Controller Services in Wilmette, IL

What does a controller do that a bookkeeper does not?

A bookkeeper records what happened. A controller is accountable for it being right, on time, and understood. That means owning the month-end close on a fixed schedule, reviewing every reconciliation rather than just performing it, preparing financial statements a lender would accept, comparing results to the budget with the variances explained, and tracking the few numbers that actually describe the business.

It also means controls: who approves spending, how payroll is checked, where the safeguards sit that stop errors and leakage as the business grows. Our guide to bookkeeper, controller, and CFO draws the lines between the three.

How much do controller services cost?

The scope sets the fee. Transaction volume and the number of accounts matter, as they do for bookkeeping, and then the things particular to a controller engagement: how many entities need consolidating, whether there is inventory or job costing, how many KPIs you want tracked, and how often you want to meet. Everything in the Starter package is included, so the fee covers the bookkeeping too.

We quote a fixed figure in writing after the discovery call and a look at your current setup. No rate card, no hourly billing. If the books need a clean-up first, that is scoped and priced on its own before the monthly rhythm starts. What a controller costs compares the fractional arrangement with a full-time hire.

How does the monthly close work?

On the same working days every month. Bank and card accounts are reconciled, uncategorised transactions cleared, accruals and depreciation recorded, payroll checked against what posted, receivables aged, payables reviewed. Then the profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow statement are produced and a snapshot of all three is saved.

Once a month we go through the reports with you on a review call: what changed, why, and what needs a decision. The rhythm settles after the first few closes, and the call gets shorter as the surprises get fewer. How controller services work, month by month walks through the whole cycle, and how long a close takes explains what stretches it.

Who needs a controller?

Businesses scaling operations, in the range of about half a million to five million in revenue, whose books are clean but whose statements arrive late, are not trusted, or are never compared to a plan. Owners managing from the bank balance because the reports do not tell them anything in time. Companies about to talk to a lender who will ask for statements that hold up.

If the books are not reconciled monthly yet, accounting services come first. If the statements are already good and the questions are about next year rather than last month, CFO advisory is the next level. The three stack, and you move up when the complexity does.

How do you choose a controller in Wilmette?

Ask who owns the close and whether that person is reachable between calls. Ask what the reports will contain and when they will arrive, and ask to see a sample. Ask how the fee is set and what would change it. Ask what is excluded. And ask whether the firm will tell you when you are ready for the next level rather than selling it to you early.

NorthPeak's founder, Chaudhry Ahmad, brings controller-level experience and is the person you deal with directly. The practice is in Wilmette, meets North Shore clients in person when it helps, and runs the same monthly rhythm remotely for everyone else.