Bookkeeping for people who sell their thinking.

We care deeply about getting this right, and for a consultant that mostly means telling you the truth about your own numbers. Which months were actually good. What it really costs you to exist each month. Whether the thing you keep saying yes to is worth it.

Consulting has some of the simplest books there are. One account, one card, no inventory, no payroll, no sales tax. That is genuinely good news. They still slip, because client work always feels more urgent than the admin. That is normal, and it is easy to fix.

Your income is lumpy, and that is normal

Three strong months, then a quiet one. A project that closes in March and pays in May. A retainer that ends without much warning.

That pattern is not a problem to be solved, it is the shape of the business. The problem is only that most consultants cannot see it, so a slow month feels like a crisis instead of a Tuesday.

Books that close every month fix that. You see the actual pattern across a year, what your real monthly cost of operating is, and how long the cash you have on hand genuinely lasts. That is the difference between an anxious guess and a number. If you want to read your own report, our free P&L guide takes about ten minutes.

The 1099 problem nobody warns you about

You are the contractor here, so your clients send you 1099s. The IRS gets a copy of every one and compares the total against what you report.

They very often do not match. A client counts a payment in December that you received in January. A platform reports your gross before it took its fee. A client issues one for work that was reimbursed expenses. None of that is wrongdoing, and all of it can produce a CP2000 notice a year later asking why your numbers are different.

With clean books you can answer that in an afternoon instead of panicking. Without them you are reconstructing a year from memory and a bank app.

Retainers are not income yet

A client pays you six months up front. That money is in your account, so it feels like a great month.

It is not, quite. Money received for work you have not delivered is closer to something you owe than something you earned. Recorded as straight income it inflates one month and then makes the next five look terrible, which is exactly when people conclude the business is failing.

Recorded properly it moves into income as you do the work. Your Profit & Loss stops lying to you about which months were good, and you stop making decisions off a number that was never real.

What we handle

• Monthly close, with every account reconciled to its statement and reports by the 15th.
• Payment platforms mapped properly. Stripe, PayPal, Honeybook, Dubsado and similar tools deposit net of fees, so your revenue is understated and your fees are invisible until someone separates them.
• Retainers and deposits recorded correctly, so earned and unearned money are not the same line.
• Subcontractors tracked, W-9s collected as you hire them, and 1099s filed before January 31 when you pay other consultants.
• Travel, meals and home office categorized consistently, which matters more for speakers than almost anyone.
• Quarterly estimated taxes supported. Nothing is withheld from what you earn, so the numbers have to be right and on time. The 2026 dates are here.
• Owner pay recorded correctly, draws or S-Corp salary. Our free guide explains the difference and why it matters at your profit level.
• Year-end coordination with your CPA, included rather than billed separately.

The one thing worth fixing today

If your business and personal spending run through the same account, fix that before anything else. It is the single most common thing we find with solo consultants, and it is the thing that makes everything else expensive, because every transaction has to be judged instead of sorted.

A separate business account and a separate card takes about twenty minutes to set up and saves you money every month afterward. Here is the free guide. If it is already tangled, that is what a cleanup is for, and there is no judgment in it.

Where we are

True North Co. is in Hugo, Minnesota. We work with consultants, coaches and speakers across the Twin Cities and the whole state, almost always remotely, because this work does not require anyone to drive anywhere.

Real numbers are on our pricing page. Most solo consultants sit at the entry tier, and we will tell you honestly if that is you.

My income is lumpy. Can bookkeeping actually help with that?

Yes, and it is the main reason to bother. A quiet month is only frightening when it is a surprise. Books that close every month show you the pattern, what your real monthly cost of running is, and how long your current cash actually lasts. That turns an anxious guess into a number you can plan around.

The 1099s my clients send me do not match my books. Is that a problem?

It can be. The IRS receives copies of every 1099 issued to you and compares the total to what you report. A mismatch is one of the most common triggers for a CP2000 notice. The usual causes are harmless, like a client counting a December payment you received in January, or reporting the gross amount before a platform took its fee. Clean books let you explain the difference instead of guessing at it.

A client paid me a retainer up front. Is that income yet?

Not entirely. Money received for work you have not delivered is something you owe, not something you earned. Recorded as straight income it makes a great month look better than it was and a later month look worse. Recorded properly it moves into income as you do the work, and your Profit and Loss stops lying to you about which months were actually good.

Should I be an S-Corp?

Sometimes, and it is a real question at consulting profit levels because the savings can be meaningful. It is also a CPA decision, not ours, because payroll and filing costs can eat the benefit and the salary has to be set correctly. What we do is make sure whichever way you go is recorded properly, so your books and your tax position agree.

How much does bookkeeping for a consultant cost?

Most solo consultants fit our entry tier at $350 a month, because the books are genuinely simple: one bank account, one card, no payroll and no sales tax. If you subcontract to other consultants, carry a line of credit, or run payroll, you move up from there. Price is driven by how many accounts have to be reconciled each month.

Do you do my taxes?

No. Taxes are not our lane. We keep your books clean and current all year so your CPA has exactly what they need, which usually makes your return faster and cheaper. We work alongside great CPAs and are happy to introduce you.