service is enough. Here are the benchmarks.

Client situation	What we handle	Price guide
Freelancer with no employees or inventory	Bookkeeping and a personal return	Separate services
S-corp with the owner on payroll	Bookkeeping, payroll, company return	Package usually wins
Retail selling into several states	Bookkeeping, sales tax, returns	Package with sales tax
Business with a year or more of neglected books	Cleanup first, then the package	Cleanup + package

Common Client Mistakes

1. Buying services from different providers with no shared calendar

Consequence: Gaps at the seams: a filing goes in but the deposit doesn’t; payroll data doesn’t tie to the return.

How to avoid it: Either consolidate with one provider or put in writing who owns which deadline.

2. Deferring the tax status decision until the return is prepared

Consequence: S status can’t be elected for a closed year, so a full year of savings is lost.

How to avoid it: Discuss status early in the year, while the decision still changes the outcome.

3. An S-corp owner taking distributions while payroll “gets set up”

Consequence: The IRS reclassifies the payments as wages and assesses taxes and penalties.

How to avoid it: Start payroll at the same time as the S election, not at year-end.

4. Keeping books but never reading the management reports

Consequence: Decisions get made on the bank balance instead of real profit and tax exposure.

How to avoid it: Spend fifteen minutes on the quarterly report — it changes salary and purchasing decisions.