THE SERVICE LEDGER
What the studio keeps.
Four ledgers of work: the monthly books, the lodgement calendar, payroll, and the rescues. Fixed figures throughout; the only hourly rate in this studio belongs to the clock on the wall.
No. 010
LEDGER 01 · MONTHLY BOOKS
Reconciled weekly, closed by the 10th
The subscription that makes the rest of the studio possible. Feeds are matched while the month is still warm, queries arrive batched instead of dribbled, and the close pack tells you how the business actually went, in sentences.
Bank + card reconciliation
Every line matched to the cent, queries batched into one email
in every plan
Receipt capture
Photograph it, forward it, or post the shoebox. It gets filed
in every plan
Monthly close pack
P&L, position, and what it means in plain English
by the 10th
No. 011
LEDGER 02 · LODGEMENTS
The quarter, lodged by an agent
Only a registered agent can legally charge to prepare and lodge activity statements, and agents get extended deadlines their clients inherit. The studio lives by that calendar, so you never have to learn it.
Activity statements
Prepared, checked against the bank position, lodged on time
quarterly
Payroll reporting
Filed each pay run, reconciled again at year end
per run
Year-end handover
A clean, annotated file straight to your accountant
annual
No. 012
LEDGER 03 · PAYROLL
Paid right, posted right
Payroll is where small books go wrong quietly. The studio runs it on rails: correct rates, correct accruals, retirement contributions posted when they are due, and a paper trail that would survive an audit with its hair combed.
Pay runs
Weekly, fortnightly or monthly, posted and reported same day
to 12 staff
Contributions + leave
Retirement contributions tracked and paid on the due date, leave balances kept honest
every cycle
No. 013
LEDGER 04 · CATCH-UP RESCUE
Behind is a state, not a character flaw
Most clients arrive here, not at the front door. The rescue has its own process, its own flat quote, and a firm studio rule: the story of how the books got behind is interesting to precisely nobody.
STEP 01
Books-health check
Free, and done inside one business day. The true state of the ledger, in writing.
STEP 02
One fixed quote
Flat, not hourly. The number holds even when the shoebox holds surprises.
STEP 03
Caught up in weeks
Reconciled month by month, overdue lodgements cleared oldest first.
STEP 04
Onto the rhythm
Rolled onto a monthly plan so it never happens again. That part is the point.
ASKED AT EVERY FIT CALL
Straight answers, filed alphabetically-ish.
Is the fee really fixed?
Yes. The figure agreed in writing is the figure billed, even when a month runs heavy. If the business changes shape (more staff, a second entity), the plan is re-quoted openly before anything changes.
How behind is too behind?
The studio has brought four years of books back from a garbage bag. You will not scare anybody here. The health check finds the true state in a day, and the rescue quote is flat, not hourly.
Do you need my bank logins?
Never. Feeds are read-only, authorised at the bank's end, and revocable by you at any moment. Nobody at Neat Figures can move your money. That is by design, and it is not negotiable in either direction.
What software do you keep the books in?
The studio runs Fernbook, with ReceiptRail for capture and SablePay for payroll. Already on something else? It usually stays. The discipline matters more than the logo on the login screen.