# How it works

> Agents do the work. Accountants are accountable for it.

## Your first 30 days

- **Week 1, Connect.** Bank, cards, payroll, billing and your accounting and HR systems. You keep ownership of every account.
- **Week 2, Review.** We go through your books, tax filings, state registrations, payroll setup, vendors and contracts, and agree what needs fixing first. If your books are behind, Historical Cleanup starts here.
- **Week 3, Agents start.** Agents run alongside your current process, so nothing is dropped. Your deadline calendar for taxes, filings, renewals and payroll goes live.
- **Week 4, First sign-off.** Your accountant reviews and signs off your first month. Your Forward deployed operator walks you through what’s done and what’s next.

## Where agents stop

**What agents do.** Categorize, reconcile, match documents, draft entries, prepare payroll, track deadlines and renewals, flag anything unusual.

**What agents never do:**

- Pay a bill or run payroll without approval
- Renew, cancel or sign a contract without a decision
- File a return no one has signed
- Email your investors or your board without your approval
- Change your spend policy
- Make a judgment call on revenue or tax treatment

## Your team

- **Agents.** Do the routine work across every service, as it happens.
- **Your accountant.** Bookkeeping, payables, receivables, cleanup, taxes, R&D credits and audit support. Reviews and signs off every number before it reaches you.
- **Your Forward deployed operator.** People operations, compliance, the back office and your U.S. launch. Runs payroll, filings, vendors and renewals.
- **Your fractional CFO (optional).** Fractional CFO and fundraising. Builds the plan, sits with your board and leads the finance side of your raise.

## How we work together

A named team, not a ticket queue.

- Shared Slack channel for questions, with same-day replies. Nobody’s status stays on away
- Monthly review of what we did and what’s coming
- Your systems stay yours. If you leave, everything stays with you.

## Questions

### Do we have to switch accounting software or HR platforms?

No. We work in what you already use — QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Gusto, Rippling, Bill.com, Ramp, Stripe. If something is holding the close back, we’ll tell you and why. Switching is your call, never a condition of working with us.

### What happens when an agent gets something wrong?

A person catches it before you see it. Agents flag anything unusual or uncertain rather than guessing, and your accountant reviews and approves entries before they post. If something wrong still reaches you, we fix it, tell you what happened and what changed so it doesn’t repeat.

### Who signs our tax returns?

A licensed CPA signs every return, as the paid preparer. Agents prepare the return from closed books; the person signing it has reviewed it and is accountable for it.

### Who can see our data?

Your named team, and nobody else at Cabot without a reason to. Encrypted in transit and at rest. We keep all information confidential and data secure. We use enterprise grade security and all suppliers have entered into strict confidentiality obligations to us.

### What if we only need one service?

That’s the normal way in. Most companies start with bookkeeping, or with a cleanup, and add services as they raise. Everything runs on one ledger, so adding later doesn’t mean re-onboarding.

### What if our books are already behind?

That’s where most companies start. We’ve definitely rebuilt worse on tighter deadlines. Historical Cleanup typically starts in week 2 and most companies will have some adjustments from moving from cash to accrual accounting or to proper GAAP revenue.

[See Historical Cleanup](https://cabot.finance/services/historical-cleanup/)

### What if we want to leave?

Your systems, accounts and master records stay yours — we don’t hold your books hostage. We’ll hand off to whoever comes next. And if you come back, the door’s still open.