Fractional ControllerA fractional controller and your bookkeeper, side by side
You're looking for a fractional controller, and you already have a bookkeeper. Maybe someone in the office, maybe an outside company. You'd like to know whether you have to let them go. You don't. Tax CFO Steven Palmieri leads a team that adds a checking layer to the work your bookkeeper already does. Nobody is replaced.
Bring your bookkeeper's month
The bookkeeper keeps entering
Your bookkeeper still does the daily work. They record the deposits, code the bills, send the invoices and keep receipts where they belong. That work takes steady habits and a good eye for detail, and it's the base the rest of the month stands on. If it stops, there's nothing for anyone to check.
The controller works on top
After the activity is in, the controller checks it. They match accounts to statements, find lines that sit in the wrong place, make the adjusting entries and close the period. If you want the whole sequence, the close checklist lays it out in order.
Who does what
With your bookkeeper, you'll find the entering of transactions, the receipts, the bills and invoices, and the first pass at putting each item in a category. These are the jobs of someone who sees every transaction as it happens.
With the controller, you'll find the checking, the matching of every account to a statement, the adjustments that don't come from a receipt, and the closing of the month. These are the jobs of someone who looks at the whole month at once.
Drawing the line this way keeps each person doing the work they're best placed to do. It also means one person isn't grading their own work.
A short note back each month
Every month, your bookkeeper gets a brief list from the controller. It says what to fix, what to do differently next time and what to ask you about. It might say that a certain vendor should go in a different category. It might say a card should be entered on the day of the purchase rather than the day it posts.
Notes like these make the books better each month. A good bookkeeper is glad to get them, because every set of books needs a second set of eyes. Nobody is being blamed. The list is a tool, and over time it gets shorter.
The timing handoff
The two jobs happen in order. The bookkeeper brings the activity up to a set point, then the controller checks and closes. If the activity is late, the close is late too. That's why the timing is agreed in advance, and the page on when a month closes explains what moves it.
When there is no bookkeeper
Some owners enter their own numbers, and some have nobody at all. In that case we can keep the books too, and then the controller work sits on top of that. We would still keep entering and checking as separate steps, so the person who records a number isn't the only one who has looked at it.
What it feels like for the owner
You don't have to referee. The bookkeeper has someone to ask when an entry is unclear. The controller has a clear list of what's expected. And you get a month that was checked before you used it, with fewer calls at the end of the quarter to ask why a number moved.
Checked and closed. A month that passed through both hands arrives with every entry made, every account matched and a short note on the one or two things that still need your answer.
Want a second set of eyes on your bookkeeper's last month?
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.