Trades
Electricians, plumbers, painters, landscapers. You know which jobs felt good — we show you which ones actually paid. Profit per job, per crew, per service type.
▲ profit per job
How we help trades →
Bookkeeping for U.S. small businesses
Know where the money's made.
Most bookkeepers tell you what you spent. We set up the systems that show you which jobs, products, and customers actually make you money — so every decision gets easier.
Not ready to talk? Get the free 5-line profit check →
Profit by line
June 2026
Kitchen renovations
+ $8,420
Small repair jobs
losing money every month
− $1,130
Design consults
+ $3,275
Maintenance contracts
+ $2,940
The upside
▲ finally clear
Your books balance. But do they tell you anything?
Tidy books that only exist for the IRS are a wasted asset. You can be busy, fully booked, growing — and still not know which half of your work is quietly losing money.
Upside Account does the bookkeeping, then goes one step further: we structure your numbers around how you actually make money — by job, product, service, or customer — so your reports answer real questions.
Built for businesses that earn job by job.
Trades and builders live or die on quoting, scoping, and delivery. When that's how you earn, profit-by-job bookkeeping isn't a nice-to-have — it's the whole game.
Builders & construction
Long jobs, big deposits, costs that drift. We track each project against its quote so overruns show up mid-build, not months after handover.
▲ quote vs. actual
How we help builders →
Consultants & agencies
Retainers, projects, day rates — margins vary wildly by client. We show you effective rates and profit per client, so you know who to keep and what to charge.
▲ profit per client
How we help consultants →
How it works
Three steps from "the books are done" to "I know exactly what to do next."
01
We clean up the books
Catch-up, tidy-up, reconcile. Whether you're six months behind or just uneasy about what's in there, we get your books accurate and current — and keep them that way, every month.
02
We build your profit system
We restructure your accounts around how you actually earn: by job, product line, service, or customer type. Same software you already use — set up to answer questions, not just file taxes.
03
You see where the money's made
A short monthly report in plain English: what made money, what didn't, and the one or two things worth acting on. Numbers you'll actually read — and use.
Pricing
Simple monthly plans
Every plan is quoted in writing before you commit — the "from" price is where most businesses land.
Month-to-month. No lock-in.
Essentials
from
$395
/month
Clean, current books — done for you, every month.
- Monthly bookkeeping & reconciliation
- Receipt & invoice capture
- Quarterly check-in call
- Tax-time-ready financials
Upside
Most popular
from
$695
/month
Bookkeeping plus the profit system — our signature setup.
- Everything in Essentials
- Profit tracking by job, product, location or customer
- Monthly plain-English profit report
- Monthly 30-min numbers call
- Pricing & margin reviews
Partner
from
$1,250
/month
For growing teams that want a finance person on call.
- Everything in Upside
- Cash-flow forecasting
- Payroll & bill-pay management
- Budgets & goal tracking
- Unlimited email support
All prices in USD.
Founder, Upside Account
Small-business bookkeeping specialist and Xero Partner.
Why "Upside"
Bookkeeping shouldn't just look backwards.
Upside Account was started on a simple observation: small business owners don't struggle because their books are messy — they struggle because their books are silent. Compliant, reconciled, and useless for making decisions.
So we build every client's books around one question: where's the upside? Which work you should do more of, charge more for, or stop doing entirely. That's the answer your numbers should give you every single month.
Meet us on a free call →
FAQ
Fair questions, straight answers.
It's the most common starting point we see. Catch-up work is quoted as a one-off project before your monthly plan starts, so there are no surprises. Most cleanups take two to four weeks.
No. Plans are month-to-month — cancel any time with 30 days' notice. Your file and your software stay yours: if you leave, you take clean books with you, not a hostage situation.
Very little. Snap receipts as you go, and give us about 30 minutes on a monthly call. That's it — we chase the rest.
No. We work with what you have — QuickBooks, Xero — whatever you already run. The upside comes from how the books are structured, not which app they live in.
A regular bookkeeper records what happened. We do that too — then we organize it so you can see profit by job, product, or customer, and we walk you through what it means each month. It's the difference between tidy records and useful ones.
No — we make their life easier. Your CPA gets clean, well-organized books at tax time. Many of our clients' CPAs are our best referrers.
We're U.S.-based and fully remote — we work with small businesses in all 50 states. Everything happens over video calls and the software you already use, on your schedule.
Thirty minutes. You tell us how your business makes money and what you wish you knew about your numbers. We tell you honestly if we can help and exactly what it would cost. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so and point you somewhere better.
Free download
The 5-line profit check every trade business should run monthly.
One page. Five numbers. If you can fill them in, you know whether the work is paying — and if you can't, you've just found your problem.
Free 30-minute call · Nationwide
Find out where your upside is hiding.
30 minutes. A straight answer and a fixed quote in writing.
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