Hacking CPA and Associates LLC

Making the numbers in an owner-run business trustworthy

Hacking CPA is an accounting practice that sells a specific thing: a financial system the owner can rely on, plus a certified public accountant who reads the results alongside them. The practice says it is not for everyone, and it states plainly who it wants to work with. Its target is an established, owner-operated business with numbers that the owner does not fully trust, and a willingness to invest in fixing the problem properly instead of patching it. The owner works directly with the CPA rather than with a junior staff member.

Three things owners want

The practice names three outcomes it says most owners never get. The first is cash visibility, in the form of a rolling 13-week cash model connected to the real accounts, so that runway, payroll cushion and cash available to deploy are not guesses. Owner cash is separated from operating cash. The second is profit clarity: an income statement rebuilt around each line of work, each customer or each job, with margin and contribution analysis showing what funds the business and what drains it. The third is confidence in decisions, using models for hiring, expansion or equipment purchases tested against actual results.

A five-step rebuild

The work follows a set method. It begins with a full discovery of the financial systems, in which every report, account, integration and habit that feeds the numbers is examined to find what is wrong and why. A planning step follows, where the owner approves a map of the decisions coming in the next twelve months and what the numbers need to show. The repair and rebuild step, which the practice says takes about 90 days, rewires the chart of accounts, the reporting routine and the cash model to fit that map. A full month then closes on the new system and is tuned, and the owner is shown the business through cash, profit by segment and decision scenarios. From then on a monthly review with a CPA tests the decision in front of the owner and models its effect on cash.

What the practice leaves to others

The firm is open about the work it does not do. It does not take on very small businesses that mostly need a bookkeeper, it does not compete on the lowest bookkeeping quote, it does not teach data entry, and it does not promise tax outcomes before anyone has seen the books. It says it will refer such prospects to firms better suited to them.

Earlier focus on medical practices

Earlier versions of the practice's material described bookkeeping, financial statements, tax work and business coaching for chiropractors and other medical professionals. Those services were aimed at helping healthcare owners grow revenue, streamline operations and plan for long-term growth. The current site places its emphasis on the owner-operator system described above.