We are a bookkeeper in Huntington, NY working mostly with professional practices and the retail and hospitality businesses around Huntington village. Practices come to us for associate payroll, owner compensation, and equipment financing that was booked wrong. Village businesses come to us for sales tax and seasonality. Both get a flat monthly fee.
Medical, dental, and legal practices are the bulk of our Huntington work
Associate and owner compensation set up properly, not guessed at
Village retail and restaurant seasonality handled in the forecast
Huntington village, or the front of a practice on New York Avenue.
Overview
We are a bookkeeper in Huntington, NY working mostly with professional practices and the retail and hospitality businesses around Huntington village. Practices come to us for associate payroll, owner compensation, and equipment financing that was booked wrong. Village businesses come to us for sales tax and seasonality. Both get a flat monthly fee.
Associates: payroll or contractor?
Video coming soon
The classification question in a practice
How New York looks at an associate working set hours in your rooms, and what it costs to get wrong.
[confirm length once filmed]
Bookkeeping for Huntington medical, dental, and legal practices
A professional practice looks simple from the outside: fees in, salaries out. The accounting problems sit in three places, and they are the same three in almost every practice we take on.
How the associates are paid. Associates engaged as contractors, working set hours in your rooms with your equipment and your patients, are the classification New York challenges most often. Getting it wrong is not a bookkeeping error, it is back payroll tax with interest. We look at the working arrangement rather than the invoice.
Owner compensation in an S corporation. Most practices here are S corps, which means the owner takes a reasonable salary and the rest as distribution. Set the salary too low and it is an audit issue. Set it too high and you pay payroll tax you did not owe. It is a judgment call that should be made deliberately once a year with real numbers in front of you.
Equipment, and how it was financed. Chairs, imaging, and lasers are usually financed. Booked as an expense, the balance sheet shows a practice that owns nothing and the depreciation never gets claimed. That is the single most common correction we make in a dental practice's first month.
Retail and restaurants around Huntington village
The village depends on foot traffic that moves with the season and the weather, which makes cash flow forecasting harder than the revenue figure suggests. A business doing the same annual revenue as a steady one can still run out of money in February.
The bookkeeping answer is to hold enough history that the seasonal shape is visible, so a slow month reads as the slow month it always was rather than as a crisis. For businesses selling clothing, note that the exemption for items under 110 dollars removes only the state 4 percent here. Suffolk keeps charging its local portion, which is different from how it works in New York City and is a common under-collection.
What this looks like in practice
These are the situations we are typically brought in to fix on Long Island. Details are generalised, and we never publish a client's business.
1
A Huntington dental practice
Huntington, Suffolk County
What we found
Two hygienists and an associate dentist paid as contractors, imaging equipment booked as a monthly expense, and no depreciation schedule at all.
What we did
Reclassified the financing into asset and loan, built the depreciation schedule from the original purchase documents, and reviewed the associate arrangement against how the days actually ran.
Where it landed
The clinical staff moved onto payroll ahead of any challenge. The depreciation catch-up changed the practice's tax position for the year, and the balance sheet finally showed the equipment that was visibly in the rooms.
2
A village law firm
Huntington, Suffolk County
What we found
Client retainers deposited into the operating account and recognized as revenue on receipt, so the firm's revenue included money it had not yet earned.
What we did
Separated the retainer balances, moved unearned funds out of revenue, and set up a monthly release as work was performed.
Where it landed
Revenue reflects work done rather than cash received. The trust position is now reportable, which it was not before, and the partners stopped drawing against money that was not theirs yet.
3
A New York Avenue clothing boutique
Huntington, Suffolk County
What we found
Treating all clothing under 110 dollars as fully exempt, following state guidance without catching the county treatment.
What we did
Corrected the tax setup so the state 4 percent comes off while Suffolk's local portion still applies, and quantified the shortfall across the open periods.
Where it landed
Collection is correct going forward and the exposure was disclosed and settled on the firm's own timing rather than after a notice.
What it costs
A flat monthly fee, quoted from your transaction volume, your accounts, and whether you run payroll. You get the number in writing before any work starts. Catch-up work is quoted separately so it does not inflate the ongoing fee.
Basics
$250per month
Solo owners and single-location businesses under about $50k of monthly expenses.
Monthly bank and card reconciliation
Expense categorization with bank rules
Profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow every month
Sales tax return prepared and filed at your county rate
Ro Sokhi is a New York licensed CPA. The person who signs off on your numbers is the person who can tell you what they mean for your tax bill.
Flat monthly fee
You know the number before the month starts. No hourly meter, no surprise invoice for a phone call in March.
On Long Island, not a call center
Staffed offices in Melville and Hicksville. We will come to the shop if the shoebox is easier to hand over than to scan.
Catch-up work is normal here
Most businesses that call us are behind. Some by a quarter, some by three years. That is the job, and it is quoted separately so the monthly fee stays clean.
Our offices
Both offices are staffed. Most work happens electronically wherever you are, and the offices are there for the businesses that would rather hand something over in person.
Suffolk County Office
68 S Service Rd #100 Melville, NY 11747
On the South Service Road off the LIE, serving Suffolk County and eastern Long Island.
Sales tax rates by county.Publication 718: New York State Publication 718 lists the combined rate for every jurisdiction, including Nassau at 8.625 percent and Suffolk at 8.75 percent.
Suffolk's rate change.Sales tax rates bulletin: Suffolk raised its local rate from 4.25 to 4.375 percent effective March 1, 2025, which is why the two counties no longer match.
Clothing under $110.Publication 718-C: Publication 718-C sets out which localities exempt clothing and footwear under $110 and which continue to tax their local portion.
MCTMT employer rates.MCTMT employer rates: The payroll expense threshold and the Zone 2 bracket rates that apply to Nassau and Suffolk employers.
CPA licence verification.NYSED licence register: The New York State Education Department register, where any CPA licence can be checked, including ours.
Every rate on this page links to the New York State authority that publishes it. Figures are current as of the date shown above. They explain how the numbers work and are not tax advice for your situation.
Every rate on this page links to the New York State authority that publishes it. Figures are current as of the date shown above. They explain how the numbers work and are not tax advice for your situation.
Questions
Do you work with dental and medical practices?
Yes, they are the largest group we serve in Huntington. The recurring issues are associate classification, owner salary in an S corporation, and equipment financing booked as an expense instead of as a financed asset.
Can you help set my salary as an S corp owner?
Yes. A reasonable salary is a judgment made against what the role would cost to hire, the practice's profit, and how much of the result is your own labor. We put the numbers in front of you once a year and document the basis, which is what matters if it is ever questioned.
How much does a bookkeeper cost on Long Island?
Our plans start at $250 a month for a solo owner and run to $850 for a multi-entity business, set by your monthly expense volume rather than by the hour. You get the number in writing before any work starts. Independent bookkeepers on Long Island often quote hourly, which looks cheaper until a busy month arrives; a flat fee is a number you can budget.
My books are two years behind. Is that a problem?
It is the most common reason people call. We work backwards from the last filed return, rebuild the periods in between, and reconcile to the bank rather than to whatever the prior file says. You get a clean starting balance and a written list of what changed. Catch-up is quoted as a one-time project, usually one to two months of the recurring fee.
Do you file sales tax returns?
Yes, and on Long Island that matters more than most places. Nassau charges 8.625 percent and Suffolk charges 8.75 percent, so a business selling in both counties collects at two rates and has to report them separately. We register you if you are not registered, review what you are collecting, and file on whatever schedule the state has put you on.
Are you a CPA firm?
Ro Sokhi is individually licensed as a CPA in New York and leads the work. The operating entity is a business corporation and is not registered with NYSED as a public accounting firm, so we do not perform audits, reviews, or compilations. If your bank or a buyer needs assurance work we will tell you plainly and point you to a registered firm.
What is the difference between a bookkeeper and a CPA?
A bookkeeper records what happened. A CPA is licensed, can represent you before the IRS, and can tell you what the numbers mean for your tax position and your decisions. Most small businesses are sold one or the other. Here the bookkeeping is done to a standard a CPA is willing to sign off on, and the same person handles the return.
Do you work with QuickBooks, or do I have to switch?
QuickBooks Online for most clients, and Xero where a business is already on it. We do not force a migration for its own sake. If you are on spreadsheets, a shoebox, or a system your last bookkeeper set up badly, that is a normal starting point and we will move you when moving is worth it.
How long does it take to get started?
A first call takes about twenty minutes and a quote follows the same day. Once you accept, we need read-only access to your bank and card feeds and your last filed return. Most businesses are fully onboarded inside two weeks; a business needing catch-up work takes longer, and we tell you how much longer before you commit.
Do we have to meet in person?
Only if you want to. Most clients send documents electronically and talk to us on a call. The Melville and Hicksville offices are there for the businesses that would rather hand over a box of receipts than scan them, and for anyone who wants to meet the person doing the work before handing over the books.
Can you handle payroll as well as the books?
Yes. We process payroll, file the NYS-45, and track the MCTMT, which applies here because Nassau and Suffolk are inside the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District. We also review worker classification, because contractors who work like employees are the payroll issue New York challenges most often.
What happens if I get a letter from New York State or the IRS?
Send it to us the day it arrives. Most notices are routine and are resolved with a reconciliation and a reply. Ro is a CPA and holds unlimited representation rights before the IRS, so if a notice turns into something more, you are not looking for help at that point.
Are you taking new clients right now?
Yes. We keep the client list small enough that the same person reviews your file every month, so there are periods when onboarding runs a few weeks out, and we tell you that on the first call rather than after you sign.