Merritt Bookkeeping Review 2023: Pricing, Features & More
Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and CPA with 25 years of experience. He brings his expertise to Fit Small Business’s accounting content.
This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.
Merritt Bookkeeping provides professional remote bookkeeping services to small businesses located anywhere in the US. It’s best for small businesses looking for bookkeeping services without any tax or consulting services. It keeps its price very low by focusing only on the essentials of bookkeeping: recording transactions, reconciling accounting, and providing financial information. With its flat-rate pricing of $190 per month, customers love Merritt Bookkeeping, with an average rating of 4.98 out of 5 from the ~100 customer reviews we found.
Overall Score:
3.90 / 5
Pros
- 100% money-back guarantee if you’re unsatisfied with its services
- Budget-friendly flat-rate pricing with no setup charges and transaction limits
- Catch-up bookkeeping available at a discounted price
- Very high user reviews
- No software learning curve—clients use a client portal that links to summary reports
Cons
- Only basic bookkeeping services are offered—excluded payroll, tax, and consulting
- Only method of communicating with your bookkeeper is email
- No invoicing or bill pay services
- No accrual-based accounting
- No customization beyond the chart of accounts and some financial reports
When To Use Merritt Bookkeeping
- Small businesses that want to track income and expenses for their tax returns: If you don’t plan on using your financial statements for anything other than preparing a tax return, then Merritt’s very basic, affordable service is ideal for you. You also use Merritt to process 1099 forms for your contractors.
- Small businesses or freelancers using QuickBooks: If you currently use QuickBooks Online but are tired of the bookkeeping headache, you can transfer your QuickBooks Online account to Merritt and let it take over.
- Businesses on a budget: If you’re looking to save money, Merritt is affordable. Its services are available at one flat rate, regardless of your monthly expenses or transactions.
- Businesses that are behind on their books: Merritt has catch-up bookkeeping for an additional fee. The catch-up fee is offered at a discounted price compared to the monthly service.
When To Use an Alternative
- Businesses that send frequent invoices and bill payments: Because you don’t have access to your books with Merritt, you’ll need to do all of your invoicing and bill paying in separate software. While this is doable, it’s best to have your invoicing and bill payments in the same set of books as the bank account where payments are processed. QuickBooks Live offers a similar service to Merritt—albeit at a higher price—but allows you access to your QuickBooks account.
- Accrual-based businesses: Merritt only supports cash-based accounting using QuickBooks Online. You might want to try Bookkeeper360 if your business uses accrual-based accounting.
- Businesses that want tax services: Merritt keeps its prices low by concentrating on the specific task of bookkeeping. If you want a firm that will do both your bookkeeping and tax preparation, we suggest Bench.
Merritt Bookkeeping Deciding Factors
Pricing | $190 per month |
Free Trial | ✕ |
90-day Money-back Guarantee | ✓ |
Assigned a Personal Bookkeeper? | ✕ |
Bookkeeper Communications | Email only |
Monthly Account Reconciliations & Financial Statements | ✓ |
Detailed Monthly Financial Reporting | ✓ |
Back-office Services Like Customer Invoicing & Bill Pay | ✕ |
Full-service Payroll Available | ✕ |
Tax & Consulting Services Available | ✕ |
Merritt Bookkeeping Alternatives
Monthly Price | Bank Reconciliation | Financial Statements | Invoicing | Bill Pay | Payroll Integration | Tax Services | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | $190 flat rate | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
 | Starts at $200 | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
 | Starts at $299 | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
 | Starts at $399 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
If you’re unsure whether assisted bookkeeping is right for you, read our guide to the best small business accounting software for great do-it-yourself (DIY) accounting software options.
Merritt is the clear price leader in online bookkeeping. Unlike other online bookkeeping services with variable rates, Merritt charges a flat rate of $190 per month. The price is the same regardless of business size, transactions, accounts, monthly expenses, and the number of employees.
Merritt Bookkeeping: Bookkeeping Features & Services
Merritt Bookkeeping provides a personal account representative to each customer. so you’ll have a single point of contact with the company. While this person isn’t technically your bookkeeper, they’ll oversee the preparation of your books to ensure things run smoothly.
When you sign up, a Merritt employee will assist you with setting up your bank and merchant accounts. The bookkeepers will manage your financial data using QuickBooks, which will import read-only versions of your bank statements automatically using LedgerSync, a free, secure, third-party application. It’ll categorize your transactions based on the chart of accounts, reconcile your QuickBooks file with the bank statements, and then send you PDF reports of your financial data on a monthly basis.
If you don’t already have a QuickBooks file, Merritt will create one for you. A QuickBooks file is a copy of all your QuickBooks data that Merritt will manage. You can still manage your QuickBooks account—and Merritt will update its QuickBooks file. You can also ask for a copy of the file from Merritt. The easy-to-access client portal lets you review reports and see how your transactions are categorized. If there are any errors, you can make the correction yourself.
After setup, contact with your bookkeeper will be minimal. Each month, once Merritt finishes updating the bookkeeping, it’ll email you a link to your Dashboard. The Dashboard includes transaction details and links to your financial reports and the support center. It’s up to you to review the transaction detail sheet. If you see anything that needs to be fixed, type the change in the sheet, and it’ll be updated.
The reason Merritt scored a little low in this category is that the only method of contact with your account representative is via email, which will be answered within one business day. You can’t arrange a meeting with your bookkeeper, although you’re allowed an unlimited number of emails. While this setup doesn’t sound ideal, based on its outstanding customer reviews, it seems to work well for users.
We chose Merritt Bookkeeping as the best online bookkeeping service for businesses on a tight budget. It keeps its price low by focusing only on the most basic bookkeeping tasks, which are, in our opinion, the most important tasks. It’ll classify your transactions into the proper accounts, reconcile your bank accounts monthly, and provide monthly financial statements.
Merritt scored low in this category because it doesn’t offer more advanced services like invoicing your customers, paying your bills, and running your payroll. However, if you don’t need these services, Merritt is a great option with its low price and excellent customer reviews.
Bookkeeping Catch-up
Merritt also offers catch-up work if you’re behind in your bookkeeping. The catch-up fee is $140 for each month you’re behind. The rate goes down to $70 per month for months that are almost complete.
Merritt Bookkeeping: Other Features & Services
Financial Reports
Each month, Merritt Bookkeeping will send you a cloud-based spreadsheet that details all of your transactions so that you can verify that they have been categorized correctly. You’ll also receive the following reports:
- Balance sheet
- Income statement, showing yearly comparison during the last three years
- Profit and loss (P&L) statement, showing monthly comparison during the last 12 months
- Graphical representation of income and expenses during the last 12 months
Given the low price of its service, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the reports provided monthly.
Merritt Bookkeeping Monthly Reports
QuickBooks Integration
Once you connect your bank and credit card accounts, your bookkeeper can download your account statements directly into a QuickBooks file that they set up for you. If you’re already using QuickBooks, you can provide them with your file. This makes it easier to organize and manage information.
1099 Filing
Merritt provides a simplified issuance and electronic filing of 1099s to your contractors. This service is provided at an additional cost of $75 for the report preparation and $8 per form.
Bank & Credit Card Reconciliation
Merritt Bookkeeping will import read-only versions of your bank and credit card statements and reconcile your accounts monthly.
Tax & Consulting Services
Merritt Bookkeeping doesn’t provide any tax and consulting services but can refer to companies that it trusts will provide you with great service.
Merritt Bookkeeping has outstanding customer reviews. While its offerings are limited and communication is by email only, customers love the provider. There’s something to be said for doing one thing and doing it well.
- Yelp: 5 out of 5 based on about 30 reviews
- Google: 5 out of 5 based on around 70 reviews
- G2: 4.2 of 5 based on about 5 reviews
How We Evaluated Merritt Bookkeeping
We evaluated Merritt Bookkeeping on price, personal bookkeeper accessibility, bookkeeping services, and user reviews.
20%
Pricing
30%
Personal Bookkeeper
30%
Bookkeeping Services
20%
User Reviews
20% of Overall Score
While a lower price is typically better, we like to see that the price paid is appropriate for the services being received.
30% of Overall Score
We mainly look to see that there is a personal bookkeeper or someone that is the customer’s primary contact at the customer. We also like customers to be able to talk directly with their bookkeeper either on the phone or virtually.
30% of Overall Score
The most important bookkeeping services are reconciling bank accounts and preparing financial statements. However, we also like bookkeeping companies to offer back-office services like preparing invoices, paying bills, and running payroll.
20% of Overall Score
We calculate an average user reviews across major websites dedicated to collecting reviews.
*Percentages of overall score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How much does Merritt Bookkeeping cost?
Merritt Bookkeeping charges a flat rate of $190 per month, with no restriction on the number of monthly transactions or the frequency of service.
Does Merritt Bookkeeping provide 1099 filing services?
Yes, Merritt Bookkeeping will assist with filing 1099 forms for your contractors for an additional fee of $75 for report preparation and $8 per form.
Does Merritt Bookkeeping offer a free trial?
No, but you can test out Merritt Bookkeeping for three months with no risk. If you’re unsatisfied within that period, you’ll receive a full refund.
Bottom Line
Merritt Bookkeeping, an online bookkeeping service for cash-based businesses, uses QuickBooks as its bookkeeping platform. It offers a basic package that includes automated monthly downloads of bank statements and monthly financial reports. This service is ideal for businesses with basic bookkeeping needs, as Merritt doesn’t assist with taxes, payroll, and invoicing. The affordable flat-rate pricing also makes it a great option for freelancers on a budget or those who are self-employed.
