Hubby and I FINALLY got around to dealing with our cluster-mess of assorted 401ks, stocks, IRA's,…read moresavings accounts opened when we were teens, ...you get the idea. It took at least six months for us to finally track down Kathy Hentges. I found her by cross-referencing licensed financial planners on the CFP website against Yelp reviews. It took a lot of work because most CFPs based in San Francisco want to work with the newly rich tech crowd, not those of us who are slow, steady savers. It was humiliating to be told that I didn't meet a financial planner's "customer profile". Kathy had no "profile" and she had a DIY financial model which was also important to us. After hearing horror stories on the news about shady investors, we weren't going to give someone total control of our financial future. Our first visit with Kathy was a meet and greet. We liked her right away. She is passionate about financial planning, numbers and trending models. We agreed to work with her on two services - (1) Are we saving enough for retirement? (2) How can we streamline this assorted collection of investments into a solid performing portfolio? She gave us a price range based upon hours. We signed the agreement and paid the deposit by credit card. Our first service came it at the lowest number quoted. In order for her to review our investments, we dug through boxes and found copies of every investment, bank statement, mortgage, car payment, 401ks, ...and uploaded them to a password protected client website. Two weeks later, Kathy met with us and showed us that we were slightly outside the ideal track for retirement. She used a computer model to show us our assets/debts and investments related to retirement. We talked about different options and Kathy would make the changes in the model to show the impact. It took a very small tweak of moving money to different investments to get us right on track. The second service came it right in the middle of her quoted range. She pulled the investment information from every one of our accounts (and we had lots of 401ks from so many jobs over the years). We reviewed the pros/cons of each investment. She then suggested alternative investments based upon our individual risk tolerance. I wanted to take more risk so my suggestions were different than my husband who is more risk averse. In the end, we walked away with a huge binder of all her models, suggestions, plans for next steps, etc... Kathy also sent us all the documents via her password-protected website. We've already made plans to meet with her one year from now to review our financial situation and make tweaks. I liked that Kathy worked alone and not in a huge firm because I really felt like I got personalized, caring service. She has a very focused practice and makes decisions on what she can do. If you read the negative reviews (I'm talking about you Rose Y.), you can see that Kathy offers great service but don't blame a solo practitioner for not wanting to be your $99 H&R Block tax prep service.. Now I feel like a real grown-up with a solid retirement plan!

Contrary to what you might read on her website, Kathy isn't the right fit for someone who is just…read morestarting to build up their nest egg. On my second meeting with her, I left feeling terrible about my finances and about myself. I definitely felt I had been belittled because of how new all of the financial planning stuff was to me at the time. I wish she'd taken the time to explain some things to me, but it's okay because my experience with her gave me the motivation to feverishly read a bunch of books about financial planning. And now my friends, most of whom are just starting to save and invest, are asking me for advice and resources. If you're not rich, but you can read, you don't need a financial planner. Suze Orman taught me that. I'm well on my way with my savings and investments. Oh, and if you don't have a crazy amount of assets, you don't need a tax preparer, either. Seriously, DIY is a good thing.

Rochell was great! I made a tax mistake some years ago and not only did she find the mistake right…read moreaway in our free introductory call she made me feel like getting it fixed was manageable and relieved all my stress. I have been trying to find a decent accountant for forever and am so happy that I finally found someone who is kind, super on top of it, did everything in the timeline she said she would which was very fast in my opinion. Such a relief to have found Roshell.

Kathleen has been a game-changer for my business. I was quite resistant to the idea of hiring an…read moreaccountant as I run a bespoke business that doesn't take well to automated systems/processes. Plus I wanted to save the expense and knew I could figure it out myself. I've now been working with Kathleen for 6 months and I don't know how I ran my business without her. Not only is everything handled perfectly and quickly, she treats all dealings with each of my clients with tremendous care, and crafts her approach to me and my business. She is expert, creative, and customer-oriented. I can now focus on what I'm best at, which has only helped to boost my business further. I can't recommend her highly enough for anyone who runs a small business.

Phyllis has been helping me with my taxes and small business accounting needs for years now and I…read morelove, Love, LOVE her! She digs and digs to find every possible write-off for my business and she always gets me a money back on my returns at the end of the tax year. I can't speak highly enough about Phyllis and give her all the 5-star Yelp love I can muster!

I reached out to Carol to see if she can help me set up a bookkeeping system to help track business…read moreexpenses, and she took a good 20 minutes to chat with me about how I currently work. With her insightful questions, she quickly helped me diagnose the issue which doesn't have to do with bookkeeping but is really about my needing to diligently enter all my expenditures at the point of transaction. She also walked me through how Quickbooks works and kindly helped me understand my next steps which wasn't to hire her. I can't recommend her enough to folks who do need a bookkeeper!

We have used The Balancing Act for several years. Carol and NIcole are professional, friendly and…read morevery easy to work with. Nicole always responds in a timely manner and is very knowledgeable. We highly recommend them for all your bookkeeping needs. Very reasonable rates also.

Heads up to all small businesses! Service that we need to keep the doors open and comply with all…read moreregulations new and old. We asked questions prior to making the decision. Sabrina's thoughtful and informative conversation really put our minds at ease. The company fees are reasonable and very much appreciated .

This is my first bad review and it pains me to write it, but I am so appalled by the way I was…read moretreated that I needed to share my experience with this firm. My husband and I had just bought a home and found ourselves in need of a CPA who could provide us with more guidance. We were won over by all the five star reviews and I enthusiastically reached out to get quotes and schedule an appointment with Sabrina Hager. We both have hectic careers and two young children. We made this appointment a priority and took time off from work. The day before our appointment, Sabrina's Accounting Assistant called me to tell me that the appointment needed to be rescheduled because "Sabrina was busy". That was literally the reason she gave us. Already, I had a bad feeling from this. I decided to give them another try and went ahead with the reschedule. I asked the Accounting Assistant to double confirm with Sabrina that she would commit to making the appointment since my husband and I would once again have to take precious time off work to make this appointment. The appointment was this morning. My husband and I rushed to Inner Richmond to be at the appointment on time despite our infant son being sick. We found ourselves being led into a tiny, claustrophobic, and incredibly messy residential basement used as the firm's office. A group of very nice Asian ladies--I guess Sabrina's assistants--greeted us. We were shocked at their work environment--literally four of them crammed into a tiny room haplessly overrun with boxes and papers. Sabrina's assistant sat us down in another cramped and messy room, then...here it comes..proceeded to tell us that Sabrina could not show up to the appointment "due to an emergency". I was dumbfounded. How did this firm get ANY business with the careless and atrocious way they treat people and their time? The Assistant was apologetic, and assured us that she could answer any questions we could have as she was working towards getting her CPA license. We asked her a number of questions that she faltered in answering. It was agonizingly awkward. I finally looked at my husband and said, "let's get out of here", and we left. This was one of the worst customer service experiences I've ever had.

I was so happy to find Julie and Monkey Off Your Back!…read more After a tediously mind-numbing weekend of crunching numbers for my service-based businesses' taxes, I decided it was time to back away from the pile of receipts and let an expert work her magic so this will never happen again. Julie is responsive, quite knowledgeable, and a delight to talk with on the phone and in person. In no time she waved her magic wand and set up my accounts in QuickBooks with ease. She also taught me how to keep records for her without over-organizing myself into a state of complete battiness. As a sole proprietor trying to make the most of my business tax deductions, I'm so grateful I can outsource brainspace to Julie so I can concentrate on doing what I love, which has absolutely nothing to do with QuickBooks. If you need help managing finances, give her a call! You'll be happy you did.

I came across Monkey Off Your Back on Yelp and am THRILLED with Julie. I have been through four…read morebookkeepers and Julie is GOLD! (Why is it so hard to find a bookkeeper?) She helped me fix the Quickbooks MESS that was left by my former bookkeeper and taught me how to do it myself. She's very practical in her approach and makes common sense decisions. And she's very easy to get along with. I couldn't be happier.

This is a long overdue review! I hopped online looking for Arlene's/Kirsch company to send her link…read moreto someone and Yelp popped up- I can't believe I never left a review! Arlene has been our CPA for upwards of 20 years- we have a small business, rental properties, and generally live life with all its tax implications, and Arlene is always there to sort it all out for us! She's passionate (about taxes, blows my mind! ), patient in explaining it all, and we really like her as a human being (yep, CPAs are humans, too!). She's funny and engaging, not required skills but makes writing the IRS those checks somehow a little easier. If you're lucky enough to make it on her clients list you won't be disappointed!

Arlene was great to work with. She was patient and took the time to explain things to me since…read morethis was our first year filing long form. She certainly made a lot of the anxiety surrounding tax preparation go away.