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about us

Two people, in Ventura, who answer their own phone

Ventura Bookkeeping Services is Ted and Dianna McRae. There is no call center, no offshore back office, and no account manager you will never meet. You will know both of us by name and you will know which one of us is doing what.

Between us, more than forty years of this work. Dianna has run a business with payroll and a franchisor to report to. Ted has spent his career inside the accounting software your books live in.

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The short version

If you only read one box on this page.

  • A husband-and-wife firm based in Ventura, California
  • Over forty years of combined experience
  • Flat monthly pricing, published on the site
  • You are never charged for asking a question

Who you will actually be working with

Both of us, on every account. There is nobody else to hand you off to.

Dianna McRae

Bookkeeping and payroll

Dianna does the books. She has been a bookkeeper for thirteen years, and she started with her own, because she owned and operated a Senior Helpers franchise.

Which means she has made caregiver payroll every two weeks, submitted the P&L to corporate on their schedule, and watched a good month disappear into overtime nobody saw coming. If you run a business with people out in the field, she has already had your week.

She is also the one who picks up the phone.

Ted McRae

Systems and reporting

Ted has spent thirty years in accounting and financial technology, including time at Intuit and Xero, working with everything from one-person shops to large finance teams.

He handles the software side, choosing it, setting it up properly, and connecting it to everything else you run, plus the reporting that turns a month-end close into something you can make a decision from.

Before accounting, he spent fifteen years in technology and marketing, which is why we can also build and run your website if you want that.

Why we started this

Dianna spent thirteen years running a home care agency. Payroll every two weeks, caregivers in the field, a franchisor wanting numbers in their format, and a bookkeeper who sent a P&L once a month with no explanation attached.

The books were technically fine. They just never answered the questions she actually had, and asking felt like it would show up on the next invoice. So she learned to read them herself, and then she started doing them for other people.

That is the whole reason the monthly review call is included in every plan rather than sold as an upgrade, and the reason questions are free. We built the firm we wished she had been able to hire.

What that turned into

  • The call is included. Every plan, every month.
  • Questions are free. No clock, no invoice.
  • Prices are published. On the site, before you call.
  • Your file is yours. In your name, and it leaves with you.
  • We say no. When it is not a fit, we tell you.

These are policies, not values. You can hold us to every one of them.

The moment questions cost money, people stop asking them.

And that is when things go wrong. It is the reason we do not bill for a phone call, and the single decision that shapes most of how we work.

How we work

Six things that are true of every engagement, whatever you hire us for.

Plain language, always

If we explain something and you still do not follow it, that is our failure and we will explain it again differently. Nobody is expected to arrive fluent in accounting.

A flat price, agreed first

Monthly plans are a fixed fee. Project work is one number in writing before anything starts. There is no hourly meter running while you think.

You own everything

Your accounting file and every subscription are in your name. If you leave, it all goes with you and we hand off cleanly to whoever is next.

We tell you the bad news early

A problem you hear about in week two is something you can still fix. The same problem at tax time is just a fact. We will not soften a number to make a call easier.

We stay in our lane

We are bookkeepers, not your CPA, your attorney or your CFO. We keep the numbers right and tell you plainly when something needs one of those people.

Two people, both of whom you know

You will not be introduced to a team you never speak to again. The person who does your books is the person on the call and the person who answers the phone.

Who we are probably not right for

We would rather say this now than three months into a bad fit.

  • Businesses that only want a tax return prepared once a year. That is a CPA, and we will happily recommend one.
  • Companies large enough to need a full finance department or an ERP implementation. We will tell you when you have outgrown us.
  • Anyone looking for the cheapest possible option. We are not the cheapest, and we will not pretend otherwise.
  • Owners who want the books filed away and never discussed. The monthly call is included, and it is most of what we are for.
  • Anyone hoping the numbers can be made to say something they do not say.

Based in Ventura, working further out

We are here, in Ventura County. We know the businesses, the seasons and the rhythm of the place, and if you want to sit down in person we can usually do that.

Most of the work happens over email, phone and video, which means we also work with clients across the country. Being local matters when you want it to and never gets in the way when you do not.

Where our clients are

  • Ventura and Oxnard
  • Camarillo and Thousand Oaks
  • Simi Valley and Moorpark
  • Santa Barbara County
  • Businesses nationwide, remotely

info@venturabookkeepingservices.com
805-225-4959

Talk to one of the two of us

Twenty minutes, no charge, and you will speak to the person who would do the work.

Book a free 20-minute call 805-225-4959