Terms of Service

These Terms of Service is a contract that governs our services that are offered to you conditioned on your acceptance of, without modification to, the terms, conditions, and notices contained herein (the “Terms”). Your use of our services constitutes your agreement to all such Terms. Please read these terms carefully, and refer back to our Terms of Service as needed.

Changes to Terms of Service and Prices

Simple Startup reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change the Terms under which our services are offered and the prices for those services. The most current version of the Terms will supersede all previous versions. Simple Startup encourages you to periodically review the Terms to stay informed of our updates.

When we make changes to our Terms they will be posted to the Terms of Service web page found at https://simplestartup.com/terms-of-service and sent to active customers quarterly by email. If, at our discretion, we take action beyond posting the updated Terms of Services to our webpage and sending an email informing you of changes, they are purely for your convenience and does not alleviate your responsibility to review them. Continued use of our services constitutes your acceptance of our Terms of Services.

Contact Us

Simple Startup welcomes your questions or comments regarding the Terms of Service:

Email Address: operations@simplestartup.com

Telephone number: 800-997-0331

General Business

Definitions

“Accounting Clean-Up” means work that is required to clean up accounting periods prior to Simple Startup’s start date.

“Accounting Services” means the aggregation of prior company transactions that form the basis of financial statement reporting, which includes either cash or accrual accounting methodologies. It also includes services such as bookkeeping, accounting, reconciliations, adjusting journal entries, payroll processing, financial statement reporting, and similar activities.

“Accrual Accounting” means an accounting methodology where revenue or expenses are recorded during the period in which they are either earned or provided. In other words, revenue and expenses are recognized regardless of when cash actually changes hands.

“Authorized Payment Method” means an ACH withdrawal or a wire transfer. Simple Startup maintains the right to request a specific payment method depending on specific circumstances.

“Billing Period” generally means the current month. For example, for services being performed in January, invoices are sent out at the beginning of January and are payable upon receipt. However, this could also include non-subscription services such as hourly work or compliance filing, including consulting services and sales tax filings.

“Cash Accounting” means an accounting methodology where revenue or expenses are recorded during the period in which cash is either received or spent. This method of accounting may also be referred to as cash-basis accounting and is generally used with smaller companies.

“Customer Terms of Service” or “Terms of Service” or “Terms” means these terms, conditions, and notices referred to here, or as otherwise stated. Any agreement, such as a proposal, payment plan, or other legal document which is signed by both Simple Startup and you, the customer, supersede these Customer Terms of Service.

“Collections” refers to the third-party process of collecting on amounts owed to us, which is sad and no fun for all parties involved.

“Confidential Information” means all information disclosed by a party (“Disclosing Party”) to the other party (“Receiving Party”), whether orally or in writing, that a reasonable person would consider confidential.

“Customer Data” means all the information that you submit to us, or give us access to.

“Customer Materials” means all the materials that you provide, upload, email, or give us access to.

“Draft Financials” means financial statements marked as “Draft” as the prefix along with contextual information, such as “Missing Client Information”, or “Outstanding Customer Balance”.

“Failed Payment” means a customer payment that has failed either through insufficient funds, declined payments, or contested payments.

“Failed Payment Fee” means a $50 fee that is added to your account when a payment attempt fails.

“Finance Services” means the analysis and preparation of future events, which includes budgeting, financial forecasting and re-forecasting, variance analysis, cash flow management, capital raising, valuation, divestiture and exit strategies, cap table projections and management, and similar activities.

“Financial Statement Reporting” means the financial statements that we deliver to you as part of our services.

“Interest” means interest accrued at a monthly rate of 1.5% (18% APR). Interest compounds monthly on invoices fourteen (14) days past due, which equals 19.56% APR.

“Jurisdiction” means the courts located in Boulder, Colorado, USA and the laws governing businesses operating in the State of Colorado.

“Late Fees” means fees assessed to past due balances.

“Monthly Close Process” is the process we go through to close your books for the previous month, obtain any needed information for open items, and issue impeccable financial statements for the month previous.

“Monthly Maintenance” is our ongoing accounting service. This is a critical part of client success. Rather than simply be reactionary to issues that may arise, our teams are dedicated to identifying and foreseeing challenges ahead of time, generating potential solutions, and then making recommendations to our clients.

“Notice Period” means the length of time required from when either you or Simple Startup communicates the wish to cancel services and stop work on your account.

“Personal Data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual where such information is contained in Customer Data or Customer Materials, and is considered personally identifiable information under applicable data protection laws.

“Scottish Brogue” refers to Lorne’s accent (our CEO).

“Sensitive Information” means banking information, financial account numbers, government issued identification numbers that aren’t accessible to the public, biometric information, or other information that a reasonable person would deem as sensitive.

“Subscription Fee” means the amount you agree to pay for Simple Startup’s service. This fee is generally invoiced on a monthly basis at the beginning of the month for that month’s service.

“Tax Services” means tax advisory and tax compliance related services, which includes tax planning strategies including tax liability, corporate structuring, equity and incentive classes, equity divestiture, federal and state income tax returns, state-related business tax filings such as sales tax, franchise tax, property tax, and and similar activities.

“Termination” means the immediate termination of the business relationship, or termination upon an agreed upon timeframe, resulting from behavior that we find potentially damaging to our business, behavior that is negligent, illegal, or unethical, or resulting from gross misconduct.

Fair Use Policy

While our Fair Use Policy is not all encompassing, it is meant to provide some overarching expectations for both you and us. It is not exhaustive; but symbolizes the desire for each of us to treat each other fairly and with dignity and respect.

We reserve the right to add a surcharge to our fees if this policy is violated; however, we will communicate any expectations that are not being met and attempt to resolve them with you prior to that step. Likewise, if we are falling short, our expectation and hope is that you will address it with us so we can learn, take action and improve our service to you.

What You Can Expect From Us

Response Times. Response to communications (email, phone, messaging) within 48 hours (usually much sooner). We understand there are occasionally items that must be addressed in an urgent manner and as a result, we will do our best to accommodate these requests. Email is our preferred method of communication and will generally yield the fastest response.
Work Hours. Generally, work hours are between 9am and 5pm on standard business days.
Proactivity. If we don’t hear back from you on time-sensitive matters (within 2-3 days) we will use our best knowledge and recommended course of action on your behalf. For example, we will pay and file a sales tax return if there is a pending deadline, where by not paying you would incur a penalty.
Data Ownership and Rights. We will set things up for you so that you own and have access to your data at all times.
Confidentiality and Data Security. We will always protect your data and not share it with anyone outside our organization without your express permission. We will always keep your information, financials, etc. confidential and secure.
Dignity and Respect. We will treat you with dignity and respect at all times.

What We Expect From You

Open communication. We can’t provide you with awesome data and up to date accounts if we don’t know what’s going on so please keep us informed as much as you can.
Adherence to project deliverable timetables. This includes, but is not limited to, you or your team’s responsibilities in your Monthly Close Process and Financial Statement Reporting. In order for Simple Startup to deliver monthly reporting to you on time, we need info from you in advance. If we don’t get it, deliverables may be delayed and that makes us sad 🙁. In addition, it is fair to receive information in a timely manner. For example, waiting until the tax deadline to send required information puts everyone in an unfavorable position.
Honesty and openness. If you don’t like anything, tell us and we’ll fix it. Don’t let it fester. Just reach out to us or provide feedback on the periodic surveys we send out.
Dignity and Respect. We will treat you with dignity and respect at all times.

Our Super Simple Referral Program

If you love our service, there’s no bigger compliment you can give us than to introduce us to your friends or other people who might value our services as well. As a thank you, once they are a member of the Simple Startup family for 90 days we will donate $500 to either a charity of your choice, or directly to you (no judgment there!).

Non-Solicitation of Simple Startup Employees

If, during the term of this Agreement or for thirty-six months (36) thereafter, you directly or indirectly retain the services (whether as an employee, independent contractor or otherwise) of any employee or contractor of Simple Startup (or ex-employee or ex-contractor within thirty-six months (36) of the employee or contractor’s termination or resignation from Simple Startup) who has provided services to you on behalf of Simple Startup, you agree that Simple Startup will be damaged. Accordingly, you agree that for each such Simple Startup employee or contractor hired by you, you will pay Simple Startup 50% of the employee’s or contractor’s new annual total compensation package or contract as liquidated damages, to be paid in full on or before employee or contractor’s start date. Should any legal fees be incurred by Simple Startup in the process of enforcing this clause, you agree that all such fees are payable by you.

Interest

Interest accrues on all delinquent balances as described in our Accounts Receivable Policy and Procedure.

Collections

In accordance with our Accounts Receivable Policy and Procedure and conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Simple Startup reserves all rights to utilize a third party collection agency and/or take legal action to obtain payment for monies owed to us.

Collection fees will be added to outstanding debts when they are transferred to a third party for collection.

General Services Terms

Pricing

The following are general guidelines as it relates to pricing. Specific, or more detailed pricing can be found in each service category.

Unlike most financial services companies, our core services aren’t charged by the hour. However, if your account starts taking up way more time than any other account, we will need to have a conversation.

For most of our services we charge based on all expenses incurred by the company (cost of sales, operating expenses and other expenses) as captured on the income statement. Expenses are calculated using a rolling two-month average so that one-off wild swings in expenses don’t cause crazy shifts in your monthly subscription. Your subscription will increase or decrease from month to month automatically and is reflected in your monthly invoice.

We price based on the rolling two month average of your expenses using the information available to us at the time of subscription run date.

Any time we are required to reopen closed accounting periods based on new information we incur additional cost. we do not reduce/refund past month’s subscription fees based on information that becomes available to us after the time of subscription run date, i.e. if we have to go back and make an accounting adjustment in May that lowers a previous month’s subscription. Conversely, we reserve the right to invoice and collect any increases to past month’s subscription fees based on information that becomes available past the subscription run date.

Additional Services (Paid by the Hour)

Additional, ad-hoc, or add-on services, are generally paid by the hour. You can find the billable rates here. As a policy for practical purposes we round up to the nearest 1/10th of an hour for every task.

Discounts

Simple Startup may offer discounts to customers who use multiple product offerings. Discounts are applied as part of the monthly subscription fee.

Retainers

We operate under a policy that requires you to put down a retainer against services, similar to other professional industries. The retainer amount is 50% of the estimated cost of the project. This applies to clean-up work, special projects, tax services, and other activities. Retainers are non-refundable, but may, in our discretion, be applied to other services.

ACH Payment Agreement

You authorize Simple Startup to debit the bank account on file with the third-party payment processors used by Simple Startup, for your subscription fee and for all other services performed. You understand that this authorization will remain in effect until you cancel it in writing and you agree to notify the business in writing of any changes in your account information or termination of this authorization at least 15 days prior to the next billing date. If the payment date falls on a weekend or holiday, you understand that the payment may be executed on the next business day. You understand that because this is an electronic transaction, these funds may be withdrawn from your account each period as soon as the indicated transaction date. In the case of an ACH Transaction being rejected you understand that the business may at its discretion attempt to process the charge again within 30 days, and you agree to an additional ($50) charge for each attempt returned Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) which will be initiated as a separate transaction from the authorized recurring payment. You acknowledge that the origination of ACH transactions to your account must comply with the provisions of U.S. law. You will not dispute Simple Startup’s subscription recurring billing with your bank so long as the transaction corresponds to the terms indicated in this agreement. Should the balance be declined and unpaid by a reasonable amount of time as determined by Simple Startup, we reserve the right to use a debt collection agency or other legal means to recover outstanding fees. If we incur any costs for payment collection, such as solicitor fees and collection agency fees, you agree to indemnify us for all such costs.

Clean-up Work

Accounting Clean Up work is performed on a project by project basis. A time based estimate is generated, and retainer collected, before initiating any work. Our hourly rates vary depending on complexity of the tasks involved and are updated annually.

Onboarding

Our onboarding services are designed to help support the successful setup and transition of accounting services from your previous provider to Simple Startup.

Simple Startup’s onboarding typically takes ~30 days to complete and is charged as one month of your ongoing subscription service price. If a client becomes part of our family in the middle of the year the client can decide if they want us to begin our services at that time or if they would like us to retroactively perform accounting services. For retroactive accounting services, each month is treated like a normal month of subscription and is payable as a one-time service charge. For example, if we begin servicing a client in March and the client wants us to retroactively go back and also complete January and February accounting the client would pay a one-time fee equivalent to two months subscription (January and February) and then March and onward would be part of the normal subscription fee.

Our goal from the onboarding process is to ensure you and our team are set up for success. This typically includes, but is not limited to, generating a thorough understanding of your business, a soft audit of your balance sheet, collection of prior accountant team knowledge, workflows, supporting schedules and ensuring we have access to all necessary systems.

Please note, it takes the accounting teams time to understand the movement of cash in your business and build a rhythm. It is also possible that elements of our onboarding process bleed into the first or second month of service.

Monthly Maintenance

Our ongoing accounting service is referred to as “Monthly Maintenance”. Depending on the Accounting Service you are signed up to you can expect the following as part of your ongoing accounting services:

Processing transactions from all bank accounts and credit cards.
Reconciling the balance sheet against bank accounts, credit cards accounts, loan accounts, equity / cap table accounts, third party platforms and software etc.
Processing AP and making associated payments
Processing AR
Processing expense reimbursements.
Running payroll
Performing payroll allocation services, adjusting journal entries and maintenance of supporting schedules.
A multilevel financial statement review procedure.
Provision and presentation of financial statements.

Expedited Financials

Generally, we provide financials approximately three weeks after a month closes. For example, May’s financials will be delivered by approximately June 21.

Occasional there is a need to expedite financials, or need them sooner. This requires a significant time investment and a much quicker turnaround. As such, there is a fee associated with any expedited financials.

The expedited financial fee structure is as follows:

• Issuance within 8-12 business days: 10% premium

• Issuance within 6-8 business days: 15% premium

• Issuance within 5 or fewer business days: 25% premium

If you need financials expedited you must communicate that by the 25th of the prior month in order to allow us to prioritize and shift any workloads. This will allow us to plan and issue the financials smoothly within the chosen timeframe.

Additionally, the date ranges for each option is necessary to ensure all the open items are addressed at least 72 hours before the selected deadline. For example, if you choose Option 1 (8-12 business days) and require the financials by the 8th, we’ll need your response to any pending items by the 5th.

Offboarding

During the offboarding process Simple Startup will provide you with an offboarding packet that details significant dates including notice date, notice period, final subscription fee, service stop date, and others.

Upon offboarding, an administrative fee of 20% of up to $1000 of your monthly subscription cost will be added to your monthly fee. This is in order to cover the administrative cost of gathering and preparing your information for transfer, which can take us anywhere from 2-10 hours depending on how long you’ve been a client and how much data we need to prepare and transfer.

If you require more offboarding support, such as meetings to educate/explain procedures to your new accountant, we charge for this on an hourly basis. Our rates for this work vary from $85-250 per hour depending on complexity/level of staff supporting the offboarding transition.

If you require this support, we will take an initial retainer equal to or less than 50% of your monthly fee prior to the work being performed. The total retainer is dependent on the amount of hours expected to be required (determined upon offboarding by you and your Simple Startup team). If the retainer is met, subsequent work will be charged via an additional retainer.

The offboarding packet also details what is included in offboarding and what is not. For example, you will be provided with pdf files of your supporting schedules; however if you would like to obtain these schedules in an excel file with formulas there is a small additional fee.

Likewise, educational or training time for you or your new service provider is a billable cost that is paid according to our published billable rates.

Finally, the offboarding packet lists the different softwares or platforms that we have been given access to with the requested date for which you should remove our access.

NOTE: In some cases you provide us with your username and password that is not specific to Simple Startup. This often occurs with government websites associated with taxes, Secretaries of State, etc. Our commitment is to respect your privacy and confidentiality; however, per best practice we would encourage you to change your password.

Refund Policy

Simple Startup offers a 30 day money back guarantee (only in the first 30 days of service) if you are dissatisfied with our service. All we ask is that you spend at least an hour with us to explain, in-depth, why you would like the refund and how we could improve our service. The onboarding fee is non-refundable.

Initiating Bill Payment on Your Behalf

Many of our service packages include managing your accounts payable and corresponding bills.

When you mark a bill as “Approved”, you are providing Simple Startup explicit permission to initiate payment for that bill. However, it is our general policy to pay bills when they reach seven days prior to their due date. This provides ample time for the bill to be processed and for funds to actually change accounts.

Your chosen payment method set up in payment software determines the speed for which your vendors will receive payment. Simple Startup does not control the speed of payments from payment software. As a general rule, however, electronic payments are faster than checks, as well as more affordable.

Cancellation & Notice Period

If for whatever reason you decide to leave us (don’t go!) we require advance notice so we have time to wrap up everything on your account. During the notice period we will continue to provide the same services and invoice you accordingly as we work with you to complete the offboarding process.

Notice Period durations can be found in the specific service sections.

We may decide, at our discretion, to suspend or cease providing service to you without a notice period in any one of the following situations:

If you fail to pay our bills.
If you fail to provide us adequate instructions or documents in a timely and reasonable fashion.
If you give us instructions that are deliberately false or intentionally misleading.
If you are engaged in conduct that is illegal or in behavior that will cause irreparable harm to Simple Startup.

We allow a grace period of seven days for Tiers 7+ cancellation notices; however anything beyond that will be held to the full notice period and charged at the full subscription rate for the months therein – as accountants, we’re sticklers for the rules.

Examples:

If you are in Tier 1 and cancel April 30th, your notice period is 30 days. In this case, you would still pay for May and we still provide services in May. If you cancel April 15th, because 30 days takes us to the middle of the next month, you would still pay for May so we close out May and don’t just stop working mid-month.
If you are in Tier 7 (where the seven day grace period begins) and cancel April 3, then your last invoice will be in May. Because Tier 7+ has a 60 day notice and because the cancellation was within the grace period, you would still be responsible for April and May invoices.
If you are in Tier 7 and cancel April 15 (outside of the grace period) your cancellation would take effect July 1, meaning we would still provide services for April, May, and June since the notice was mid-month.

The only time we will consider an exception to our notice period is in the case of gross misservicing, i.e. we doubled everyone’s payroll, failed to ever reconcile your bank accounts, stood you up for scheduled monthly meetings, or other egregious errors. If this is the case, we ask that you give us at least half an hour of your time to discuss what went wrong and see what we can do to make it right.

To initiate cancellation you must complete the Cancellation Request Form regardless of any other method of communication. The date of requested cancellation will be based off the Cancellation Request Form, and any other attempt, including email or phone may not be recognized.

Termination vs Notice Period

If we feel, at any time, that our customers are engaged in illegal behavior we reserve the right to terminate the agreement immediately. Where possible or appropriate, we will give you at least 14 days’ notice of our intention to terminate our agreement and the grounds for which the notice is based. If the agreement is terminated by us, you will be required to pay our professional fees and charges for work done up to the date of termination, including any outstanding invoices.

Termination is different from the Notice Period. The Notice Period is the time length corresponding to the services we are providing and the tier in which we provide services. Generally, this is between 30-120 days. Your subscription will continue through the Notice Period as we wrap up the details on your account.

Accounting Services

Cash Basis Accounting Services

Description of Services

With Cash Accounting the following generally occur:

Revenue and expenses are recorded when cash is received / spent.
Inventory is recorded as COGS in the month it is spent – when you purchase inventory – rather than when you sell your products. Whilst possible, Cash Basis Accounting is not ideal for companies with inventory.
Accounts Receivable (issuance of an invoice to be paid in cash at a later date) and Accounts Payable (documenting a vendor bill to be paid in cash at a later date) are both instances of Accrual Basis Accounting and are hence not included in our Cash Basis Accounting Services.
Cash-basis accounting can result in large swings in profitability from one month to the next as a result of the timing of cash inflows and outflows in a business.

If you are a larger organization or have adopted more sophisticated accounting practices, then our Accrual-Basis Accounting Services might be a better fit for you.

Pricing

For our Cash Basis Accounting services, we charge based on transaction volume. We review your tier on a monthly basis and take the average number of transactions over the previous two months to determine your tier for the next month. If your transactions in a month place you in a higher or lower tier, your price will move up or down automatically for the month and will be reflected in your monthly invoices.

Cash Accounting Pricing Tiers

Tier	Monthly Transactions Up to…
1	75
2	150
3	250
4	350
5	450

Cancellation & Notice Period

The Notice Period for cash accounting clients is at least 30 days ahead of cancellation, i.e. to cancel as of March, you must notify us by February 1st.

Accrual Basis Accounting Services

Description of Services

Our “Accrual Basis Accounting Services” require higher skill, the most amount of time to prepare and are our more expensive method of accounting service. These accounting services are for companies, investors and their CEOs who demand a highest level of accounting sophistication and control in order to not only deliver impeccable financial security but also advanced insights.

These services contain the following features:

Monthly financial statements (Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows, A/R Aging summary, A/P Aging summary)
Categorizing transactions from bank accounts and credit cards
Monthly reconciliations
Depreciation and amortization entries
Accounts receivable (creation, submission, monitoring)
Accounts payable (bill entering, approval process setup, payment initiation)
Payroll (setup assistance and bookkeeping tax liabilities)
Multi-level financial statement review
Presenting of financial statements
Outstanding client success services

Accrual Accounting Pricing Tiers

Tier	Monthly Expenses Up to…
Tier 0	$20,000
Tier 1	$25,000
Tier 2	$30,000
Tier 3	$35,000
Tier 4	$40,000
Tier 5	$45,000
Tier 6	$50,000
Tier 7	$75,000
Tier 8	$100,000
Move to Controller Division	$100,000+

Cancellation Notice Periods

Tier	Monthly Expenses Up to…	Examples
Tiers 0-6	30 days	For December to be the final reporting month, you must notify us by December 1st
Tiers 7-8	60 days	For December to be the final reporting month, you must notify us by November 1st

Controller Accounting

Description of Services

Our Controller Accounting Services adhere to GAAP accounting policies and procedures via monthly accruals, deferrals or other adjusting journal entries. The service includes day to day transaction management, account reconciliations, payroll, invoicing, recording of bills, bill pay and monthly reporting all of which is performed by a dedicated team of Staff Accountants, Sr. Accountants, CPA Controllers and Accounting Advisors.

Our Controller Accounting Services are priced based on the amount ($) of expenses reported on your income statement resulting in a corresponding pricing Tier. Our Controller Onboarding is priced at one month of your Controller Accounting Services. Lastly, Accounting Cleanup references work required by the Simple Startup team to clean up your accounting records in accounting periods prior to the start of our Controller Accounting subscription.

The Controller Accounting Services provide the following features:

All features found in our accrual accounting services
- Monthly financial statements (Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows, A/R Aging summary, A/P Aging summary)
- Categorizing transactions from bank accounts and credit cards
- Monthly reconciliations
- Depreciation and amortization entries
- Accounts receivable (creation, submission, monitoring)
- Accounts payable (bill entering, approval process setup, payment initiation)
- Payroll (setup assistance and bookkeeping tax liabilities)
- Multi-level financial statement review
- Presenting of financial statements
In depth clean-up scope provided during onboarding
Managed accounting operations to ensure the following:
- Accurate revenue recognition
- Inventory & asset valuation
- Financial security in accordance with GAAP standards
Audit ready approach to help strengthen internal controls and provide full confidence to shareholders and external authorities
Monthly meetings to review prior month’s financials, strategically discuss how to optimize accounting workflows
Ensure all financial processes are adequately documented and monitored with corresponding supporting schedules
Outstanding client success services

Controller Pricing Tiers

Tier	Monthly Expenses Up to…
Tier 0-5	Move to Accrual Accounting
Tier 6	$50,000
Tier 7	$75,000
Tier 8	$100,000
Tier 9	$125,000
Tier 10	$175,000
Tier 11	$225,000
Tier 12	$275,000
Tier 13	$325,000
Tier 14	$400,000
Tier 15	$500,000
Tier 16	$625,000
Tier 17	$750,000
Tier 18	$875,000
Tier 19	$1,000,000
Tier 20	$1,125,000
Tier 21	$1,250,000

Onboarding

The onboarding month is very hands on and consists of two client meetings and a lot of background account setup work. This includes, but is not limited, to a soft audit of your balance sheet to ensure its accuracy before taking over ownership of your financial statements. We highly encourage retaining the services of prior accounting professionals during this period to ensure a seamless transition of documents, data and knowledge.

Our Controller Onboarding is priced at one month of your Controller Accounting Services.

Controller Notice Period Length

Tier	Notice Period (Days)
Tier 6	30
Tiers 7-10	60
Tiers 11-13	90
Tier 14+	120

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)

Description of Services

Routine audit ready accounting and ﬁnancial reporting can only help you grow so far. Our CFO services and Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) services provide you with the in-depth analysis, insights and strategic oversight to successfully navigate the future of your business with ease and confidence.

FP&A services include:

Financial Strategy & Reporting Infrastructure – We will work closely with your C-Level Team to uncover the opportunities in your business, provide clarity on the company’s financial future, design the financial reporting infrastructure and lastly help determine the resources (capital and personnel) required to grow your business.
Budgeting, Reforecasting & Variance Analysis – We will build you a custom financial model to accurately forecast your future. This model will become your annual budget and it will be closely monitored against accounting actuals each month to fully understand if you are on track or not and why. We will also re-forecast the model every quarter.
Board Preparation, Reporting & Attendance – We will prepare the financial section of your board reporting packets for your quarterly board meetings. Further, we will not only attend your board meeting but also present your business’s progress to the board against the board approved budgets and plans.
KPI Development, Management & Reporting – We will help you select a combination of ﬁnancial and non-ﬁnancial KPIs that are industry and business appropriate. Closely monitoring these KPIs and course correcting accordingly is integral to our FP&A advisory services and paramount to ensuring your business is on track.

Add-On Services

In addition to our FP&A services, we also offer a full suite of optional add-on services. These include:

Cap Table Management & Forecast
Investor Relationship Management
Cash Management (short term)
Raising Capital and M&A
Risk Mitigation
Revenue Management
Profit or Growth First
Margin Analysis
Valuation

Pricing

Pricing for FP&A services are set at a fixed cost and are available for companies that have greater than $100,000 of expenses per month.

Additionally, for those who subscribe to our FP&A core services are offered discounts if they also subscribe to the Controller Accounting Services.

Onboarding

The onboarding process for our FP&A services is fairly time intensive. Generally, we are either creating a new financial model, or analyzing and evaluating your existing financial model. Further, careful integration with your accounting software may be necessary to utilize accounting records to project forward.

Further setup is needed to solidify variance analysis processes, and re-forecasting processes and cadence.

In addition, determining your KPIs and understanding what is important to you is critical so that the finance function is forward looking and you are able to determine if you are meeting your goals.

Though it is an intensive process to onboard a client we seek to make it as streamlined as possible. To this end, we hold weekly meetings with our clients (included as part of the onboarding fee) to ensure synchronization of activities and our efforts.

Monthly Maintenance

All FP&A clients have a monthly meeting with us where we discuss accounting and how it relates to, and impacts the financial model. This includes variance analysis, reforecasting, KPI discussion.

For the three months in a quarter, generally the first and second months meetings deal mostly with variance analysis and then the third month is a reforcasting exercise.

Cancellation & Notice Period

For our FP&A service we require a full calendar month’s notice. For example, if you provide notice on January 3, this is not a full calendar month. The next full month would be February. Therefore, we will continue our service in January and February with our services ending on the last day of February. The final monthly meeting will occur in February.

Offboarding

If you decide to cancel your subscription, when you offboard you will receive the final month of reporting. In addition, you can choose to buy your fully working financial model with all formulas and spreadsheets. You can also select to receive training on your financial model that will be billed according to our current billable rates, which you can find in the General Section.

Tax Services

Description of Services

Tax Advisory

Our Tax Advisory Services may include tax audit, corporate structuring, initial return forecast, quarterly tax reviews and re-forecasting, and end of year reviews.

Ensure you have a dedicated tax advisor within your business to build and monitor a plan that not only minimizes your tax liabilities but also gives you peace of mind that you are not overpaying. Services may include tax audit, corporate structuring, initial return forecast, quarterly tax reviews and re-forecasting, and end of year reviews.

Tax Advisory Services can be subscription, project-based, or hourly depending on your need/the work being performed.

Tax Compliance

Our tax experts make sure your business is taking all available tax credits and deductions in order to retain cash in your business to fuel its growth. Because our experts understand the tax code, we can save you time and money, answer questions, and help to resolve issues if they arise. Services may include annual federal and state tax filings, annual reports and franchise tax filings, sales and use tax filings, and other tax compliance activities.

Tax Compliance Services are primarily based on per return and/or recurring retainer fee.

Pricing

Tax Advisory Services can be subscription, project-based, or hourly depending on your need/the work being performed. Refer to the Billable Rates in the General Section for more information.

Tax Compliance Services are primarily based on per return. You can view our tax estimator tool here. The price provided should be viewed as an estimate only and may be subject to change.

Tax Return Estimator Tool

We have provided a tax return estimator tool on our website at www.simplestartup.com/service/tax/business-tax-calculator. This is for tax estimate purposes only and you should understand that the price may vary depending on the complexity of your taxes, number of state returns, number of shareholders, etc.

Tax Engagement Policy and Procedure

Please view our Tax Engagement Policy and Procedure for more information.

Tax Deadlines and Fair Use

Tax filing deadlines are generally imposed by regulatory bodies. The deadlines require you to provide necessary information to us in order to prepare and file your tax returns.

We take the initiative to file an extension of your return, where applicable, on your behalf if we have not received required information in a timely manner. The charge for filing an extension can be found in our billable rates.

If a deadline is approaching and extension is not possible, Simple Startup is not liable for penalties assessed due to not receiving information. We will go out of our way to alert you of information needs; however, the responsibility to provide the information rests with you alone.

Onboarding

The onboarding process for tax services depends on your particular needs.

Generally steps include reviewing your prior years tax returns, looking for missed opportunities and determining if an amended return is appropriate. We will hold an initial meeting with you to understand the vision for your company, the vision for yourself in the company, where you are spending money today, and where you should be spending money based on vision objectives, potential tax benefits, and to maximize tax deductions.

Initial Tax Return Forecast

Approximately two weeks after this initial meeting you will receive a detailed report with our recommendations. This report will explore many different areas of the tax landscape applicable to your business. It will be organized into bitesize, manageable and prioritized sections and will serve as the foundation of your strategic tax plan for the year. The plan will be developed with you over the course of the year as both changes to tax codes are implemented and as your business evolves.

Quarterly Tax Reviews & Reforecasting

Our quarterly tax meeting will comprise a review of the past quarter and an updated plan for the remainder of the tax year. We will cover the economic landscape, the evolution of your business, developments in the implementation of any tax initiatives, and any changes to the tax code. We will review your financial statements and financial forecasts, reforecast the tax return accordingly, provide an update on the tax plan and ensure it remains fit for purpose.

End of Year Reviews

At year-end, we will hold a meeting to discuss our tax planning and to make certain we are ready for the turn of the calendar and have not missed any opportunities. During this meeting we will ensure we have taken action on all items that must occur prior to year end, plan for actions that can be taken before the filing deadline and confirm you are meeting the objectives of your plan. These proactive actions will make sure there are no surprises when your return is prepared.

Other Legal

Financial Disclaimer

Our work is meant to help you and your company with its financial management. We provide our services according to best practice; however, THE SERVICE IS NOT INTENDED TO REPLACE OTHER LEGAL, TAX OR FINANCIAL ADVICE. COMPANY IS NOT A FINANCIAL PLANNER, BROKER OR TAX ADVISOR. You acknowledge and agree that you are responsible for your own legal, tax, financial and investment research and decisions, that our service is only one part of a detailed process you should go through to make any financial, legal, tax or investment decisions. We are not liable for any decision made or action taken by you or others based upon information or materials created or provided by our service.

Privacy Policy

Simple Startup takes all reasonable steps to ensure that any personal information is secure and in accordance with US privacy laws. Please find our full privacy policy here. Note that we don’t store any of your banking information on our system, but instead rely on our third-party payment processor, ChargeOver. Please find ChargeOver’s privacy policy here.

Anonymous Data

You acknowledge and agree that Simple Startup may obtain and aggregate financial and other data throughout your use of the Services excluding any personally identifiable with respect to you (“Aggregated Anonymous Data”), and Simple Startup may use the Aggregated Anonymous Data to analyze, improve, support and operate the Services and otherwise for any business purpose, during and after the term of this Agreement, including without limitation to generate industry benchmarks or best practices guidance, recommendations or similar reports for distribution to and consumption by you and other Simple Startup clients and prospects. For clarity, this does not give Simple Startup the right to identify you as the source of any Aggregated Anonymous Data.

Outsourced Services

By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions, you accept the use of outsourced services by our firm. Where the outsourced service requires the disclosure of your personal information, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that any personal information is secure and in accordance with US privacy laws and our privacy standards.

Storage of Personal Information

By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions, you acknowledge and agree that your personal information may be stored in the United States or overseas as set out in our privacy statement.

Disclosure

You must provide all information and documents relevant to the proper performance of the work at the outset of the Engagement and during the Engagement. This includes promptly advising us of anything that occurs subsequently to render information already provided misleading or incomplete, or advising us of any change in your circumstances relevant to the work.

Reservation of Rights

Company. Company expressly reserves all rights in the Service and all other materials provided by Company hereunder not specifically granted to Customer. It is acknowledged that all right, title and interest in the Service and all other materials provided by Company hereunder, any update, adaptation, translation, customization or derivative work thereof, and all intellectual property rights therein will remain with Company (or third-party suppliers, if applicable) and that the Service and all other materials provided by Company hereunder are licensed on a services subscription basis and not “sold” to Customer. Names, logos, and other materials displayed on the Services constitute trademarks, trade names, service marks or logos (“Marks”) or Company or other entities. Customers are not authorized to use any such Marks. Ownership of all such Marks and the goodwill associated therewith remains with Company or those other entities. Any use of third party software provided in connection with the Services will be governed by such third parties’ licenses and not by this Agreement.

Customer. Customer expressly reserves all rights in any information, records, files, or other data that Customer (or Customer Personnel) loads, enters into, or otherwise makes available to Company or the Service and all results from processing such data, including compilations, and derivative works thereof (“Customer Data”), except that Customer grants Company a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, fully sublicensable, fully paid-up license to use, reformat, modify, display, perform, reproduce, and create derivative works of the Customer Data: (i) in providing the Service to Customer or (ii) in connection with Company’s internal business purposes. Unless specifically agreed in writing, each Party’s rights under this clause (b) extend to any update, adaptation, translation, customization or derivative work of Customer Data, made under this Agreement.

No Unlawful or Prohibited Use/Intellectual Property

All content included as part of the Service, such as documents, text, graphics, logos, images, as well as the compilation thereof is the property of Simple Startup or its suppliers and protected by copyright and other laws that protect intellectual property and proprietary rights. You agree to observe and abide by all copyright and other proprietary notices, legends or other restrictions contained in any such content and will not make any changes thereto. You also agree and acknowledge that, even where there are no express copyright or other restriction notices or legends, Simple Startup does not waive any of its rights with respect to such intellectual property and that no ownership or other license rights in that intellectual property are being granted to you, unless otherwise expressly stated in these Terms and Conditions.

You will not modify, publish, transmit, reverse engineer, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit any of the content, in whole or in part, found on our website, https://www.simplestartup.com (the “Site”). Simple Startup content is not for resale. Your use of the Site does not entitle you to make any unauthorized use of any protected content, and in particular you will not delete or alter any proprietary rights or attribution notices in any content. You will use protected content solely for your personal use, and will make no other use of the content without the express written permission of Simple Startup and the copyright owner. You agree that you do not acquire any ownership rights in any protected content. We do not grant you any licenses, express or implied, to the intellectual property of Simple Startup or our licensors except as expressly authorized by these Terms.

Electronic Communications

Visiting www.simplestartup.com or sending emails to Simple Startup constitutes electronic communications. You consent to receive electronic communications and you agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically, via email and on the Site, satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

Links to Third-Party Sites/Third-Party Services

Certain services made available via www.simplestartup.com are delivered by third party sites and organizations. By using any product, service or functionality originating from the www.simplestartup.com domain, you hereby acknowledge and consent that Simple Startup may share such information and data with any third party with whom Simple Startup has a contractual relationship to provide the requested product, service or functionality on behalf of Simple Startup customers.

International Users

If you access the Service from a location outside the USA, you are responsible for compliance with all local laws. You agree that you will not use the Simple Startup Content accessed through www.simplestartup.com in any country or in any manner prohibited by any applicable laws, restrictions or regulations.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Simple Startup, its officers, directors, employees, agents and third parties, for any losses, costs, liabilities and expenses (including reasonable attorney’s fees) relating to or arising out of your use of our services. Simple Startup reserves the right, at its own cost, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will fully cooperate with Simple Startup in asserting any available defenses.

Arbitration

In the event the parties are not able to resolve any dispute between them arising out of or concerning these Terms of Service, or any provisions hereof, whether in contract, tort, or otherwise at law or in equity for damages or any other relief, except for notice periods, outstanding balances, and the use of legal or collections efforts to resolve such issues, then such dispute shall be resolved only by final and binding arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act, conducted by a single neutral arbitrator and administered by the American Arbitration Association, or a similar arbitration service selected by the parties, in a location mutually agreed upon by the parties. The arbitrator’s award shall be final, and judgment may be entered upon it in any court having jurisdiction. In the event that any legal or equitable action, proceeding or arbitration arises out of or concerns these Terms of Service, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. The parties agree to arbitrate all disputes and claims in regards to these Terms of Service or any disputes arising as a result of these Terms of Service, whether directly or indirectly, including Tort claims that are a result of these Terms of Service. The parties agree that the Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this provision. The entire dispute, including the scope and enforceability of this arbitration provision shall be determined by the Arbitrator. This arbitration provision shall survive the termination of these Terms of Service.

Class Action Waiver

Any arbitration under these Terms of Service will take place on an individual basis; class arbitrations and class/representative/collective actions are not permitted. THE PARTIES AGREE THAT A PARTY MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN EACH INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PUTATIVE CLASS, COLLECTIVE AND/ OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING, SUCH AS IN THE FORM OF A PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION AGAINST THE OTHER. Further, unless both the client and Simple Startup agree otherwise, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding.

Liability Disclaimer

THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES INCLUDED IN OR AVAILABLE THROUGH SIMPLE STARTUP MAY INCLUDE INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. CHANGES ARE PERIODICALLY ADDED TO THE INFORMATION HEREIN. SIMPLE STARTUP AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAY MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES AT ANY TIME.

SIMPLE STARTUP AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL SUCH INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND. SIMPLE STARTUP AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO THIS INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Jurisdiction

To the maximum extent permitted by law, this agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Colorado and you hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in Colorado in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of the Services.

Termination/Access Restriction

Simple Startup reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate your access to their services or any portion thereof at any time, without notice.

You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and Simple Startup as a result of this agreement. Simple Startup’s performance of this agreement is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained in this agreement is in derogation of Simple Startup’s right to comply with governmental, court and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of our services or information provided to or gathered by Simple Startup with respect to such use. If any part of this agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the agreement shall continue in effect.

Unless otherwise specified herein, this agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the customer and Simple Startup with respect to the services and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between the customer and Simple Startup. A printed version of this agreement and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. It is the express wish to the parties that this agreement and all related documents be written in English.