About Candor Bookkeeping
Candor Bookkeeping was founded on the belief that exceptional bookkeeping takes compliance into account, and that the way to both is straightforward honesty.
The firm's purpose
Most businesses fully intend to abide by the law, but what the law requires is spread across statutes, agency guidance, and forms, and meeting a requirement often depends on reliable financial records. The cost of a mistake is easy to underestimate. In Arizona, a contractor's transaction privilege tax depends on how each contract is classified, and the same misclassification, repeated across years of invoices, is assessed with interest and penalties for every period an audit reaches, generally four years. Candor Bookkeeping exists to keep those records accurate and honest.
The firm's founding
The decision to start Candor Bookkeeping came naturally after an experience its founder had at a former employer. A promotion there brought full access to the company's QuickBooks file, and the problems in it were evident within minutes: nearly every product in the item list was set up as a service, every tax code charged the wrong rate, and most services were taxable by default. For a contractor in Arizona, those settings matter: on a Modification contract the tax attaches to the contract amount, and on an MRRA contract it attaches to the materials the contractor buys, so a file that records materials as services cannot show which tax applies. A file configured that way misstates the transactions entered into it, along with every document and tax figure drawn from it, and settings like these are usually wrong from the day the file is created. These had been in place for years.
Each problem, along with the steps to resolve it, was presented to the owner formally. The owner's answer was a directive to continue the practices or resign.
The experience, from promotion to disclosure to resignation, made at least three things clear: bookkeepers who keep compliance in view are hard to find; compliance carries consequences, so it shouldn't be difficult; and no one should have to choose between a job and their integrity.
The firm's experience
Candor's founder brings more than 14 years of accounting and bookkeeping experience and more than 7 years of compliance experience, much of it working closely with business owners. That experience includes construction complianceCertified payroll and prevailing-wage reportingPer diem trackingComplete contractor vendor packets: insurance certificates and endorsements, lien waivers, safety records, prequalification, E-Verify warranties, and tax certificatesPermitsBusiness insuranceBusiness license renewals, accountingQuickBooks company files: refining, checking, and rebuilding themIntegrating QuickBooks with CRM systemsBuilding the reports owners rely on, and business systemsDeveloping, implementing, maintaining, and managing business systemsAn industry-specific CRM put to work for a contractorA task-management system designed from the ground up.
The firm's vision
Candor is built around one aim: making compliant practices standard practices. To that end it creates practical resources — the Classifier, the glossary, and the Sources page — and makes them free to everyone, in the hope that rules distilled, organized, and kept in one place will make it easier for businesses to abide by the law, and to grow in the way only honesty allows.