Bookkeeping & financial strategy for complex service-based businesses — St. Louis, Missouri.
Small Business Bookkeeping & Financial Strategy · Complex Service-Based Businesses

FINALLY know where your money is going.

We help complex service-based business owners move from messy spreadsheets and overdue tax stress to streamlined systems and strategic decision-making — bookkeeping, done well. Done for you.

“After working behind the scenes of 200+ businesses, I know the difference between a business that’s just surviving, and one that’s scaling with confidence.” — Alison Carnie, CEO & Founder

Free 15-minute Right Fit Call. We walk you through which package fits — and you leave knowing exactly where your books stand. No judgment about the state of your books.

  • MBA · MS in Accountancy
  • Certified CFO — The CFO Project
  • QuickBooks ProAdvisor
  • All-female team · St. Louis
  • Fully insured & licensed
Alison Carnie, CEO of Domino Bookkeeping, in a blush blazer
The Domino Effect, monthly Categorized → reconciled → reported → decided. One push starts it. Watch it fall →
The Domino Effect

Tip the first domino.

This is what one month looks like once your books are in our hands. Pick the mess you’re starting from — then give the first tile a push, and watch each step knock the next one down.

  1. Your month, now: unreconciled accounts, books months behind, a shoebox of receipts — the pile you keep avoiding.
  2. Every transaction, categorized. Your month gets organized — every transaction into its proper place, in a chart of accounts built for your industry.
  3. Bank & credit accounts, reconciled. Every account reconciled against its statement, so the numbers are not estimates — they are proof.
  4. Your statements, delivered. Profit & loss, balance sheet, and cash flow statement — prepared monthly, on time, every time.
  5. A report you can actually read. Custom reporting by property, by project, or by period — comparisons that show you what changed, and why.
  6. Decisions, made on real numbers. Hiring, launching, growing — bold, informed moves, with zero guesswork about what you can afford.
  7. FINALLY know where your money is going — the whole point, every month, on time.

The Domino Effect

  • Business scalability
  • Peace of mind
  • More profit = more opportunity
  • Strategic use of funds
  • Easier tax season
Client words

From chaos to order — in their words.

Clean-up & monthly bookkeeping

“Great to work with, and integral member of our team. [Our bookkeeper] assessed the areas of concerns, proposed solutions and then systematically implemented the plan to clean up our book and provide accurate financials in a timely manner. This is the first time in years that I got my business tax return completed prior to the deadline.”
urban real estate

Getting started

“Professional, patient and educational. [The team] made an overwhelming task clear and accessible. I highly recommend Domino Bookkeeping!!!!”
Katie Jones, Surcee STL

Ongoing partnership

“I highly recommend Domino Bookkeeping. [Domino] has been such an easy partner, and done an exceptional job staying in front of and improving our accounting needs.”
Lindsay Pattan

Real estate

“Competent, timely, & collaborative spirit.”
gail brown, Brown-Kortkamp Realty Company
Book a Free Consult

Your story could be the next one. Start with a free 15-minute Right Fit Call.

Services

Bookkeeping, done well. Done for you.

If your numbers don’t make sense, your business doesn’t stand a chance. We don’t just clean up your books — we give you the tools to understand them, use them, and lead with them.

The core books

Monthly Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping, done well — done for you. Each month we organize your books, reconcile bank and credit accounts, and prepare your profit & loss statement and balance sheet. Sold as three monthly packages designed for different business sizes and needs — every one customizable, with add-on and one-time services when life gets complicated.

Maryland Manor Condominium: guided "from chaos to order" — and still coordinating their operations today.

1099 Filing

Contractor and vendor 1099s, gathered and filed before January pressure hits — one less deadline living in your head.

Part of the monthly rhythm for brokerages and service businesses with contractor teams.

Clean-Up & Catch-Up

Behind three months — or three years? We start with a full review of your financials and systems, then systematically implement a cleanup plan until your financials are accurate and timely again.

urban real estate: a cleanup plan "systematically implemented" — and a tax return finished before the deadline for the first time in years.

See it clearly

Custom Reporting

Reports by property, by project, or by period — month-to-month and year-over-year comparisons, and dashboards tailored to your goals. If your numbers don’t make sense, your business doesn’t stand a chance; these are the reports that make them make sense. (For bookkeeping clients.)

Built on reconciled books, so the comparisons you read are the business you actually run.

Bookkeeping for Complex Service-Based Businesses

An industry-specific chart of accounts, specialized compliance and reporting, and industry reconciliations built in — including trust account reconciliation for attorneys and mortgage lenders. Monthly deliverables: categorized transactions, all accounts reconciled, P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

For the businesses whose books were never simple to begin with.

Grow on purpose

Fractional CFO Services

Call in the big guns. Cash flow forecasting, budget planning, pricing strategy, and performance tracking — regular check-ins and clear reports, so you can make bold, informed moves about hiring, launching, growing, or even exiting, with zero guesswork. (For bookkeeping clients.)

Financial strategy that feels like a power-up, not a punishment.

Revenue + Profit Planning

Know what you can pay yourself — and when. We build the plan around your revenue, then track performance against it until paying yourself what you deserve is the rhythm, not the hope.

Clarity first: profit becomes a plan, not a leftover.

Profit First Bookkeeping

We help you set up the accounts, automate the transfers, and create a simple structure that ensures your business pays you first — implemented with Relay banking, customized to your business rather than by-the-book. (Add-on to bookkeeping packages.)

Profit stops being what’s left over and starts being the plan from day one.

Start right

QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup — Business Foundations

A one-time engagement: a customized industry chart of accounts, bank accounts linked, revenue streams tracked, and an auditor-ready structure — handed back ready to use. Most setups are completed within a few weeks, and you are free to run it yourself afterwards. No obligation to continue.

Set up right from day one — or rebuilt right, from wherever you are.

Three monthly packages. Zero published price tags — on purpose.

Pricing depends on the number of transactions and accounts you manage each month, so we don’t print a rate card that would lie to you. The packages are designed for different business sizes and needs, every one is customizable, and on your free Right Fit Call we walk you through exactly which one fits — and what it costs — before you commit to anything.

Schedule a free Right Fit Call
How it works

The Domino Process

01

Kickoff & Clean-Up

We start with a full review of your financials and systems, then create a plan for cleanup or transition.

02

Streamline & Maintain

You’ll receive consistent monthly reporting, timely reconciliations, and answers to your questions fast.

03

Advise & Strategize

As your business evolves, we bring insight and support to help you grow intentionally and profitably.

For the burnt out, the overwhelmed, the stressed, and the frazzled — let’s turn that frown upside down.

Who we help

Built for businesses whose books were never simple.

Industry-specific compliance requirements, specialized reporting needs, and a chart of accounts customized to how your industry actually runs.

Law Firms

Trust account reconciliation — the specialized three-way process your practice is required to run — plus client-cost tracking and reporting your partners can read.

Trust accounting handled

Insurance Agencies

Complex compliance requirements and commission income, kept current month after month instead of reconstructed at renewal time.

Compliance-ready books

Mortgage Lenders

Specialized reporting and reconciliations built for lending operations — warehouse lines, fees, and per-loan economics that stay visible.

Three-way reconciliation

Construction Companies

Reporting by project, so every job’s profit is visible while you can still act on it — not after the last invoice clears.

Profit by project

Real Estate Professionals

By property and by period: commissions, agent splits, and fee net-outs tracked cleanly, with 1099s handled for your brokerage.

By property, by period

Don’t see your industry?

If you’re a service-based business with complex financial needs, there’s a good chance we speak your language. Ask us on a free Right Fit Call.

Book a Free Consult
Alison Carnie, CEO of Domino Bookkeeping
Alison Carnie — CEO & Founder, Domino Bookkeeping
Meet your bookkeeper

I’m Alison, CEO of Domino.

After working behind the scenes of 200+ businesses, I know the difference between a business that’s just surviving, and one that’s scaling with confidence. With a background in corporate finance — internal audit and accounting roles at Safety National, Wolfe Nilges Nahorski PC (now RSM), Hometown America, KapStone, and Crate & Barrel — and a focus on complex service-based businesses, I built Domino Bookkeeping to help my team bring business owners the insight and clarity they need to make empowered decisions and grow sustainably.

Domino is an all-female team, Midwest-based in St. Louis. We’re obsessed with organization, we tell it like it is (you’ll like it), and we love supporting moms. Clients call me when they’re done winging it.

  • MBA — University of Phoenix
  • MS in Accountancy — University of Phoenix
  • Certified CFO — The CFO Project · 2024
  • QuickBooks ProAdvisor — Your books, in expert hands
  • B.A. Psychology — University of Central Missouri
  • Fully insured & licensed — Her words — and her FAQ
How we work
  • Reliable
  • Authentic
  • Trusted Partner
  • Flexible
Straight answers

We don’t do taxes. On purpose.

“At this time, we do not do taxes or give tax advice. However, we partner with CPAs who will be happy to assist you with your taxes.”

Here’s what that means for you: your books are organized, reconciled, and tax-ready all year — so when your CPA sits down with them, tax season is a handoff, not an excavation. An easier tax season is one of the dominoes that falls when the books are right.

And if you don’t have a CPA, ask us — we’ll happily point you to one of our partners.

More straight answers →
Free resource

The Bookkeeping Checklist

Not ready to outsource? Start with the same checklist we run on our own clients’ books — the monthly essentials that keep a service business’s finances clean, current, and decision-ready.

Get the free checklist

Free download from dominobookkeeping.com — no call required.

Questions

Answered straight.

We tell it like it is — you’ll like it. Anything else on your mind, ask us on the Right Fit Call or at [email protected].

Still deciding?

Fifteen minutes, free, and you leave knowing exactly where your books stand — whether we ever work together or not.

Book a Free Consult
Does Domino Bookkeeping file tax returns?

At this time, we do not do taxes or give tax advice. However, we partner with CPAs who will be happy to assist you with your taxes — please reach out for contact information! What we do is make tax season easier: because your books are organized and reconciled all year, your CPA gets a clean handoff instead of a shoebox.

What will bookkeeping cost me?

Pricing depends on the number of transactions and accounts you manage each month. We offer three monthly bookkeeping packages designed for different business sizes and needs, and every package is customizable — plus add-on and one-time services when you need them. On your free Right Fit Call, we walk you through which package fits, so you see exactly what you would pay before you commit to anything.

What happens every month?

Each month, we organize your books, reconcile your bank and credit accounts, and prepare financial reports — your profit and loss statement and your balance sheet. You get consistent monthly reporting, timely reconciliations, and answers to your questions fast. No more guesswork, and no more avoiding your books.

My books are a mess. Can you clean them up?

That is exactly where many of our clients start. Clean-up and catch-up work is a named service here: we review your financials and systems, build a cleanup plan, and systematically put accurate financials in place. One client described the journey as going "from chaos to order" — and nobody here will make you apologize for the pile.

Do I need to be a bookkeeping client to get custom reports or CFO services?

Yes — custom reporting and fractional CFO services are built for our bookkeeping clients. That is deliberate: a forecast or a dashboard is only as good as the books underneath it. Once your foundation is clean and current, we can report by property, by project, or by period, and plan on numbers we both trust.

What is Profit First bookkeeping?

Profit First flips the old formula: instead of profit being whatever is left over, we set up the accounts, automate the transfers, and build a simple structure that ensures your business pays you first. We implement it as an add-on to our bookkeeping packages — customized to your business, not by-the-book — using Relay banking.

I run a law firm. Can you handle trust accounts?

Yes. Trust account reconciliation is a specialized three-way reconciliation process required for attorneys and mortgage lenders — and we handle it, alongside an industry-specific chart of accounts and the specialized compliance reporting your practice needs.

Is Domino Bookkeeping insured?

Yes! We are a fully insured and licensed business.

Start here

One push. Then everything falls into place.

Book a free Right Fit Call and we’ll walk you through which package fits your business — fifteen minutes that replace months of wondering where the money went.

Your free Right Fit Call

  • 15 minutes — on Calendly, at a time that suits you
  • Which package fits — walked through with you, pricing included
  • No judgment — messy books are our starting point, not a disqualifier

Prefer email? [email protected] · We answer emails during business hours, Mon–Fri, 9am–4pm.

Alison Carnie, CEO of Domino Bookkeeping

RELIABLE · AUTHENTIC · TRUSTED PARTNER · FLEXIBLE