Big-firm accuracy. Startup price. AI-powered delivery.

Startup Accounting — from $299/mo

Most startup founders are paying too much for slow books, or too little for wrong ones. We use AI-assisted workflows and CPA oversight to deliver fast monthly closes, accurate categorization, and clean financials — at a price point that actually makes sense before your Series A.

Get Started from $299/mo What’s Included

CPA oversight on every file Month-end close in days, not weeks US & Canada incorporated

Quick answer

What does startup bookkeeping actually cost — and what should you expect?

For a startup under roughly 150 transactions per month, proper CPA-overseen bookkeeping should cost between $299 and $500 per month and deliver a clean close within the first week of the following month. What you should expect: accurate categorization, a reconciled bank and credit card feed, a profit and loss and balance sheet each month, and GST/HST or sales tax tracking. What you should not have to accept: books finished three weeks late, a junior bookkeeper with no CPA above them, or a year-end reconstruction because monthly books were never actually maintained. At Illuminous, we use AI-assisted workflows to deliver the speed you’d expect from a tech platform, with the accuracy and judgment you’d expect from a Big-4-trained CPA team.

What’s Included

Everything a funded or pre-revenue startup needs to stay investor-ready, without paying enterprise rates.

Monthly reconciliation

Every bank account and credit card reconciled against the ledger, every transaction categorized. No backlog, no guesswork at year-end.

P&L + balance sheet

Clean financials delivered within the first week of each month — formatted for internal use, investor reporting, or lender requests.

GST/HST & sales tax

Tax-account tracking built into the monthly close. No separate engagement needed for routine filing support.

QuickBooks Online management

We work inside your QBO file or set one up for you. Chart of accounts structured for your business model, not a generic template.

CPA on every file

No handoffs to uncredentialled staff. Every file is touched by a CPA who can answer a question about a deduction, a shareholder loan, or a cross-border entry without escalating.

AI-assisted workflows

We use proprietary AI-enhanced processes to cut the time spent on data entry and categorization review — passing the efficiency gain to you as a lower price, not a thinner service.

Simple, Predictable Pricing

No hourly surprises. No year-end reconstruction bill. A flat monthly rate based on transaction volume.

Big-Firm Training. Without the Big-Firm Invoice.

The people doing your books are the same people who trained at Deloitte, Grant Thornton, and PE-backed environments — not a rotating roster of junior staff.

Gurleen Kaur

Founding Partner — CPA (USA), CA (India)

Previously at Deloitte and Grant Thornton, Gurleen brings Big-4 audit and tax discipline to every engagement. That training means your books are built to a standard that survives CRA or IRS scrutiny, not just a bank request.

She leads cross-border individual taxation, nonprofit compliance, FBAR/FATCA/PFIC reporting, and NRI filings — all in-house, no referrals needed if your situation crosses a border.

Harleen Kaur

Partner — CPA (USA), ACA

Harleen has delivered accounting work in private equity environments, including closing-side financial work on a multi-entity PE transaction. That experience means she understands what investor-grade financials actually look like — and builds your books to that standard from day one, not just when you need a data room.

She leads corporate tax (Form 1120, Form 1120-S, T2) and our e-commerce accounting practice.

What You Give Up With the Cheaper Option

Bookkeeper (no CPA)

No one to catch a shareholder loan coded as revenue, a GST/HST input tax credit missed, or a foreign income item that triggers FBAR. You find out at year-end, when fixing it costs more than the savings.

Traditional small firm

Books closed 3–4 weeks late every month because staff are stretched across tax season. Your P&L for April arrives in May. You make decisions without current numbers.

Tech-only platforms

Fast categorization, but the moment you have a cross-border shareholder, a US-Canada dimension, or a question about your chart of accounts, they refer you out. No in-house expertise means gaps.

What we do differently: AI-assisted workflows handle the routine categorization at speed; a CPA reviews the output, catches the edge cases, and signs off. You get the turnaround time of a tech platform with the judgment of a credentialled accountant — at a price point that is competitive with a local bookkeeper.

Common Questions

What does $299/mo actually include?

Our $299/mo startup plan covers monthly transaction categorization and reconciliation, a clean profit and loss and balance sheet each month, GST/HST or sales tax tracking (as applicable), QuickBooks Online management, and a monthly close within the first week of the following month. For businesses under roughly 150 transactions per month, this is a fixed price with no surprise add-ons. As volume grows the price steps up, but the model stays the same: fast close, clean books, CPA oversight.

How is this different from hiring a local bookkeeper or using Bench?

A local bookkeeper charges similar rates but typically delivers a slower close with no CPA oversight — you need a separate accountant at year-end. Bench is fast but uses staff categorizers and has no cross-border expertise; they hand you off to a CPA for anything complex. We are CPAs doing the work directly, using AI-assisted workflows that make us faster than traditional firms. If your startup has any US-Canada dimension, foreign ownership, or e-commerce complexity, we handle it in-house rather than referring out.

Do you work with Canadian startups, US startups, or both?

Both. We serve startups incorporated in Canada (federal or provincial corporations) and the US (LLCs, C-Corps, S-Corps), as well as founders in one country operating a company in the other. Our team is licensed in both jurisdictions and our offices are in Greater Vancouver, BC and Kalispell, MT.

What happens at tax time — is that included?

Monthly bookkeeping and year-end tax filing are separate engagements. The monthly plan keeps your books clean so tax season is not a reconstruction project. When year-end arrives, clean books cut the time (and cost) of the corporate return dramatically. We quote the T2 or Form 1120 separately — and because we already know your books, it is significantly faster than starting cold.

Clean books from month one.

No setup drama. No junior handoffs. CPA-led, AI-assisted, and ready to go.

Book a Free Discovery Call

Plans from $299/mo — US and Canadian entities welcome