Glendale sits at the heart of Arizona’s West Valley, where small enterprises range from charter schools along the 101 corridor to family contractors near Luke Air Force Base and creative studios in the Westgate district. The trio below all run independent shops led by their founders, hold current QuickBooks ProAdvisor credentials, and have served local clients for at least a decade.
Quick Comparison
| Firm | Credentials | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Sapphire Bookkeeping & Accounting | Founder is Enrolled Agent with Master's in Accounting; Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors on staff | Small business books, payroll, and entity tax work for LLCs, S-Corps, partnerships, trusts, and estates |
| Aspire Business Consultants | QuickBooks ProAdvisor Agreement firm; female owned full service accounting practice founded 2012 | Bookkeeping cleanup, charter school accounting, and non-profit Form 990 work across the West Valley |
| Trudy's Taxes & Bookkeeping | QuickBooks ProAdvisor Elite (Intuit's top tier); Enrolled Agent owner; voted Best of Surprise 2023 | Monthly books, payroll, and IRS representation for owner operated businesses across Surprise, Sun City, Glendale, Peoria |
1. Sapphire Bookkeeping & Accounting
- Address: 18001 N. 79th Ave., Suite D66, Glendale, AZ 85308
- Phone: (602) 714-7874
- Founder: Tiffany Powell, MA, EA
- Operating Since: 2009
- Credentials: Enrolled Agent (federal IRS); Bachelor’s in Finance (Arizona State University); Master’s in Accounting (Grand Canyon University); Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor staff
- Service Area: Glendale, Peoria, Sun City, Surprise, and the broader West Valley; secondary office in South Jordan, Utah for snowbird clients
- Industries: Sole proprietors, partnerships, LLCs, S-Corps, C-Corps, trusts, estates, and creative small businesses
- Website: sapphiretax.us
Founder-Led Practice With Multi-Generational Bench
Tiffany Powell built Sapphire from the ground up after starting in the accounting field while still in high school. Husband Jonathan Powell, who holds an Executive MBA from Grand Canyon University and is also an Enrolled Agent, runs the operations side. The family pairing means owner operators get principal-level attention rather than being routed to a junior associate.
Bell Road Office Built for Walk-In Clients
The Suite D66 location near the 101 and Bell Road keeps Sapphire convenient for North Glendale, Peoria, and Arrowhead Ranch business owners who want to drop off receipts in person. The team handles bank reconciliations, transaction recording, financial statement preparation, and ongoing QuickBooks file maintenance.
Entity Tax Reach Beyond Day-to-Day Books
Unlike many bookkeeping shops, Sapphire keeps full entity tax preparation in-house. Returns for trusts, estates, gift tax filings, S-Corp basis tracking, and partnership K-1 distributions all flow from the same general ledger Sapphire maintains, which removes the year-end handoff most outside CPAs require.
Training Track for Client Staff
Beyond outsourced bookkeeping, Sapphire offers QuickBooks training so internal staff can take over routine entry. Maria Flores on the team is a Certified QuickBooks Professional who walks new users through chart-of-accounts setup, sales tax mapping, and bank feed reconciliation.
2. Aspire Business Consultants
- Address: 17505 N. 79th Ave., Suite 405, Glendale, AZ 85308
- Phone: (602) 881-2483
- Founder: Heather J. Jones
- Operating Since: May 2012
- Credentials: QuickBooks ProAdvisor Agreement firm; Arizona Technology Council member; female owned and led
- Service Area: Glendale, Peoria, Surprise, Avondale, and the West Valley; remote support across Arizona
- Industries: Self-employed home-based businesses, small and mid-sized companies with payroll, charter schools, and 501(c)(3) non-profits
- Website: aspirebc.co
Charter School and Non-Profit Specialization
Aspire is one of the few West Valley bookkeeping shops that openly markets to charter schools and non-profits. The firm prepares Form 990 filings, handles audit preparation packages for state authorizers, and tracks restricted versus unrestricted fund balances throughout the school year.
Cleanup Engagements as a Front Door
Many clients land at Aspire after a prior bookkeeper left their QuickBooks file in disarray. The cleanup track rebuilds the chart of accounts, re-reconciles prior periods, fixes misclassified equity entries, and gets the file ready for tax filing or a clean audit opinion.
Full Back-Office Stack Under One Roof
Beyond the books, Aspire runs payroll, files sales tax, manages accounts payable bill pay, processes accounts receivable invoicing and collections, and prepares 1099s at year end. Owner operators with no in-house finance team often outsource the entire back office rather than piecing it together across vendors.
Glendale Address With State-Wide Reach
The Suite 405 office sits inside the same 79th Avenue professional corridor as several other West Valley accounting practices, making it convenient for Loop 101 commuters. Remote-friendly workflows let Aspire serve clients in Yuma, Flagstaff, and Tucson without requiring travel.
3. Trudy’s Taxes & Bookkeeping LLC
- Address: 18843 W. Laurel Ln., Surprise, AZ 85388
- Phone: (480) 213-5809
- Founder: Trudy T. Hetzel, EA
- Operating Since: Approximately 2008 (over 15 years of ownership)
- Credentials: Enrolled Agent (federal IRS); QuickBooks ProAdvisor Elite (Intuit’s top certification tier); IRS e-file provider; Voted Best of Surprise 2023
- Service Area: Surprise, Sun City, Glendale, Peoria, Avondale, Buckeye, and the broader West Valley
- Industries: Owner operated small businesses, sole proprietors, real estate professionals, and self-employed contractors
- Website: trudystaxes.com
ProAdvisor Elite Tier Sets the Bar
Most QuickBooks ProAdvisors hold a basic certification. Trudy and team member Jennifer Freda both maintain Elite status, the highest level Intuit awards, which requires recertification every year and signals deeper command of QuickBooks Online, Desktop, and Payroll modules.
Tax Court Representation Backstops the Books
Because Trudy is an Enrolled Agent admitted to practice before the IRS, she can represent bookkeeping clients in audits, collections, and appeals up through Tax Court. Owner operators facing notices, missing payroll deposits, or 1099 mismatches get representation rather than a referral.
West Valley Roots and Community Recognition
Operating from the same Surprise neighborhood for over 15 years, Trudy’s practice was voted Best of Surprise in 2023. The client roster pulls heavily from neighboring communities, including Sun City retirees with rental property books and Peoria contractors needing job-cost tracking.
Year-Round Books Plus Tax Filing
The integrated model means monthly bookkeeping rolls directly into year-end tax preparation without the usual handoff friction. QuickBooks files reconciled by Trudy’s team feed straight into the 1040, 1065, 1120-S, or 990 returns prepared in the same office, which often catches missed deductions a separate tax preparer would overlook.
Reference Notes
Sapphire Bookkeeping & Accounting Inc. has held its Glendale presence at the 18001 N. 79th Avenue address since the late 2000s, with founder Tiffany Powell serving as President and CEO since the practice’s 2009 launch. Public LinkedIn and Yelp listings (50 reviews as of April 2026) corroborate the Bell Road location, and Tiffany’s PTIN directory profile confirms her Enrolled Agent status with the IRS.
Aspire Business Consultants Inc. registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission in May 2012, and the BBB business profile lists Heather J. Jones as Owner. The firm’s licensing of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor trademark appears in the footer of every services page, and the Arizona Technology Council member directory lists Aspire under accounting services.
Trudy’s Taxes & Bookkeeping LLC has operated from Surprise for 15-plus years according to the firm’s own blog and About page. The ProAdvisor Elite badge displayed on the homepage matches Intuit’s public ProAdvisor lookup, and the 2023 Best of Surprise award appears in regional small-business coverage.
Selection Methodology
Four criteria filtered every candidate considered for this Glendale roundup:
- Independent and founder-led ownership. The firm must be majority owned by an active practitioner who set up the practice (or directly inherited it within the family). National rollups, private-equity acquired chains, and franchised operations were excluded.
- Active QuickBooks ProAdvisor credential. At least one principal must hold a current Intuit ProAdvisor certification verifiable through Intuit’s public directory or a trademark-licensed footer.
- Minimum five-year local tenure. Each firm has served Glendale or the adjacent West Valley continuously for five years or more, evidenced by Arizona Corporation Commission filings, BBB registration dates, or owner statements supported by archived web pages.
- Bookkeeping as a core service line, not a tax-only afterthought. Pure CPA-tax practices that bolt on QuickBooks once a year were excluded; the company must run monthly or quarterly books for clients as a standing engagement.
Excluded by policy from this and every directory in the series: Bench, Pilot, QuickBooks Live, BELAY, Bookkeeper360, Bookminders, Supporting Strategies, Bookkeeper.com, and 1-800Accountant.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is Glendale, AZ a separate market from Phoenix for bookkeeping purposes?
A: Yes. The West Valley (Glendale, Peoria, Surprise, Avondale, Sun City, Buckeye) has its own dense small-business population, including charter schools, AV contractors near Luke AFB, and 55-plus retirement communities, and the firms above all keep their primary offices and client books inside that footprint rather than commuting from central Phoenix.
Q: Does Glendale, AZ have a transaction privilege tax (TPT) that bookkeepers track separately?
A: Yes. Glendale levies a 2.9 percent transaction privilege tax on most retail and service revenue, layered on top of the 5.6 percent state TPT and 0.7 percent Maricopa County rate. All three firms above register clients with the Arizona Department of Revenue and file the monthly or quarterly TPT-EZ return.
Q: What if my business sits in Peoria or Surprise rather than Glendale proper?
A: Aspire and Trudy’s both serve the entire West Valley, and Sapphire actively takes on Peoria and Sun City clients given its Bell Road location. None of the three charge mileage premiums for clients inside the Loop 101 corridor.
Q: Can these firms handle non-profit and charter school accounting?
A: Aspire Business Consultants names charter schools and 501(c)(3) organizations as a stated specialty and prepares Form 990 returns. Sapphire and Trudy’s also serve non-profit clients as part of their broader small-business book of work. Owners with a charter school or 501(c)(3) engagement can request scope details from any of the three before signing.
Editorial Note
Compiled 2026-05-11 from public firm websites, BBB business profiles, Intuit ProAdvisor directory entries, Arizona Corporation Commission registrations, LinkedIn company pages, and Yelp business listings. Address, phone, and credential data were cross-checked against at least two independent public sources per firm. No firm paid for inclusion or review of this directory.