One local team, from your first filing to your last tax letter.
Financial and tax strategies for the small businesses that keep Orange County running — restaurants, markets and corner stores, auto and diesel shops, and the trades. One local team that answers the phone, builds your file the way it would need to hold up if anyone ever asked, and teaches you to read your own numbers along the way.
You invest your trust in us. We invest our expertise on your business and our attention on you. Care, time, knowledge, and experience — we stand by your side in the difficult moments, so you’re in a better place tomorrow than you are today.
You should know your own numbers
Part of what we do is teach you the finance side of your own business. Nobody knows that business inside and out the way you do, and the numbers belong to you — not to us, and not to a report you file away unread.
You would not look at your own bank account and have no idea where the money went. We believe the same should be true of your business. When you can read your own financial operations, you change direction early — while the problem is still small and still fixable.
In practice that means a plain-language summary with every monthly close, a quarterly meeting where we walk your own statements line by line, and the expectation that by the end of a year you can read them without us in the room.
What we can do for you
Four groups, in the order a business meets them. Pick where you are today.
Entity choice, formation, licenses, QuickBooks setup, and repairs.
See these services ↓Monthly accounting, cleanup, payroll, and California sales tax.
See these services ↓Financial analysis, credit application packages, and book health reviews.
See these services ↓Planning, business and personal returns, S-Corp compliance, and representation.
See these services ↓Where the savings actually come from
A lower tax bill is built out of decisions made during the year, not a purchase made in December. These are the levers we walk through with you — and we show you the arithmetic on each one, so the choice is yours to make.
- 1 Deductions you already earned and never documented — the miles, the tools, the part of your home you actually work from, the phone you actually use for work.
- 2 Retirement contributions, where the money comes off the return and stays in an account with your name on it.
- 3 Owner compensation set at the right level for your entity — the same dollars, taxed differently.
- 4 An accountable plan, so what you pay out of your own pocket for the business comes back to you properly instead of disappearing.
- 5 Timing — which income lands in which year, and which bills get paid when, decided in the fall rather than the last week of December.
- 6 The structure of the business itself, which usually outweighs any single deduction on the list.
Not one of these asks you to buy something you did not need.
Starting or restructuring your business
Every business begins with a few decisions that are hard to undo later. We show you the choices with real numbers first, then handle the filings so the business is set up right the first time.
Before you choose or change how your business is set up, we show you with real numbers which structure keeps more in your pocket. If the answer is to stay exactly as you are, we tell you — and you keep the analysis either way.
LLC, partnership or S-corporation, formed correctly from day one — the ownership papers, the state filings and the tax elections all in place and explained to you before you sign.
The paperwork your business needs to open and stay open — seller’s permit, business name (DBA), health department and liquor license filings — handled for you and tracked so nothing lapses.
For owners who want to keep their own books: we set up your QuickBooks, connect your bank and bill pay, build your accounts around how your business actually runs, and teach you to use it — with us a call away when a question comes up.
For a corporation or LLC that was set up wrong or fell behind on its filings: we find what is missing, explain what it means, fix it, and bring the business current.
Keeping your books
Books are only useful if they are current and you can read them. Ours come with a plain-language summary every month, so you always know what happened and why.
Your books kept every month and reconciled to the bank, with a short plain-language summary of what came in, what went out and what changed — then everything filed on time.
Months or years behind, or books you do not trust: we rebuild them, show you what we found along the way, and hand you a set of books you can rely on.
See what your people actually cost, and have them paid correctly. Setup, every payroll run, and the year-end forms — W-2s and 1099s — including the new tip and overtime reporting rules.
Understand what you owe and why, including which of your items are taxable and which are not — then have it filed and paid on time, every period.
Understanding your numbers
Nobody knows your business the way you do. Our job is to make sure the numbers tell you what you need to know, in time to act on it.
Regular reviews of how your business is really doing — what is making money, what is costing you, how you compare to businesses like yours — and the decisions to make about it, explained in plain language.
When you apply for a business loan, a line of credit, equipment financing or a lease, we prepare the financial package the lender asks for and walk you through what it says about your business before they see it.
A second look at books someone else kept — a former bookkeeper, a partner, the seller of a business you are buying. We tell you what was done, what came in, what legitimately went out, and where the difference is.
Your taxes — planned, prepared, defended
Tax should be planned in the fall, not discovered in April. We keep the books, plan the tax, prepare the return and answer the letters — so nothing falls in the gap between one firm and another.
A meeting before the year closes on the moves that lower your tax without buying anything you did not need — owner pay, retirement, reimbursements, timing, and the structure of the business itself.
Corporation, S-corporation, partnership and sole-proprietor returns, prepared from books we trust and explained to you before they are filed.
Your personal return, prepared together with the business so the two agree and nothing is counted twice or missed.
Owner salary set at the right level, the annual corporate paperwork kept current, and your ownership records tracked year to year — so the tax savings you elected stay yours.
Understand exactly what the letter says — then have someone licensed to practice before the IRS stand in for you and answer it. Included with our Complete Partner package; available on its own as well.
The other agencies that ask questions too — workers’ compensation carriers, the EDD, the city. We gather the records, explain what is being asked, and handle the response.
Also on hand
Built into every review — you leave understanding the numbers, not just receiving them.
For the documents we prepare with you, signed in our office.
One place for everything, on your phone.
Under our firm’s accountant program for clients on a monthly package.
Every engagement starts with a conversation, not a form. Tell us what is keeping you up at night and we will tell you plainly what we would do about it — and whether we are the right firm to do it.
Start a conversation →info@cnestrategies.com · 949-822-7004 · cnestrategies.com
