The standard method of billing in professional services has traditionally held an emphasis on providing services in exchange for an hourly rate, but we believe this is an outdated method of pricing as it does not promote an emphasis on customer service or an incentive to complete work efficiently. Under a fixed-fee model:

• You will always know how much you will pay for services in advance and will always have the opportunity to discuss the agreement before we begin. If new work is required outside of the scope of our existing agreement, we will issue a new written proposal for you to accept (or discuss) before we commence new services.

• The engagement places the risk back on us, as your business partner, because you don’t have to worry about paying for more hours than you anticipated, and we are incentivized to find efficiencies that ensure our relationship is mutually profitable.

• It will open the lines of communication because you don’t have to hesitate to contact us with questions for fear of receiving a bill for our time. All of our fixed price agreements include built-in support and regularly scheduled review sessions. Becoming your trusted advisor is our mission and open communication is the key.

For the reasons stated above, we prefer to use a fixed fee model wherever possible. However, in some instances it makes more sense to stick to an agreed-upon hourly rate for particular types of projects, especially if there are multiple unknown variables involved (such as a multi-year bookkeeping cleanup). We are also always open to discussing a budget to work within in cases of hourly billing.

You bet! We know how frustrating is it to work with inaccurate/incomplete data, and few things give us the same sense of accomplishment as getting historical data organized so we can move forward together with a clean slate. We are also happy to work with you to set up a brand new Chart of Accounts that makes sense for your industry and specific business needs.

Absolutely! We pride ourselves on being QuickBooks masters and we automatically build in a set of training hours into every onboarding project we engage with. We will do everything we can to make sure you and your team have the basics of your accounting system covered, plus we are always available to answer questions as they come up.

As much as we would love to meet you in person and share our passions with you over a cup of coffee in the office, our operations are fully remote and we aren’t able to provide in-office services at this time. Our ability to leverage cutting-edge business technology and cut down on travel/commute times allows us to do more in our workday, be more efficient for our clients, and keep our prices as affordable as possible while also being able to attract top talent in our industry, regardless of physical location.

We will always try to communicate however is best for you! We primarily rely on email but may occasionally communicate via phone or Zoom call if needed. We can also be reached by text if you’d like to keep your email inbox less cluttered.

Absolutely not - you are still the boss! It is simply our job to be your partner in business and give you access to the most up-to-date and accurate business data and guidance available. You will, however, have more time to generate business, plan ahead, and do the things you are most passionate about in your business instead of always reacting to administrative needs.

Your security is our top priority at all times. Below is an outline of some of the primary ways we work to keep you and your business safe.

• All TrueUp team members and contractors must agree to abide by a clear Security and Technology Agreement before ever beginning work for our team.

• We regularly discuss security news and best practices, perform internal security audits, and regularly update and provide training on security changes as needed.

• For our clients, we recommend providing only the credentials to us that are absolutely necessary to perform our work, and we will advise you on these levels of access at the beginning of our engagement. The credentials we are provided are then secured using ONLY our LastPass Enterprise encrypted password vault and are never stored anywhere else.

• We leverage 2FA wherever possible and use secure file sharing applications such as Karbon and DropBox to avoid risk of compromised email transmissions.

• We are always ready to help you and your team improve, refine, and/or implement internal controls processes wherever we notice there could be potential risk within your operations.

We have several excellent, long-standing relationships with top-notch CPAs and auditors in our industry, and we would be happy to add your CPA/auditor to that list. Not only do we provide a clean, clear set of books for your tax preparer to work with every year, but we are also happy to communicate with them as needed as questions arise throughout the year.

Never. Our engagement terms typically line up with your fiscal year and we perform an annual review for each engagement to check in on pricing, level of service, satisfaction, etc. However, we want our engagement to work for you, so if something changes before our review date arrives, we want to know about it. In many cases we can re-work our level of service to fit into your updated budget, but if you need to disengage with us entirely, that’s okay too. We will do everything we can to ensure a smooth transition of information/duties to your team and/or new accountant.

Yes, tons! Our team has a wide mix of both accounting and program/operations experience in nonprofit organizations, so we understand exactly how critical this work is and the need to get it right.