Quick Comparison
| Firm | Credentials | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Tide & Ledger | Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors (Andrew and Cassie Murphy); Florida LLC organized in Tampa Bay; Google 5.0-star rating across verified reviews | Weekly bookkeeping, managerial accounting, back-office support; contractors, healthcare practices, marketing agencies, franchise owners across St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, and Tampa Bay |
| The ABC’s of Accounting | Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor; founder Brenda Kenny is a licensed Florida CPA with over a decade of small-business accounting work in St. Petersburg | Cloud bookkeeping, QuickBooks setup and cleanup, payroll, tax preparation, and small-business advisory for solopreneurs and growing businesses delivered virtually from a St. Petersburg base |
| Bookkeeping to Accounting | QuickBooks Advanced Certified ProAdvisor; founder Theresa Rae Gay holds an MBA from the University of Tampa and is also Xero Advisor Certified and Gusto People Advisory certified | Cloud bookkeeping, accounts payable and receivable, monthly reconciliations, sales tax filings, payroll processing, and process design for trades, wedding services, SaaS, and medical practices |
1. Tide & Ledger
- Address: Tampa Bay, FL (in-person across St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, and the broader Tampa Bay metro; remote across Florida and nationwide)
- Phone: (727) 205-5022
- Email: [email protected]
- Founders: Andrew Murphy and Cassie Murphy (husband-and-wife founded business)
- Operating Since: 2018 (7 years); husband-and-wife founded Tide & Ledger, LLC serving Tampa Bay small businesses including St. Petersburg
- Credentials: Andrew Murphy (project management background from enterprise IT consulting; MBA in strategic finance); Cassie Murphy (holds every QuickBooks certification that matters; manages client books daily); both are Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors
- Service area: St. Petersburg, Tampa, Clearwater, Brandon, Riverview, Lutz, Wesley Chapel, New Port Richey, plus Pasco, Hillsborough, and Pinellas County areas; remote across Florida and nationwide
- Industries served: Contractors and trades (construction, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing), professional services and agencies (healthcare practices, marketing agencies, consultants), franchise owners (multi-unit operators), owner-operated businesses (five to fifty employees)
- Customer Rating: 5.0 stars on Google with multiple verified reviews
- Website: Tide & Ledger
Andrew and Cassie Murphy Husband-and-Wife Founding
Tide & Ledger is a husband-and-wife founded bookkeeping practice based in Tampa Bay, serving St. Petersburg small businesses both in person and through cloud delivery. Andrew Murphy and Cassie Murphy run the practice together as co-founders. Andrew brings project management experience from enterprise IT consulting plus an MBA in strategic finance, which shapes the analytical approach to small business financial management. Cassie holds every QuickBooks certification that matters and manages client books on a daily basis, providing the technical bookkeeping depth that drives day-to-day delivery. The husband-and-wife model represents a deliberate small-firm-scale family-business structure that distinguishes Tide & Ledger from corporate-rollup bookkeeping services operating in the St. Petersburg and Pinellas County market.
Three-Tier Service Stack: Weekly Bookkeeping, Managerial Accounting, Back-Office Support
Tide & Ledger structures service delivery into three coordinated tiers. The weekly bookkeeping tier covers transaction categorization, bank reconciliation, accounts payable and receivable management, and payroll processing; this is the foundational layer that keeps client books current and accurate every week. The managerial accounting tier sits on top of clean bookkeeping data and translates the numbers into business intelligence: profitability analysis, cash flow forecasting, and budget-versus-actual reporting. The back-office support tier handles QuickBooks setup and optimization, vendor management, and process cleanup work that takes operational burden off business owners. The three-tier configuration supports a complete books-to-decisions pipeline rather than a transactional bookkeeping-only deliverable.
Three-Month Onboarding Progression for St. Petersburg Clients
The practice publishes a structured three-month onboarding progression for new clients. Month one focuses on cleanup: getting into the client’s QuickBooks, reconciling accounts, categorizing transactions, and bringing everything current; the goal is eliminating mystery balances and missing records. Month two implements reporting: with clean books in place, the practice builds the reporting structure the business actually needs, including profit and loss by service line, cash flow statements, and budget-versus-actual tracking. Month three delivers cash flow clarity: by the end of month three, the business owner knows where money is coming from, where it is going, and what that means for hire, investment, and growth decisions across St. Petersburg’s mix of professional services, marine, hospitality, and contractor clients.
Owner-Direct Communication and Client Engagement Profile
Tide & Ledger operates an owner-direct client engagement model. When St. Petersburg clients call (727) 205-5022 or submit a request through Tide & Ledger, Andrew or Cassie themselves respond, typically the same day. The practice offers a free 30-minute consultation that reviews a prospective client’s current books with no sales pressure and a clear assessment of what it would take to get the books right. Published client testimonials emphasize the responsive, professional, and reliable nature of the communication: clients report that Andrew and Cassie are always available to answer questions and that the support has made a noticeable difference in how confidently the client manages their finances.
St. Petersburg and Pinellas County Coverage
Tide & Ledger meets St. Petersburg clients in person across Pinellas County and supports remote engagements through cloud QuickBooks files for businesses that prefer fully virtual delivery. The Pinellas service zone covers St. Petersburg proper plus the surrounding cities (Clearwater, Largo, Pinellas Park, Seminole, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor) where St. Petersburg owners often run secondary locations or multi-county operations. Beyond the local market, the practice serves clients remotely across Florida and nationwide; the operating principle is that bookkeeping is numbers, not geography. The remote-capable delivery model gives St. Petersburg owners a scalable bookkeeping partner that reaches beyond Pinellas while preserving the in-person option for clients who prefer face-to-face meetings.
Industry Niche Coverage: Contractors, Healthcare, Agencies, Franchises, Owner-Operated
Tide & Ledger publishes a defined client niche profile across four operating categories that line up with the St. Petersburg small-business mix. Contractors and trades (construction, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing) represent the largest specialty cluster, with industry-specific job costing and cash flow management for Pinellas County builders. Professional services and agencies (healthcare practices, marketing agencies, consultants) form a second specialty cluster, fitting St. Petersburg’s dense professional-services base. Franchise owners (multi-unit operators) get coordinated multi-entity reporting. Owner-operated businesses with five to fifty employees represent the core operating-scale client profile across all industries.
Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Stack Plus Tax Coordination
Both founders carry Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor credentials, and Cassie holds every QuickBooks certification the Intuit program offers. The practice builds out the chart of accounts, cost tracking structure, and reporting setup that makes QuickBooks actually useful for each client’s business rather than treating QuickBooks as a passive data entry tool. Tide & Ledger handles bookkeeping and managerial accounting end-to-end and coordinates with each client’s outside CPA for tax filing, tax strategy, and audit work; this division of labor is the standard small-business pattern for separating bookkeeping (operational, weekly) from tax (regulatory, annual or quarterly).
Honest Pricing and Reliability Positioning
Tide & Ledger publishes a transparent pricing posture: a clear scope estimate is delivered before work begins, and the practice tells a prospect honestly if they are not a fit and points them in the right direction either way. Published customer testimonials confirm this in practice: clients describe Andrew and Cassie as reliable, responsive, organized, and prompt with communication. The reliability-and-transparency positioning combined with the husband-and-wife founding profile, the three-tier service stack, the three-month onboarding progression, the owner-direct communication model, and the St. Petersburg plus Pinellas plus nationwide reach forms a small-firm-scale value proposition for St. Petersburg owners considering Tide & Ledger.
2. The ABC’s of Accounting
- Address: 4905 34th Street South, Suite 408, St. Petersburg, FL 33711
- Phone: (727) 477-8562
- Founder / Owner: Brenda Kenny, CPA
- Operating Since: 2015 (11 years)
- Credentials: Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor; licensed Certified Public Accountant; over a decade of small-business accounting and bookkeeping work in St. Petersburg and the Greater Tampa Bay area
- Service area: St. Petersburg head office plus virtual engagements for clients across Tampa, Sarasota, Bradenton, Largo, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs, Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Hudson, New Port Richey, Spring Hill, Brooksville, Zephyrhills, Wesley Chapel, Plant City, and Lakeland
- Industries served: Solopreneurs, growing small businesses, and established small businesses across general industries
- Website: theabc-cpa.com
St. Petersburg Practice Anchored Since 2015
Brenda Kenny has worked as the practice accountant since 2015, running The ABC’s of Accounting, Bookkeeping and Consulting CPA from a St. Petersburg base at 4905 34th Street South. The practice has stayed independent under Kenny as founder and named CPA, and it markets itself as a small-business CPA practice. The Greater Tampa Bay coverage is built around remote delivery, which lets one principal serve clients from St. Petersburg out to Lakeland and Plant City without a second office.
Certified ProAdvisor Bookkeeping Lane
The practice leads with bookkeeping as a primary service. The published service stack pairs daily transaction recording, reconciliations, monthly close, and cash flow forecasting on the bookkeeping side with QuickBooks setup, cleanup, and ongoing maintenance on the ProAdvisor side. Kenny’s CPA license adds tax preparation and planning, and the shop front-doors the Certified ProAdvisor bookkeeping work for owners who want a clean monthly close paired with year-end tax filing.
Virtual Delivery for Tampa Bay Owners
The practice runs a fully virtual delivery model from the St. Petersburg head office, which lets clients across Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Manatee, Sarasota, Hernando, and Polk counties work with the practice without an on-site visit. Owners in Largo, Dunedin, Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Wesley Chapel, and Plant City all appear in the practice’s published service area, alongside St. Petersburg clients who want face-to-face meetings at the 34th Street South office.
Hybrid Bookkeeping Plus Tax Coverage
Kenny’s CPA designation and ProAdvisor status let the practice pair monthly bookkeeping with federal and state tax preparation, payroll processing and tax withholdings, and small-business advisory work under one engagement. That hybrid model fits solopreneurs and growing small businesses who would otherwise hand bookkeeping to one shop and taxes to a second CPA, since both functions stay with Kenny as the named principal across the year.
3. Bookkeeping to Accounting
- Address: St. Petersburg, FL
- Phone: (727) 353-9987
- Founder / Owner: Theresa Rae Gay
- Operating Since: 2021 (5 years)
- Credentials: QuickBooks Advanced Certified ProAdvisor (Oct 2021); QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor (Aug 2021); Xero Advisor Certified (Apr 2021); Gusto People Advisory Accelerator (Dec 2021); MBA from the University of Tampa
- Service area: St. Petersburg head practice with remote engagements for clients across Pinellas County and the wider Tampa Bay area, delivered through cloud bookkeeping platforms
- Industries served: Wedding services, monthly maintenance trades such as lawn, pool, and pest control, electricians, plumbing and HVAC, SaaS companies, and medical, dental, and mental health practices
- Website: bookkeepingtoaccounting.com
St. Petersburg Practice Under Founder Direction
Theresa Rae Gay runs Bookkeeping to Accounting from a St. Petersburg base, with public LinkedIn and firm-site records placing her as the named founder and lead practitioner. The shop has stayed independent under Gay as principal. Gay holds an MBA from the University of Tampa, where she graduated second in her class with a 3.9 GPA while working full time.
Multi-Platform Certified Stack
Gay holds QuickBooks Advanced Certified ProAdvisor status as of October 2021, paired with QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor since August 2021, Xero Advisor Certification from April 2021, and a Gusto People Advisory Accelerator credential from December 2021. That stack lets the shop run client books on either QuickBooks Online or Xero, plus pair Gusto payroll with the bookkeeping work for trades and service businesses.
Cloud Bookkeeping for Service Trades
The published service list covers monthly, weekly, or daily cloud bookkeeping, accounts payable and bill pay, accounts receivable and invoicing, monthly profit-and-loss and balance-sheet preparation, monthly reconciliations, sales tax filings, payroll processing, plus system design and process optimization. The practice targets wedding services, monthly maintenance trades such as lawn, pool, and pest control, electricians, plumbing, HVAC, SaaS companies, and medical, dental, and mental health practices.
Cybersecurity and Veteran Hiring Focus
The shop publishes a written commitment to hiring disabled veterans on its bookkeeping team, paired with cybersecurity controls that include secure document portals, encrypted passwords, VPN requirements, and background checks for all team members. Those operational controls suit medical, dental, and mental health clients who handle sensitive patient data alongside their books.
Reference Notes
St. Petersburg is the second-largest city in Florida’s Tampa Bay region and a dense small-business market across professional services, marine, hospitality, healthcare, and the broader Pinellas County economy. The bookkeeping market here serves clients running businesses inside St. Petersburg proper plus the surrounding Pinellas cities (Clearwater, Largo, Pinellas Park, Seminole, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor). Florida has no state income tax, but bookkeepers serving St. Petersburg owners still handle Florida sales and use tax, Pinellas County tourist development tax for hospitality clients, federal payroll filings, and the year-end coordination with each client’s tax preparer for federal income tax.
The three firms profiled cover three positions on the St. Petersburg bookkeeping market arc. Tide & Ledger leads the contemporary husband-and-wife founded model with a three-tier service stack covering weekly bookkeeping, managerial accounting, and back-office support, plus a defined four-industry niche (contractors and trades, professional services and agencies, franchise owners, owner-operated businesses) that lines up directly with the St. Petersburg small-business base. The ABC’s of Accounting offers a hybrid CPA-plus-ProAdvisor model from a 34th Street South office under Brenda Kenny since 2015. Bookkeeping to Accounting runs a multi-platform virtual practice on QuickBooks Online and Xero under Theresa Rae Gay since 2021.
National rollup brands operating in the broader bookkeeping market (Bench Accounting, Pilot, QuickBooks Live, BELAY, Bookkeeper360, Bookminders, Supporting Strategies, Bookkeeper.com, 1-800Accountant) and the larger national CPA roll-ups sit outside the three-firm independent profile in this directory. All three firms profiled operate as locally-owned independent operators with founder-direct client access. The Outsourced Accounting Department, Inc. (Kern Accounting) practice from earlier directory revisions is profiled in the companion Clearwater directory entry, since its head office sits at 13575 58th Street in Clearwater rather than St. Petersburg proper.
Selection Methodology
Selection follows four criteria. First, family-owned or founder-led independent bookkeeping firm outside the national rollup pattern. Second, QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification or equivalent (Xero, Sage). Third, BBB listing, Florida Sunbiz registration, or equivalent third-party recognition. Fourth, documented St. Petersburg or Pinellas County service coverage with continuous operating tenure. Firms acquired by or operating as national rollups (Bench Accounting, Pilot, QuickBooks Live, BELAY, Bookkeeper360, Bookminders, Supporting Strategies, Bookkeeper.com, 1-800Accountant) are excluded. Pure CPA tax-only firms are excluded; this directory profiles bookkeeping and managerial accounting practices.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I verify a St. Petersburg bookkeeper’s credentials?
Use the Intuit ProAdvisor directory at quickbooks.intuit.com/find-an-accountant to confirm QuickBooks ProAdvisor status. Cross-check the firm’s LLC registration through Florida Sunbiz at dos.fl.gov. Review the firm’s BBB profile through BBB Serving West Florida for accreditation and any complaint history. Confirm additional credentials (AIPB Certified Bookkeeper, NACPB Certified Public Bookkeeper, Xero Advisor) through the issuing organization’s online verification system before authorizing work.
What credentials should a St. Petersburg bookkeeper hold?
At minimum: Intuit Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor designation plus general liability insurance. Additional optional credentials that strengthen a bookkeeper’s profile include AIPB Certified Bookkeeper, NACPB Certified Public Bookkeeper, and Xero or Sage certifications for firms supporting clients on those platforms. Industry-specific certifications (construction job-costing, healthcare practice management) add value for clients in specialized sectors. Florida does not require state-level bookkeeper licensing.
How can I tell if a St. Petersburg bookkeeper is independent versus a national rollup?
Check ownership disclosures and acquisition history on the firm’s website. National rollup brands (Bench, Pilot, QuickBooks Live, BELAY, Bookkeeper360, Bookminders, Supporting Strategies, Bookkeeper.com, 1-800Accountant) typically operate under parent-company branding and route client work through dispatch-tier staff rather than founder-direct access. Search the firm name plus “acquired” or “parent company” to surface ownership structure. The three firms in this directory all operate as independent locally-owned bookkeeping practices.
When should a St. Petersburg business hire a bookkeeper versus a CPA?
Hire a bookkeeper for daily and weekly transaction work, QuickBooks management, accounts payable and receivable, payroll, and monthly financial reporting. Hire a CPA for annual or quarterly tax filing, tax strategy, audit representation, and IRS or Florida Department of Revenue matters. Many St. Petersburg small businesses use both: a bookkeeper handles operational accounting weekly, and a CPA handles tax filing and strategy work seasonally.
Editorial Note
Compiled by the editorial team. Firm details cross-verified through QuickBooks ProAdvisor directory, BBB business profiles, Florida Sunbiz LLC records, and firm-published websites where available. Credentials should be re-verified through Intuit’s ProAdvisor lookup and Florida Sunbiz before engaging. Information current as of the date below; firm details may change without notice. Last updated: 2026-05-11.