Layered Accounting - Templeton, California

Mustache P. L.

Ok reading some other reviews I definitely have to say that I’ve been a small business owner for almost six years, and Aletha has looked out for me EVERY step of the way. She and the staff at Layered Accounting make sure Im getting the most money back, they stay educated on the latest programs I may qualify for, and they are always available to answer my questions in a timely fashion. They got my business through the INSANITY of COVID without making me worry. They balance years of professionalism with an approachable friendliness. I have recommended Aletha to all my friends and family and they’ve been INCREDIBLY thankful switching from their frustrating experiences of previous CPAs and accountants! I can’t recommend them enough!!

Dennis B.

AVOID THIS COMPANY. First after termination of our relationship we discovered that they continued to access our business QUICKBOOKS account.

It was understood by both parties that our business relationship was terminated. How is this action either legal or ethical?

This behavior on the part of Layered Accounting was executed AFTER we received an exorbitant bill and we disputed the charges they went into our QUICKBOOKS acct ACTUALLY 4
Separate times. This is like breaking and entering as far as privacy and professionalism. The owner could lose her CPA license for that act alone. The owner admitted that she went into look at the audit log multiple times after the official end of our business relationship in small claims court where we confronted her. (QUICKBOOKS keeps track of everyone that goes into your acct and can show what they actually worked on and for how long).

The owner is a magnificent creator of fictional work duties taking a performed task and stretching say one hour into 6 hours even double billing for same exact duty in different months by using different descriptions. It’s shocking how corrupt and obvious this when we compared her bills with our QUICKBOOKS audit log, our journal and our phone log, texts and emails. She obviously believed we would just pay almost $1700 for the second month without questioning the finished work or checking the audit log for matching accomplishments.

Why would they NOT look at the Audit Log before they billed us and wait until we disputed their outrageous bill? They proceeded to take the few items they did complete and exaggerate and stretch out the duties to OVERBILL. The first bill from them they overcharged without getting our permission @ $75./ hr for certain things. This was NOT on the contract we signed w them. Nor did they communicate this.

To me Layered Accounting means WE PAD YOUR BILL.

My experience is that owner and staff is that they make promises to get your business like we charge $65/hr but they take one item like sales tax which takes us less than one hour to process ourselves and they stretch it out.

The accounting mgr gave CPA advice to us that was completely wrong and cost us our relationship w our biggest client.

At the end of this relationship so much was not completed such as matching our POS system to the bank feed, a whole bank account was never reconciled as was an entire CC.
All of this work could have been accomplished under the price of $2300 at contacted rate of $65/hr. Instead the owner spent more time manufacturing imaginary work and a made up a time log AFTER THE FACT instead of just doing the work requested.

That is corruption and 100% unethical.

Watch out when a CPA/bookkeeping firm says “we don’t charge a flat rate per month so you actually only get charged for the work done”. That’s what the acct mgr said when we interviewed them to hire them. They promised communication and then overbilled us and it’s easy to prove this. This acct mgr also took shortcuts on several duties that would have minimized her time spent NOT actually given evidence for 5x or 6x the actual finished work. The time billed according to our CPA who got into QUICKBOOKS to verify what they actually completed was “very blown out of proportion”.

Also we could never get a straight answer when we asked what it costs to have them do the taxes. I am imagining this is another way to overlap overbill and generally practice dishonest business ethics.

Lesson learned: when a CPA firm or bookkeeper company’s first bill has overcharges and duplicate billings in it - FIRE THEM ASAP!! Don’t give them the benefit of doubt. They know exactly what they are doing and they hope you are too busy to actually read the bill or question them on it.

Brittney E.

Aletha and her team are amazing!! Highly recommend going to Layered Accounting. Finding someone who actually cares is wonderful!

chris G.

grear tax prep and advice