Profile · The firm

A Firm of Seven That Answers Its Own Phone

No call centre, no ticket number, no junior you never meet. Just a small office above the street, a lot of reconciled accounts and a phone that a person picks up.

A small dark wooden desk against floor to ceiling windows looking out on tall pine trees, an open laptop, a notebook and a mug on top

The feature

By the Front Desk · Section A, page 2

Los Gatos: On Point Accounting started in 2011 with one desk, one client and a rule that still holds: whoever does your books talks to you directly. Renee Calloway had spent eight years at a large firm where the person who reviewed a return had never met the client. She thought that was backwards.

Today the office has seven people. Two of them sign tax returns. Four keep books. One runs the calendar, the client list and the coffee. Between them they look after about 140 businesses, most within twenty minutes of the office, a few as far as the coast.

The work is not glamorous and the firm likes it that way. Bank feeds get reconciled every week. The month closes by the 10th. Returns are drafted early, not on the last night. When a client has a question, it lands in a shared inbox that three people watch, and somebody answers it the same day more often than not.

"Clients do not want a genius. They want somebody who calls back."

Renee Calloway, managing partner

Growth has been slow on purpose. The firm takes on a handful of new clients a month, and only after a 20 minute call to check the fit. If a business needs something we do not do well, like international tax or a big audit, we say so on that call and point you to somebody who does.

The office is on the second floor at 50 University Ave. There is parking behind the building and a bell that does work, despite how it looks. Come by with a box of receipts any weekday. We have seen worse.

How we work

  1. One named bookkeeper, all yearYou get a person, not a queue. They learn your vendors, your quirks and your slow months.
  2. Weekly reconciliationSmall problems get caught while they are still small. The month end is a check, not a rescue.
  3. A one page report by the 10thProfit, cash, what changed and what to watch. Plain words, no forty tab spreadsheet.
  4. Fixed fees, quoted in writingYou know the bill before the work starts. If scope changes, we tell you first.
  5. Corrections in writingIf we make a mistake, we say so in writing and fix it at no charge.
Continued on A3: meet the desk

The office, by the numbers

Sample figures
2011Year the first desk opened
7People, two who sign returns
140Businesses on the books
20 minDrive to most of them
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