Outsourced Accounting
Full-cycle bookkeeping, monthly close by the 15th, and financial statements you can actually act on.
Learn moreChicago accounting services
Chicago accounting services —
with a CPA on every close.
Tristan CPA provides outsourced accounting, bookkeeping, fractional controller and fractional CFO services to Chicago-based businesses, including EQDerivatives. Full-cycle books, monthly close by day 15, and a CPA-Controller on review — on a fixed monthly fee.
Where we're based
Headquartered in Houston.
Serving Chicago businesses.
We work with Chicago companies from our Houston headquarters — cloud accounting, video meetings, and Central-hours availability. The close lands by the 15th, and a CPA-Controller reviews every set of books before an owner sees them.
Chicago clients
EQDerivatives, among others. Ask us for a reference in your industry during the consultation.
Illinois tax position
Flat state income tax plus the pass-through entity election — worth modeling annually. We handle both with your federal filing.
How we work
Fully remote. Cloud accounting, video meetings, and a shared document portal — no office visits required from either side.
What we do
The whole finance function —
one team, every stage.
Chicago accounting services for research, media and professional service firms — owners who need reporting they can act on, not a shoebox reconciled in April.
Areas we serve
Across Chicago —
and nationwide.
We serve Chicago-based businesses across the city and the collar suburbs, plus clients nationwide.
The Loop · River North · West Loop · Hyde Park · Lincoln Park · Evanston · Oak Park · Naperville · Schaumburg · Skokie
In their words
Owners who finally
know their numbers.
"Tristan CPA has been instrumental in helping us create and maintain accounting systems that will provide the Dorchester Brewing management team with financial clarity and oversight for years to come."
— Travis Lee, Co-founder, Dorchester Brewing Co.
"One of the biggest benefits has been having peace of mind knowing we have a professional accountant on board. Working with Tristan was very easy!"
— Anthony Caro, Owner, Craft & Caro
Is it time?
You probably need this
if any of these are true.
Outsourcing the accounting function is not automatically the right move. Here is where it usually is — and where it usually isn't.
A good fit if you…
- Get your financials weeks after month-end, or not at all without asking
- Have a bookkeeper doing the work and nobody senior reviewing it
- Are making hiring, pricing or borrowing decisions on numbers you don't fully trust
- Run between $1M and $10M in revenue and have outgrown a part-time bookkeeper
- Are heading into a loan application, an audit, or a sale and need books that stand up
- Have had a tax surprise that nobody saw coming
Probably not yet if you…
- Are pre-revenue or under a few hundred thousand — a good bookkeeper and a tax CPA will cover you
- Already get a clean, on-time close with senior review — you may just need a budget built
- Want the cheapest possible transaction coding rather than books you can make decisions on
- Need someone physically in your office — all our work is done remotely
Not sure which of these you are? A free consultation will tell you quickly, and honestly, what the right starting point is.
Book a free consultationWhich do you need
Bookkeeper, controller, or CFO?
The honest answer.
Most firms will tell you that you need the most expensive option. Often you don't. This is the ladder we actually use when someone asks.
| Where you are | What usually fits | The tell |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | A bookkeeper | Decisions are still small enough to make from the bank balance. |
| $1M–$3M | Outsourced accounting | The bottleneck is reporting that's late or wrong, not a shortage of strategy. |
| $3M–$10M | Controller, plus CFO time | You need the answer before the month closes, and one bad call costs more than a year of fees. |
| $10M+, or mid-transaction | Fractional CFO | Hiring, borrowing, buying or selling — decisions you can't reverse. |
Pricing
Fixed monthly fees —
no hourly surprises.
Published, because you shouldn't have to sit through a discovery call to find out roughly what something costs.
| Tier | From | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | $750/mo | Newer or simpler operations that need reliable, compliant books and a true picture of where they stand. |
| Growth | $2,500/mo | $1M–$10M businesses that want controller oversight, a budget to run against, and monthly clarity rather than quarterly hindsight. |
| Partner | $6,000/mo | The full finance function, including CFO-level forecasting and scenario modeling for the bigger decisions. |
Catch-up work on books that are behind is scoped and priced separately, so you can see the one-off cost and the ongoing cost as two different numbers.
Frequently asked
Chicago questions, answered plainly.
- Is Tristan CPA based in Chicago?
- Our headquarters is in Houston. We serve Chicago-based businesses remotely, on Central hours, with the same senior review structure every client gets.
- Do you handle Illinois state taxes?
- Yes. Illinois flat income tax, the pass-through entity election, and Chicago-level filings are handled alongside your federal return.
- What size businesses do you work with?
- Most of our clients run between $1M and $10M in revenue. Below that, outsourced accounting on its own is usually the right fit; above it, controller oversight and CFO work start to earn their keep.
- How much does it cost?
- Foundation starts at $750 a month, Growth at $2,500 and Partner at $6,000. The tier depends on whether you need the books kept, the books kept and reviewed by a controller, or the whole finance function including CFO-level forecasting. No hourly billing and no surprise invoices.
- What if our books are months behind?
- That is a normal starting point and not something to be embarrassed about. We scope and price the catch-up work separately from the monthly fee so you can see exactly what the cleanup costs and what the ongoing service costs.
- Can you work with the CPA who does our tax return?
- Yes, and plenty of clients keep theirs. We keep the books clean and closed and hand your CPA a package they can work from, which usually makes their job cheaper. If you would rather consolidate, we do returns too.
- Who has access to our bank accounts?
- We work from read-only bank feeds wherever the bank supports them, so we can see transactions but cannot move money. Anything that genuinely needs payment access, like bill pay, sits behind your approval.
- Do we need to meet in person?
- No. The work happens in cloud accounting software with video meetings and a shared document portal, so nothing about the engagement requires an office visit from either side.
Let's talk
Ready to hand off
the books for good?
A free, no-pressure consultation for Chicago owners. Tell us where the books stand and we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right fit.
Book a free consultationMailing address
801 Travis St, Ste 2101, PMB 1845
Houston, TX 77002
A remote firm — serving clients nationwide