Renee Castellanos
Founder and Lead Bookkeeper
Monthly close review, catch-up scoping, the CPA handoff.
Sugar House, Salt Lake City
Bookkeeping and payroll for Salt Lake City small businesses, closed by the 10th.
Six bookkeepers on 2100 South. Your books reconciled and summarised by the 10th of every month, payroll on a fixed calendar with every Utah filing included, and the price on the website.
Get a flat-fee quote
or call (801) 555-0137
Three things we put in writing
Dates, not promises.
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Books closed by the 10th
Every account reconciled, every receipt matched, and a three-line summary in your inbox by the 10th of the following month. If it is the 11th, we owe you a phone call and an explanation.
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Every Utah filing included
TC-941E withholding returns, Department of Workforce Services wage reports, new-hire reports, W-2s and 1099s, sales tax on TAP. On our calendar, not yours. No add-on fees for the state.
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Prices on the website
Three flat monthly plans from $395, published on the pricing page. One call to confirm the figure. No hourly billing, no discovery call, no quote that arrives a week later.
What we do, on the calendar
A month with Summit & Pine.
Every service is a date you can see coming. Scroll the month: the books, payroll and the state filings land where they are marked.
- 01Payroll runsand every other Friday
- 02
- 03Feeds and receipts inyou drop, we match
- 04
- 05
- 06
- 07Reconciledevery account to the statement
- 08
- 09
- 10Books closedsummary in your inbox
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15Payroll runsdirect deposit out
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20Sales tax filedon TAP, quarterly or monthly
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31QuarterliesTC-941E and DWS, Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct
Payroll dates follow your pay cycle; the rest is the same for every client.
Books closed10th
Monthly bookkeeping
The books are current but you are the one doing them on Sunday night.
See what is included
Payday, every otherFri
Payroll
A Utah penalty letter arrived, or your CPA said no to payroll.
See what is included
Caught up bySpring
Catch-up bookkeeping
You are months or years behind and tax season is coming.
See what is included
Who we work with
Owner-run businesses with 2 to 40 people.
Kitchens, crews, shop floors, salon chairs and clinic front desks. If the owner still signs the checks, we know the books.
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Since 2017
The firm in numbers
92
businesses on a monthly plan across the Salt Lake Valley.
104
months in a row with every client closed by the 10th.
9
years in Sugar House, two blocks from the 2100 South bridge.
Not a CPA firm, and clear about it
We keep the books. Your CPA files the return. Both of you are happier.
Summit & Pine does not prepare tax returns, sign audits or give tax advice. What we do is hand your CPA a reconciled, closed, documented file in January, with a cover note on anything unusual. CPAs who get our files tell us they finish the return in a fraction of the time, and that shows up in their bill.
If you do not have a CPA, we introduce you to one of three Salt Lake firms we work with every January. If you have one, we call them in the first month and agree the handoff.
The people
Four names you will actually know.
Six people in total. These four are the ones who answer the phone, run your payroll and close your month.
Jess Thornley
Payroll Lead
Payroll runs, Utah withholding and unemployment filings, W-2s and 1099s.
Amari Whitfield
Staff Bookkeeper, Catch-Up and Cleanup
Catch-up rebuilds, cleanup of messy files, the first three monthly closes for new clients.
Kenji Mori
Systems Lead
QuickBooks Online and Xero setup, bank and POS feeds, app connections.
Pricing
Three plans. The numbers are right here.
Illustrative "from" prices for a typical client. The quote call confirms your figure against your transaction count, employees and entities.
Trail
from$395/month
One entity, up to 150 transactions a month, no employees yet.
Ridge
from$695/month
One entity, up to 300 transactions, payroll for up to 10 employees.
Most clients
Summit
from$1,150/month
Up to two entities, payroll for up to 40, bills and invoices handled.
Catch-up work is $250 per month of backlog. See everything each plan includes
Illustrative example
I had fourteen months of bank statements in a drawer and a CPA who had stopped returning my calls. Amari rebuilt it a month at a time, Renee walked me through the summary at my own counter, and the CPA had a clean file by the 1st of March. I have not opened that drawer since.
- Trigger
- Fourteen months behind, extension deadline in six weeks
- Work
- Catch-up at a fixed price per month, then the Ridge plan with payroll
- Timeline
- Access week 1, rebuild weeks 2 to 5, CPA file week 6
- Since then
- Closed by the 10th every month; payroll every other Friday
This story is an illustration of how a catch-up runs. Summit & Pine is a fictional firm; no real client is described.
01What does "closed by the 10th" actually mean?
By the 10th of each month, every bank, card and loan account for the previous month is reconciled to the statement, every transaction is categorised, receipts are matched, and you have a three-line summary in your inbox: what came in, what went out, what is in the bank. The full reports are in your QuickBooks Online or Xero file the same day. If we miss the 10th, Renee calls you with the reason and the new date.
02Do you do my taxes?
No. Summit & Pine is a bookkeeping and payroll firm, not a CPA firm. We do not prepare income tax returns or give tax advice. We do file your Utah payroll returns and your sales tax returns on TAP, because those come straight from the books. For the income tax return, we hand your CPA a closed file in January, or introduce you to one of the three Salt Lake CPA firms we work with.
03How far behind can my books be before you cannot help?
There is no limit we have found yet. The furthest back we have rebuilt is five years. Catch-up is priced per month of backlog, so you know the figure before we start, and we work most recent month first so your CPA can begin while we finish the older ones.
04Can you take over payroll in the middle of the year?
Yes. Jess collects the year-to-date figures from your current provider or spreadsheet, loads them so W-2s come out right in January, registers you with the Tax Commission and Workforce Services if that was never done, and runs the next payroll on your existing pay dates. Most switches take one pay cycle.
05Do I have to come to Sugar House?
No. About half our clients have never been to the office. Everything runs through your accounting file, a shared folder for receipts and statements, and a monthly phone or video call if you want one. For clients in the valley, Renee will come to you for the first meeting. Remote clients anywhere in Utah get the same calendar and the same people.
Next step
Tell us how far behind you are. We will tell you the number.
Three details in the form, or one phone call. Renee calls back within one business day with a flat monthly figure.