Midwest CPA vs Bookkeeper360
Side by Side
| Attribute | Midwest CPA | Bookkeeper360 |
|---|---|---|
| What It Is | A transaction advisory and accounting firm that writes quality-of-earnings reports for buyers of $1M to $5M businesses and then, if you want it, keeps the books after closing. The pricing page states the band for both services rather than gating it behind a call. | A full outsourced accounting shop for small businesses: monthly or weekly bookkeeping on QuickBooks Online or Xero, business and personal tax, payroll administration, sales-tax filing, and fractional CFO and forecasting. It covers the whole back office a new owner inherits, from the first clean close to ongoing payroll and tax. |
| Category | Diligence & Earnings Review | Operating Resources |
| Pricing Model | One-Time | Subscription |
| What It Costs | Published on the firm's own pricing page (August 2026): transaction advisory, meaning the QoE analysis, typically runs $12,000 to $23,000 and above per deal, scaled to deal size. Monthly accounting is quoted separately at $650 to $5,000 a month depending on complexity. Both are bands rather than quotes, so confirm the number for your deal before you commit. | Bookkeeping from $399/mo (monthly) or $599/mo (weekly), plus onboarding and catch-up from $1,000; business tax from $1,000/yr and business-plus-personal from $1,500/yr; payroll administration from $200/mo; sales-tax filing from $125/mo; fractional CFO from $2,000/mo. Works on QuickBooks Online and Xero. Verified on bookkeeper360.com/pricing. |
| Best For | A buyer who wants the diligence and the post-close bookkeeping from one firm that already knows the deal, and who wants to see the price band before booking a call | An owner who wants bookkeeping, payroll, and tax handled by one team on QuickBooks or Xero |
| Where It Fits | Diligence & Close the Deal, Operate & Grow the Business | Operate & Grow the Business |
| Our Verdict | Worth a quote alongside the other priced providers, especially if you would rather not hand your books to a stranger in month one. Take the diligence and the bookkeeping as two decisions, not one, and get the top of that open-ended band pinned down in writing. | The most complete single-vendor back office here: books, payroll, and tax on the platform you already run. |
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Our take
Choose Midwest CPA when continuity is worth more to you than a second pair of eyes. It writes the quality-of-earnings report and then keeps the books, so nobody has to be told in month one what diligence already found, and both halves carry a published band rather than a phone call: $12,000 to $23,000 and above for the analysis on a $1 million to $5 million deal, and $650 to $5,000 a month for the accounting. Two things travel with that. The band ends open at the top. And the firm sending you the monthly statements is the firm that told you the earnings were real, which its own row names as a conflict and which is easier to weigh before you sign than after.
Choose Bookkeeper360 when you want the two jobs in two hands. It arrives with no view of the deal and no reason to defend a number it produced, on the QuickBooks Online or Xero the business already runs, and every figure is published: bookkeeping from $399 a month, payroll administration from $200, business tax from $1,000 a year, fractional CFO from $2,000. What it costs you is the handover. Somebody has to carry what diligence learned into the first close, and that somebody is you. The line items also stack quickly once bookkeeping, payroll, tax and advisory are all running.