Merritt Bookkeeping Review and Pricing

Merritt Bookkeeping provides professional remote bookkeeping services to small businesses located anywhere in the United States. Established in 2009, Merritt is best for small businesses that have a checking account and need to track income and expenses. By simplifying the bookkeeping process, it provides an effective solution for business owners to streamline their recordkeeping practices and increase productivity. The company provides a cost-effective solution to keeping your books organized, with flat-rate pricing of $190 per month.

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What We Recommend Merritt Bookkeeping For

We chose Merritt Bookkeeping as the best online bookkeeping service for businesses that are on a tight budget. Merritt works with businesses that use QuickBooks, and its bookkeepers will perform basic bookkeeping tasks while using automatic bank statement retrieval to reconcile your accounts. Although it doesn’t offer many of the advanced options that other bookkeeping services include, such as payroll or invoicing, its service is easy to use and great for businesses on a budget.

Who Merritt Bookkeeping Is Best For

• 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.
• Small businesses or freelancers that use 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 them take over.
• Businesses on a budget: If you’re looking to save money, Merritt Bookkeeping isn’t only affordable, but the services are available at one flat rate, regardless of your monthly expenses or transactions.
• Businesses that are behind on their books: Catch-up bookkeeping is offered by Merritt for an additional fee. The catch-up fee is offered at a discounted price compared to the monthly service.

Who Merritt Bookkeeping Is Not a Good Fit For

• Businesses that want to use QuickBooks Online to issue invoices or track unpaid bills: You aren’t allowed to directly access your QuickBooks Online account. You’ll need separate software to issue invoices and track unpaid bills.
• Large businesses that require a deeper level of financial reporting: Because Merritt Bookkeeping’s service is very basic, it cannot provide the more comprehensive and detailed reports that a large business needs. It also doesn’t offer real-time financial reporting. For a solution that provides excellent tools, try QuickBooks Live.
• Businesses that are looking for a dedicated bookkeeper: While Merritt ensures accuracy and acts as a point of contact for any questions, your work will be outsourced to a team of contractors. If you’d prefer that one dedicated bookkeeper handle your work, consider Bench, which assigns you a bookkeeper that’s an in-house employee of the company.
• Accrual-based businesses: Merritt Bookkeeping only supports cash-based accounting using QuickBooks Online. You might want to try Bookkeeper360 if your business uses accrual-based accounting.
• Businesses that want assistance with invoicing their customers: Merritt doesn’t offer invoicing. We suggest Bookkeeper.com, which is a full-service accounting firm that can handle your invoicing needs.

If you’re not sure 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 Bookkeeping Pros & Cons

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Merritt Bookkeeping vs Competitors

	Visit Merritt Bookkeeping	Visit QuickBooks Live	Visit Bench
Pricing	Flat fee of $190 per month	Starts at $200 per month	Starts at $299 or $499 per month
Basis of Limits	N/A	Average monthly expenses	N/A
Account Cleanup	✓	✓	✓
Cleanup Fee	$140 for each month	$500	$299
Dedicated Bookkeeper	N/A	✓	✓
Monthly Bookkeeping	✓	✓	✓
Cash or Accrual	Cash only	✓	✓
Tax Filing	N/A	Separate plan via Intuit TurboTax	Included in Premium Plan only
	Read our Merritt Bookkeeping review	Read our QuickBooks Live review	Read our Bench review

For detailed comparisons, you can also check out our QuickBooks Live vs Merritt Bookkeeping article.

Merritt Bookkeeping Pricing

Unlike other online bookkeeping services with variable rates, Merritt Bookkeeping charges a flat rate of $190 per month. The price is the same regardless of business size, transactions, accounts, monthly expenses, or number of employees.

Bookkeeping Catch-up

Merritt Bookkeeping also offers catch-up work if you’re behind in your bookkeeping. If you have a QuickBooks file, 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. However, bookkeepers must enter less than 10 transactions to qualify for the reduced rate. If you don’t have a QuickBooks file, Merritt Bookkeeping will make one for you and charge $140 for each month that you’re behind.

Merritt Bookkeeping Features

• 90-day money-back guarantee: Although Merritt doesn’t offer a free trial, you can test it out for three months with zero risk. If you’re not satisfied with the service within that time, you can ask for a full refund.
• Seamless integration with QuickBooks: 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 QuickBooks file. This makes it easier to organize and manage information.
• User-friendly web interface: 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.
• Flat-rate pricing: Merritt offers a comprehensive service package for a flat rate, which isn’t common with online bookkeeping services.
• 1099 filing: Merritt provides a simplified issuance and electronic filing of 1099s to your subcontractors. This service is provided at an additional cost of $75 for the report preparation and $8 per form.
• Financial reports: You’ll receive your profit and loss (P&L) and balance sheet reports on a monthly basis. In addition, you can access the available reports yourself via the client portal.

Merritt Bookkeeping: Working With Your Bookkeeper

Merritt Bookkeeping is run by a small team in San Diego. The company outsources the actual bookkeeping to several overseas contractors. The San Diego team monitors quality and is available to answer client questions.

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 will 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 their QuickBooks file. You can also ask for a copy of the file from Merritt.

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 links to your financial reports, transaction details, and links to 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.

If you have questions for your bookkeeper, you can contact your assigned bookkeeper by email or phone during regular business hours. Merritt doesn’t offer video meetings.

Merritt Bookkeeping Reporting

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
• P&L statement, showing monthly comparison during the last 12 months
• Graphical representation of income and expenses during the last 12 months

Unlike other bookkeeping services, which allow you to customize your reports, there’s limited customization available with Merritt Bookkeeping. It also doesn’t use subaccounts, so the categories will be more general. Additionally, you won’t be provided with access to the bookkeeping software, so you won’t be able to view real-time financial reports—you’ll only see them once a month.

Merritt Bookkeeping Alternatives

Bottom Line

Merritt Bookkeeping is an online bookkeeping service for cash-based businesses, which 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, or invoicing. The affordable flat-rate pricing also makes it a great option for those who are self-employed or freelancers on a budget.