Tax season is a terrible time to invent a chart of accounts. Yet that is what a surprising number of otherwise well-run companies do: twelve months of mixed personal and business activity, a shoe box of PDFs, and a hope that the return will tell them how they did.
A monthly close is not ceremony. It is a bank rec that actually recs, a P&L that matches the operating rhythm, and a list of questions while the month is still in memory. By the 15th, you know whether margin moved — not in March, when you can no longer change it.
The tax return then becomes a filing, not an archaeology project. Basis, officer wages, and estimated payments are already in the file. Extensions become a calendar item, not a panic.
We price Bronze, Silver, and Gold against that standard. Bronze is a clean cash-basis close. Silver adds the monthly review. Gold is CAS: close, bills, and a pack you can take to a meeting. None of them are “we will catch up in April.”