Cat Peña

Founder · Anchor Ledger · Round Rock, TX

⚓ Round Rock Area In-Person · Virtual Anywhere in the US · General Ledger Support Specialist

Project Based:
Financial Statement Clean Up & Ad Hoc Projects.

Your CPA shouldn't be using billable hours untangling your books — they should be doing strategy. I clean up and rebuild messy financials so owners and their CPAs or lenders can actually rely on them.

Bookkeeper Anchor Ledger CPA Firms
Enters and categorizes transactions Ties out every balance to a source document or workpaper Provides tax advisory and strategy
Keeps records current. Bank and credit card reconciliations. Remediates balance sheet discrepancies and corrects processes that caused the error to begin with Issues opinions on financial statements (audit)
Runs payroll, AP & AR Project Based Services with clear objectives and end dates Certifies financial statements
Works on an ongoing, monthly basis Works in the trial balance, accounting software & ERP systems. Makes journal entries and adjustments when necessary. Advises on complex transactions, even when not legally required

In Cat's words

“What I’m doing isn’t data entry or categorization — although those are also critical to your financial foundation. What I’m doing is judgment work, looking at a messy set of books, figuring out why they’re messy, tracing discrepancies back to their source, making decisions about how to correct them. Lastly, I produce a deliverable that a professional (a CPA, a lender, an auditor) will stake their reputation on.”

Is this you? ✅

This work tends to be a good fit when:

  • ✓ You're a small business, startup or growth-stage company feeling the pressure of scaling
  • ✓ You have your financials in somewhat decent shape but something triggered an event where the balance sheet is going to be scrutinized
  • ✓ You want your CPA spending their time on strategy — not sorting through records

You may not be ready if:

Not sure if you're ready? That's exactly what a Discovery Consultation is for. If your books are partially done or you're not sure where bookkeeping ends and reconciliation begins — bring that to a Discovery Consultation and I'll tell you honestly what you've got.

From the CFO's desk

“Cat was persistent and dependable in working through legacy balance sheet reconciliation items and following them through to resolution. Her determination helped bring structure and momentum to several long-outstanding issues that had resisted prior cleanup efforts.”

Travis Fry, CPA — Chief Financial Officer · Growth-Stage Startup · Austin, TX

See My Projects Get Started
Financial Statements

The Income Statement

The income statement — sometimes called the Profit & Loss, or P&L — tells you one thing above all else: did you make money during this period? It covers a specific window of time (a month, a quarter, a year) and shows every dollar that came in and every dollar that went out.

It's the most commonly reviewed financial statement because it's the most intuitive. Revenue minus expenses equals net income. That's the headline. But the real story lives in the details — the categories, the consistency, and whether the numbers are actually tied out to something verifiable. 🎀

"Revenue traced to your bank. Expenses traced to your card. That's not just clean bookkeeping — that's a financial statement that can hold up in a room."

What's Most Critical

The most common issue I see isn't anything alarming — it's uncategorized or miscategorized transactions. Expenses coded to the wrong account. Income that doesn't reconcile to the bank. These are easy things to miss when you're busy running a business, but they add up when your CPA needs to trace balances or a lender starts asking questions.

The income statement has to tell a consistent story from the bank statement to the ledger to the report. That's the work. When it's done right, your CPA can walk in and do what they actually love doing — strategy, planning, and the complicated financial scenarios they trained years for.

What a Tied-Out Income Statement Looks Like

Every line of income traced back to a bank deposit. Every expense traced to a bank or credit card statement. Supporting documents organized in one place, on the platform you already use. A third party — your banker, your CPA, a lender — can verify every balance independently.

Not sure if your books are ready? The work I do is reconciliation and verification — I tie every balance to source documents and organize supporting records. Your bookkeeping should be entered and categorized before we start, but if you're not certain whether yours qualifies, bring it to a Discovery Consultation and I'll give you a straight answer. I'd rather tell you in hour one than have you wonder.
Financial Statements

The Balance Sheet

If the income statement tells you how the business performed over time, the balance sheet tells you where it stands right now. It's a snapshot — one specific date — and it answers a simple question: What do we own, what do we owe, and what's left over?

It's also the statement that gets the least attention from business owners — and I completely understand that. You're running a business. You don't have time to reconcile loan balances and depreciation schedules in between managing operations and chasing invoices. But it matters enormously when the stakes are high.

"A balance sheet isn't just a snapshot — it's the question every lender, buyer, and auditor asks first. The answer should be clean before you're in the room."

How to Read a Balance Sheet

Forget the jargon for a second. A balance sheet has three parts:

①
Assets — What you own

Cash in the bank, money customers owe you, equipment, vehicles, inventory. Anything of value the business holds.

②
Liabilities — What you owe

Loans, credit card balances, money owed to vendors, payroll taxes due. Anything the business has to pay back.

③
Equity — What's left for you

Assets minus liabilities. This is the owner's stake in the business. It grows when you're profitable and shrinks when you're not.

Here's the rule that never changes: Assets = Liabilities + Equity. That equation always has to balance. When it doesn't, there's something to look into — and that's exactly the kind of thing I help sort out.

Why It Gets Overlooked

The balance sheet takes time to maintain properly. Loan balances need to match statements. Asset values need to reflect reality. Reconciling these accounts requires going line by line with supporting documents — and that's time most business owners simply don't have. This growing pain shows up at the worst possible moment: right when you need a line of credit, right when you're selling the business, right before due diligence starts.

Typical accounts I work with: Income · Expenses · Payroll · Assets · Loans · Liabilities. If your balance sheet has something on it and you're not sure I can handle it — that's exactly what a Discovery Consultation is for. I'll tell you honestly what I can do to my standards, and I have high standards.
The Work

The kind of work
a CPA will sign off on.

Every quote is fixed, written, and agreed to before a single hour is logged. I've seen the records that didn't survive a lender review. I've seen the balance sheets that stalled a sale. This work exists so that doesn't happen to you.

Discovery Consultation Free no charge, no obligation
How We Begin

The Discovery Consultation

1

Confidentiality comes first.

NDAs are signed before we begin — before a single record is shared or discussed. The consultation takes place in office or virtually, whichever works for you. It is strongly preferred that your CPA, lender, or anyone else with a stake in the outcome is present for this meeting.

2

We go through your records together, line by line, in your accounting system.

We walk through the income statement and/or balance sheet together and identify where problems are stacking up in the financials. I explain exactly where I can help, what the work involves, and what value I provide in your specific situation — no generalities, no sales pitch. Just project outcomes explained.

3

You receive a fixed quote — and it doesn't change.

Assuming you've provided the supporting documents needed for me to build an accurate quote, you will receive a fixed written quote following the Discovery Consultation. Quotes do not change unless you request a change order.

Project One
Clarity
Income Statement
All projects are priced and quoted individually.

The Clarity Project focuses entirely on the income statement — making sure every line is supported, organized, and verifiable. Here is what that looks like in practice:

  • ✓ Income support documentation — I ensure you have the check images, invoices, sales orders, and packing lists to support every line of income on your income statement. Those records are then organized by the month and year they appear on your bank statement.
  • ✓ AR Aging review — I look at your accounts receivable aging schedule and flag anything that has gone stale.
  • ✓ Expense category review — I go through your expense categories and organize receipts and invoices by the month and year each expense appears on your bank or credit card statement.
  • ✓ Fixed asset check — I flag large expenses that should have been capitalized as fixed assets rather than expensed.
  • ✓ Bank account reconciliation — I reconcile up to 2 bank accounts for the period covered by your project.
  • ✓ Liaison support at no extra charge — When the stakes are high — a loan, a sale, due diligence, or a tax return — I offer to serve as a liaison between your business and your CPA or lender for the duration of that critical financial event. There is no additional charge for this.
Project Two
Readiness
Income Statement + Balance Sheet
All projects are priced and quoted individually.

Everything in Clarity, plus workbooks to reconcile up to 6 of your most critical balance sheet accounts. Examples of what this has looked like in practice:

  • ✓ Accounts Receivable — Reconciled against the AR aging schedule down to invoice dates, accuracy, and completeness. If collections have fallen behind, I can step in and help move things — I tend to be effective at getting invoices paid.
  • ✓ Accounts Payable — New workpapers built where needed. Every outgoing payment documented with the corresponding invoice and purchase order, organized by month and year.
  • ✓ Credit Card Reconciliations — I have reconciled legacy credit card accounts from scratch, gotten them current, and maintained ongoing reconciliations for up to 23 corporate cards simultaneously. Every balance tied to receipts and invoices paid.
  • ✓ Long-Term Debt — Bonds, mortgages, and loans with repayment schedules beyond one year. I build workpapers for these accounts and make journal entries to properly record interest.
  • ✓ One ad hoc report of your choice — Need something specific that doesn't fit neatly into the above? Readiness includes one additional report or analysis — whatever you need most.

Quick Estimate — Answer 3 Questions

Get a realistic range before your Discovery Consultation. Your exact quote comes within 3 days of our session.

1. How many months of records need attention?
2. How would you describe your monthly transaction volume?
3. What project are you considering?
Your Rough Estimate

This gives you a realistic range before your Discovery Consultation. Your exact quote — which does not change — comes within 3 days of our session.

Beyond Clarity & Readiness

Standalone Projects & Change Orders

Not every solution fits in the Clarity or Readiness Project. The following are scoped and priced individually — added as Change Orders to an existing project, or purchased as standalone engagements. All projects are quoted, scoped, and defined in writing before any work begins.

⇄

ERP Implementation & Migration Support

Accounting-side support for ERP migrations — chart of accounts mapping, historical data validation, parallel-period reconciliation, and go-live support. We handle the general ledger side. You handle the IT.

$

AR Recovery

A scoped engagement to diagnose stuck receivables — portal issues, invoice formatting problems, contact gaps — resolve them, and rebuild the collection process so they don't get stuck again.

⚙

Payroll System Implementation Support

GL mapping, tax liability account setup, automated journal entry configuration, and first-period reconciliation for payroll migrations. We make sure your payroll system talks correctly to your general ledger.

🔍

Transaction-Level Investigations

When something doesn't tie and nobody can figure out why. Forensic-style analysis, root cause identification, and a documented resolution memo. For the balance sheet mysteries that have been sitting there for months.

△

Due Diligence Readiness

Stress-test the balance sheet, clean up anything that won't survive scrutiny, and assemble the financial documentation that banks, investors, and lenders will request. For companies preparing to raise capital or close a significant transaction.

⟷

Revenue Reconciliation

Bridge the gap between what one system shows as sold and what the other recognizes as revenue. We build a repeatable reconciliation process so your two sources of truth stop disagreeing.

✦

Year-End Close Projects

For companies that manage their own books month-to-month but need experienced help with year-end adjusting entries before CPA handoff. A targeted, seasonal engagement to get you across the finish line clean.

🔒 How Your Information Is Protected

NDA provided as standard

Every engagement begins with a signed NDA — before we look at a single record. You do not need to ask for one.

Limited-permission access only

I work with the minimum access needed — inside your existing platforms with the permissions you set. No broad account access, no exceptions.

Your platforms, your storage

Everything lives in your existing document storage — SharePoint, Dropbox, or wherever you already work. Nothing is moved to systems you don't control.

Clean exit when we're done

When the project closes, all access is returned and revoked. You leave with everything; I leave with nothing.

I work with businesses preparing for sales, lender reviews, and due diligence — discretion is not optional in this work. It is the baseline.

Start with a Free Discovery Consultation →
Cat Peña

Cat
Peña

Founder · Anchor Ledger · Round Rock, TX

I take the most pride not in the numbers themselves, but in what clean numbers make possible.

A smoother tax season. A confident conversation with a lender. A business sale that doesn't fall apart in due diligence. That's the work I'm here for — and I genuinely love doing it.

Education BA in Accounting — Southwestern University, Georgetown TX · 2014
Started Out Audit intern at Deloitte — right out of school
Experience 8 years, audit-focused, across public accounting and industry
Industries Manufacturing · Non-Profit · Healthcare · Insurance · Oil & Gas · Public Sector
Availability In person: Round Rock · Austin · Cedar Park · Pflugerville · Georgetown  ·  Virtual: anywhere in the US
My Background

After graduating from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, my first accounting role was an audit internship at Deloitte. Over the course of my career — most of it in audit-focused roles — I worked on all sides of the table when it comes to financial statement audits, from publicly traded companies to mid-size startups and small businesses. Working both sides gave me a clearer picture of what actually matters when records get reviewed.

The details don't wear me down. They're the point.

That's where I learned that everything has to tie, and everything has to be verifiable. I also learned that CPAs don't enjoy spending their billable hours tying balances out to supporting documents when things don't match. They enjoy working on what they do best — strategy and advisory. A clean general ledger is what lets them do that well.

My work is built to support small and mid-size businesses — in person across the Round Rock and greater Austin area and virtually anywhere in the US — during their growth stages. Growing pains tend to show up at the worst times. I try to be available before that happens.

If your industry or situation falls outside what I can confidently support to my standards, I will tell you honestly during a Discovery Consultation. No hard feelings, just the right fit for the right client.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending family time with my husband, Steven. We're into staying active — jogging, mountain biking, and being involved in local youth sports and school programs with our kids.

Why Work With Me

You get me — start to finish.

I'm a solo operator. Your file doesn't get handed off, queued behind larger clients, or touched by rotating staff. When you reach out, I'm the one who answers. When the work gets done, I'm the one who did it.

You agree to a price. That's what you pay.

Every project is quoted as a fixed number — not an hourly estimate that expands as the work does. I use my hourly rate to build the quote, but once you sign, the number is locked. If the job takes longer than I planned, that's on me — not on your invoice.

I work in the gap.

There's a gap between what a bookkeeper does and what a CPA does — and most business owners fall right into it. That's where I work because it's where the real problem lives. I'm deliberately not a CPA because I fill this gap intentionally. I am more like your outsourced accounting manager you call as needed.

Start with a Free Consultation → See My Projects
Get Started

Ready when you are.

Send me a message and I will get back to you within 24 hours. From there, we can answer any questions by phone and get a free Discovery Consultation on the calendar — usually within the same week.

Name, email or phone, and timeline are all I need to get back to you. Everything else we can cover on the call.

Reach Me Directly
💻 Virtual: anywhere in the US · same price as in person
📞 512.999.0101
✉️ catpena@myanchorledger.com