The work that sits between the ledger and the customer
Back office support is the transactional layer underneath your financial statements. It is the invoices that have to go out on the first of the month, the vendor bills that have to be coded and scheduled, the marketplace payout file that has to be broken apart before anyone can reconcile the deposit, the inventory count that never quite ties to the general ledger. None of it is difficult. All of it takes hours, and it is the first thing to slip when your office manager is out or your controller is buried in the close.
We staff that layer. You get a named team that logs into your systems, follows a written procedure you approved, and produces the same output on the same schedule every week. We work in QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct, with Bill.com for payables, Expensify and Ramp for expenses, and Gusto, ADP, or Paychex where payroll data has to line up with the reporting. Everything is prepared on a US GAAP basis, cash or accrual, in the format your CPA already expects at year end.
There are two ways to buy it. As a managed function, we own the deliverable and the deadline, and you review exceptions. As dedicated staff augmentation, you direct the work day to day and we handle hiring, training, supervision, and coverage when someone is out. We usually recommend starting with one process, payables or cash application, then adding scope once you can see the output. Most clients run their back office for 40-60% less than a comparable in-house team, and we will quote that range against your own fully loaded cost before you commit to anything.
What we run
Six of the functions we run. Each one comes with a written procedure, a named owner on our side, and an agreed turnaround.
Order to cash administration
Invoice creation from approved orders, job tickets, or timesheets. Cash application against bank deposits, ACH, card settlements, and marketplace payout files. AR aging review, dunning notices at set intervals, short pay and deduction logging, and a weekly collections worksheet for your review.
Learn moreProcure to pay administration
Bill capture and coding, three-way match against the purchase order and the receiver, approval routing in Bill.com, and payment run preparation. We maintain Form W-9 records and keep the 1099-NEC status current on every vendor. Payment release always stays with your people.
Learn moreData entry and data cleanup
Backlog entry, catch-up coding, chart of accounts rebuilds, duplicate customer and vendor merges, uncategorized transaction sweeps, and opening balance repair. Every assumption goes into a working file so your CPA can follow the trail at year end instead of asking you.
Inventory and COGS reconciliation
We tie item counts and landed cost from your inventory system or marketplace reports back to the general ledger, investigate variances by SKU, prepare the monthly cost of goods sold journal entry, and produce a gross margin rollforward you can defend in a review.
Commission and royalty calculations
Calculated by rep, territory, product line, or contract tier, including draws, clawbacks, splits, and tiered accelerators. We produce a statement per payee, reconcile the total back to recorded revenue, and hand the approved file to payroll or accounts payable.
Learn moreExpense report review
Line by line review in Expensify, Ramp, or your own spreadsheet template. Receipt and business purpose checks against your written policy, mileage and per diem verification, personal charge flags, and a monthly exception summary for the managers who approve.
Economics and service standards
How a process moves to us
No big bang cutover. One process at a time, documented, tested against your current output, then live.
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Scope call and process list
We walk through what your team does today, who touches each step, which systems hold the data, and how far behind the backlog is. You get a written scope, a proposed cadence, and a fixed monthly price or hourly rate.
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Access and controls setup
You provision named logins at the permission level you choose. We sign a mutual nondisclosure agreement, agree on who approves payments and journal entries, and confirm in writing that release authority stays on your side.
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Written procedure and parallel run
We write the desk procedure in plain language and send it for your approval. For two to four weeks we run the process alongside your team and reconcile our output against theirs before anything goes live.
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Steady state and quarterly review
Your named lead reports on the agreed cadence with volumes, exceptions, and anything that needs a decision. We review scope with you every quarter and move hours up or down as your volume changes.
Other work we take on
If it is repeatable, documented, and lives in a system we can reach, we can take it.
- Customer and vendor master dataNew account setup, W-9 collection before the first payment, 1099-NEC status on the vendor record, remit-to and address changes, credit terms, and duplicate cleanup.
- Sales order and purchase order entryOrder entry from email, customer portals, or EDI exports, plus purchase order creation, receiving updates, and an open order report your operations team can actually use.
- Recurring reporting requestsWeekly flash reports, profit and loss by unit or location, budget versus actual, job costing schedules, and the standing reports your lender or board expects on a fixed date.
- Bank and credit card feed hygieneDaily categorization of US bank and card feeds, cleared item review, follow up on stale uncleared transactions, and reconciliation prep so the closer is not starting from scratch.
- Document managementFiling and naming invoices, bills, statements, and signed agreements in your drive or document system so an audit request or a year end question takes minutes instead of a day.
- Backlog and cleanup projectsMulti-month catch-up work, prior period corrections, sales tax data reconstruction, and one-time migrations between accounting systems, scoped and quoted as a fixed fee project.
- Dedicated staff augmentationA full time or part time person assigned to your queue, working your hours, with our supervisor handling training, quality review, and coverage when that person is out.
- Month-end close supportSchedule preparation, accrual and prepaid rollforwards, intercompany tie outs, and the supporting workpapers your controller reviews and signs off on.
Typical deliverables and cadence
A sample of what a steady state engagement looks like. The cadence is set by your volume, not by a template.
| Process | What we do | Typical cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Customer invoicing | Build and send invoices from approved orders, job tickets, or timesheets, apply the correct sales tax treatment, post to the AR sub-ledger | Daily or weekly |
| Cash application | Match bank deposits, ACH, card settlements, and marketplace payouts to open invoices, log short pays and deductions with a reason code | Daily |
| Collections support | Work the AR aging, send notices at 15, 30, 60, and 90 days, record every promise to pay and escalate the accounts you flag | Weekly |
| Vendor bill processing | Code bills to the chart of accounts, three-way match against PO and receiver, route for approval in Bill.com, prepare the payment run | Daily |
| Expense report review | Check receipts and business purpose against your written policy, flag missing documentation, push approved items into the payables run | Weekly |
| Inventory and COGS | Reconcile item counts and landed cost to the general ledger, investigate variances, prepare the cost of goods sold journal entry | Monthly |
| Commissions and royalties | Calculate by rep, product, or contract tier, produce a statement per payee, reconcile to revenue, hand the file to payroll or AP | Monthly or per pay period |
| Master data maintenance | Add and update customer and vendor records, collect and validate Form W-9, set 1099-NEC flags, deduplicate item and customer lists | Ongoing |
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Questions we get
How is back office support different from bookkeeping?
Bookkeeping produces the financial statements. Back office support is the transactional work that feeds them and the administrative work that surrounds them, including invoicing, cash application, bill coding, expense review, master data, and reporting requests. The two are often bought together. When they are, the same team works across both, so nothing gets handed back and forth between two vendors.
Do we have to change accounting software?
No. We work inside your environment, which is usually QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, NetSuite, or Sage Intacct, with Bill.com, Expensify, Ramp, Gusto, ADP, or Paychex alongside it. If your current setup is creating the problem we will tell you plainly and price a migration separately. We never make it a condition of the engagement.
What access do you need, and who stays in control?
We ask for named logins at the lowest permission level that still lets us do the work. Approvals and payment release stay with your people, and we do not hold check signing authority. We keep preparer and approver roles separate so your internal controls hold up. Every engagement begins with a mutual nondisclosure agreement.
We sell on marketplaces and run multiple locations. Can you handle the payout files?
Yes. Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, eBay, Stripe, Square, and restaurant point of sale settlements get broken out into gross sales, platform fees, refunds, chargebacks, and sales tax collected, then posted so the net deposit on the bank feed ties to the day it came from. For multi-unit operators we keep the class or location dimension clean so unit level reporting means something. Where multi-state nexus is in play, we prepare the sales tax data by jurisdiction and hand it to whoever files your returns.
Can we direct the work ourselves instead of buying a managed service?
Yes. Under dedicated staff augmentation you assign the tasks, set the priorities, and review the output. We recruit, train, supervise, and cover absences, and you get a defined number of hours each week during your business day. The two models also mix. Payables can run as a managed function while a dedicated person handles everything else that comes up.
How does pricing work?
Managed processes are priced as a fixed monthly fee against a defined scope and a volume band. Dedicated staff are priced per hour or per month. Cleanup, catch-up, and migration projects are quoted as a fixed fee after we look at the actual file. You get the price in writing before any work starts, and we revisit it only when volume moves outside the agreed band.
What happens if our assigned person is out, or we decide to stop?
Every process is documented during onboarding. That is exactly why we insist on it. A second trained person can pick up the queue without you retraining anyone. If you end the engagement, the procedures, working files, and system records are yours. We hand back a clean file and stay available through the transition.
Free consultation, no-cost quote
Email info@yfgconsultants.com or call (209) 456-5966 with your current process list, or just tell us what is falling behind. We will scope the work, put a price in writing, and show you the range against your in-house cost, at no charge.