Straight answers about how we work, what we offer, and how to get started. Have a question that isn't here? Book a free discovery call.
We're an accounting, tax, and advisory firm serving business owners and professionals who want more than seasonal tax prep. We combine year-round bookkeeping, proactive tax strategy, tax preparation and filing, business funding and loan-readiness support, and entity and planning guidance into ongoing relationships. Rather than seeing you once a year, we work alongside you throughout the year so decisions get made with tax and cash-flow consequences in view, not discovered in April.
Our clients are usually established or growing business owners and professionals: people with a practice or business and real financial complexity who have outgrown DIY software and one-off preparers. They value having one team that understands the whole picture, their books, their taxes, their financing, and their long-term plan, rather than juggling separate providers who never talk to each other.
A seasonal preparer looks backward: they record what already happened and file it. We work forward. Because we keep your books current all year and review your position quarterly (if not monthly), we can act on opportunities while they still matter, adjusting estimated payments, timing purchases, structuring compensation, positioning you for financing, and planning ahead, instead of just reporting the outcome after it's locked in.
BKD Advisors is an accounting, tax, and advisory firm. We are not a licensed CPA firm, and we don't perform audits, reviews, or compilations. Credentialed professionals, including CPAs and IRS Enrolled Agents, serve our clients as part of our team, and where a matter calls for services only a licensed professional can deliver, we coordinate with the appropriate licensed professional.
Our core engagement is a single monthly subscription covering ongoing bookkeeping, year-round tax strategy, and, for clients who maintain full-year coverage, preparation and filing of your covered tax returns. The idea is one predictable monthly fee instead of a surprise bill each spring, and a team that's already deep in your numbers when filing season arrives because we've been working your return all year.
For clients on our integrated monthly plan, preparation and filing of your covered returns is included as a benefit of continuous, full-year service. Because it depends on us having your books current for the whole tax year, there's a straightforward coverage rule we'll walk you through before you sign, so there are no surprises.
Most of the decisions that change your tax bill and your business's health happen during the year, not at filing time. How you structure compensation, when you make purchases, how you manage cash flow, whether your books are clean enough to qualify for financing: by the time a seasonal preparer sees your numbers in April, those windows have closed. Ongoing advisory means we're in your numbers as things happen, so we can act while it still counts.
Yes! When you start mid-year, we bring the earlier months current through a one-time historical bookkeeping reconstruction, quoted separately so you can decide before any work begins. Once your full year is covered, your filing can be included under the same integrated plan.
Yes! This is a common starting point. Back-year returns are handled as their own engagement because they require reconstructing records and often coordinating penalty relief. Getting caught up cleanly is often the first thing we do together, and it frequently opens the door to relief options people don't realize they qualify for, such as first-time penalty abatement.
Yes. Helping our clients pursue capital is part of the value of working with us. Because we already keep your books clean and your taxes in order, we can prepare genuinely lender-ready financials and help position you for the right capital when you need it, whether that's working capital, a line of credit, or funding to grow. To be clear about our role: we get you prepared and organized; you choose the options you pursue and apply. It's one more way an organized financial house pays off.
Lenders decide based on what your financials show. When your books are disorganized or incomplete, you either get declined or get steered toward more expensive options. When your bookkeeping is current and your statements are lender-ready, you qualify for better terms, larger amounts, and more choices. Getting your financial house in order is often the highest-return thing a growing business can do before seeking capital, and it's already what we do for you every month.
It flows naturally from it. We're an accounting and advisory firm first: we keep your books sharp, file your taxes on time, and work to reduce your tax burden. Because we're already inside your numbers, helping you get ready for capital is a natural extension rather than a separate sales pitch. When funding makes sense for you, we help you approach it prepared and on solid footing, as your advisors, not as a lead generator chasing a placement.
Yes! As part of advisory, we help you think through the right structure and elections for your situation and coordinate the tax treatment, and we can support broader planning as your business matures. Where a matter requires a licensed attorney, such as drafting legal instruments, we work alongside one rather than practicing law ourselves. The goal is a setup that actually fits your business, not a one-size template.
We support longer-term planning as part of a comprehensive relationship, coordinating with appropriately licensed professionals where a matter calls for specialized expertise. As your situation grows more complex, having your books, taxes, and forward planning handled by a coordinated team, rather than disconnected providers, is where a lot of value gets created. We'll talk through what fits your situation during a consultation.
Yes! For clients who have student debt, this is an advisory and tax service, and it's an area where our tax expertise creates real advantages, because the way you file can directly affect income-driven repayment amounts. We analyze your situation and provide strategy; we don't take over your loans or contact your servicer, and don’t ask for your Federal Student Aid login credentials. You can also handle federal student loan programs yourself, for free, at StudentAid.gov, and we'll tell you honestly when that's all you need.
It begins with a free 15-minute Discovery Call, so we can understand your situation and you can decide whether we're a fit. If it makes sense to go further, we schedule a paid Zoom consultation where we dig into specifics and map out a strategy. There's no obligation from the discovery call.
The consultation is where the real analysis happens. We go deep on your specific numbers, goals, and problem areas, and you leave with a concrete understanding of your situation and a strategy tailored to it. It's designed to give you genuine value whether or not you continue into an ongoing engagement.
Our core accounting, tax, and advisory work is a flat monthly subscription, so that cost is predictable rather than a spring surprise, and any additional or specialized work is scoped and quoted before it begins. For ancillary services like funding assistance, we'll walk you through exactly how any fees work for your situation before you commit. You'll always know what applies to you up front, with no surprises.
Our monthly engagement has a defined term rather than an open-ended auto-renewal that's hard to escape. A few months before it's time to continue, we present a renewal for you to actively sign. The specifics of term and cancellation are spelled out in your engagement agreement before you sign anything.
Through our encrypted secure portal, never regular email. Financial and tax documents contain exactly the kind of information that shouldn't sit in an inbox, so we provide a secure upload link for everything sensitive. When you engage us, you'll get access to your portal.
We have offices in Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, with Chicago planned, and we are a virtual firm serving clients across the United States. Our engagements run through secure digital tools, video consultations, a secure document portal, and online scheduling, so wherever you are, working with us is seamless.
We build continuity into how we work. The person who handles your discovery and consultation stays with your engagement, so you're not re-explaining your situation to someone new each time. You get a relationship, not a ticket number.
Look for someone who works proactively rather than just filing what already happened, who's transparent about pricing and about what they are and aren't licensed to do, who protects your information properly, and who's willing to tell you honestly when something isn't worth paying for. The right firm should make you feel like your finances are being handled by people who see the whole picture.
"Advisors" is the heart of what we do; we're not just preparers, we're a team you think through decisions with. Our three principles guide the work: Insight, seeing the whole picture and the opportunities others miss; Integrity, being honest with you even when it's not what earns us the most; and Impact, doing work that measurably improves your financial life.
