Murphy Accounting Review

What Murphy Accounting Offers

Murphy Accounting is a small practice in North Easton, Massachusetts that keeps books, prepares business and individual tax returns, and coordinates payroll for owner-led businesses. Its services page lists eight services:

• Monthly bookkeeping, with categorization, reconciliation, and a month-end close.
• Business tax preparation and planning, with estimated-payment guidance during the year.
• Payroll support, coordinated with your payroll provider.
• Small business advisory.
• Individual tax preparation, including the Massachusetts return.
• Tax resolution for IRS and Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) problems.
• Catch-up bookkeeping and cleanup for books that have fallen behind.
• Nonprofit tax and accounting.

The self-employed and owner-led businesses page names the clients Murphy Accounting is built for: sole proprietors, single-member LLC owners, S corporation owners, and growing businesses with staff or contractors. It describes the owner who does the books on evenings and weekends, and the self-employed person surprised by a tax bill because nothing was withheld.

Murphy Accounting calls itself a local practice. The person who works on your books also answers the phone, and the site says there are no account managers. It also says Murphy Accounting is "small on purpose."

How Murphy Accounting Sets Its Price

Murphy Accounting does not post prices, and it quotes one specific figure in writing after it reviews your records. Its pricing page says you get "a specific number in writing before any work begins." The how it works page adds that the figure is fixed and not a range.

The pricing page names what moves the quote:

• Transaction volume: how many transactions run each month, across how many accounts.
• Backlog: cleanup is quoted separately from ongoing monthly work.
• Entity and filing complexity: more entities, states, or owners mean more work.
• Payroll: whether it is in scope, how many people, and how often it runs.
• Meeting frequency: an annual relationship costs less than quarterly planning, which costs less than monthly advisory.

Each proposal is meant to cover the scope, whether the fee is one-off or ongoing, the start date, and your contact person. A scope change comes as a revised document. A written scope gives you something to compare line by line against another firm's quote, which a verbal estimate does not.

The drawback is that you cannot price-shop Murphy Accounting from its website. If cost is your first filter, call (508) 205-7333 and ask for the typical range for a business like yours before you book the review.

How Working With Murphy Accounting Works

Murphy Accounting runs every new client through four steps, from a first conversation to a monthly close. The how it works page lays them out:

1. A first call of about an hour, about the business and not about packages. You do not need to prepare or tidy up first.
2. A review of your current books, prior returns, entity setup, and payroll. Murphy Accounting prefers access to the accounting file over exported reports.
3. A written scope and fixed price, covering what is included and excluded, what you provide and when, and the start date.
4. Ongoing work: books closed monthly, planning conversations in the second half of the year, and the return prepared after year-end.

Murphy Accounting asks you not to send Social Security numbers, tax returns, or bank details through its contact form. Once you agree to work together, you get a specific document list and a secure way to send it.

In-person meetings are available at the North Easton office, and the work can be done fully remotely. The site says businesses outside the area should ask, because fit depends on the business.

Bookkeeping and Catch-Up Work

Murphy Accounting's bookkeeping service delivers a monthly profit-and-loss statement, a balance sheet, and a reconciled set of accounts, with a named contact between closes. The books are kept so the tax return can be built from them directly. That saves the spring scramble of rebuilding a year of transactions before a preparer can start.

On software, Murphy Accounting treats the choice as "a question to work through rather than a policy." It does not require you to switch. The FAQ warns that switching without a clear reason often creates a year of opening-balance problems.

If your books are behind, the catch-up service assesses the gap, reconstructs prior periods, and brings prior-year returns current alongside the books. Backlog work is quoted as a separate project. Murphy Accounting gives a scope and timeframe in writing after it sees your records, and it says reliable books come before any unfiled return can be dealt with.

To compare Murphy Accounting with other bookkeeping services, see our roundup of the best bookkeeping services for small businesses.

Tax Returns and Planning

Murphy Accounting prepares annual business returns and the owner's personal return together, along with the Massachusetts returns that run beside the federal ones. The individual tax page says the return is explained before you sign it, and that the explanation "is part of the work rather than an extra."

Planning happens during the year. The business tax page lists estimated-payment guidance "so the bill isn't a surprise" and suggests the planning conversation happen in the second half of the year. It also treats entity structure as a periodic question, with a lawyer involved where structure has legal effects.

For a first-year freelancer, the pages flag the main surprise: no tax is withheld, so estimated payments and self-employment tax fall on you. The IRS estimated tax page sets the quarterly rules. Our quarterly estimated tax calculator and self-employment tax calculator show the numbers to bring to that conversation.

Payroll Support at Murphy Accounting

Murphy Accounting supports payroll and coordinates with your payroll provider, and the payroll page lists payroll processing itself among the tasks that stay with your provider or you. Murphy Accounting helps set payroll up correctly, gives compliance guidance, and reconciles payroll figures to your books so filings and books agree.

Who handles each task (pay runs, deposits, federal and Massachusetts filings, year-end forms, new-hire reporting, and notices) is set out in a written responsibility document before work starts. You can keep a payroll provider you already like. HR, benefits administration, and employment-law advice are outside the service.

Read that responsibility document closely. A payroll notice from the IRS or DOR goes to whoever the document names, so make sure the name is not blank.

Tax Resolution and IRS Representation

Murphy Accounting's tax resolution page covers IRS and Massachusetts DOR problems, from CP14 to CP504 notices through levies, liens, and passport certification. The ways it lists to resolve a balance include installment agreements, partial pay agreements, offers in compromise, currently not collectible status, and penalty abatement.

The page is careful about representation. It says only certain categories of professional may hold an authorization that lets someone act for you before the IRS. It also excludes "any work that requires an authority we have not confirmed we hold." Criminal tax matters and legal advice go to a lawyer.

The IRS credentials page says CPAs, enrolled agents, and attorneys have unlimited representation rights. A preparer with only a PTIN cannot represent clients for recent years. Before hiring Murphy Accounting for an IRS case, ask who would sign Form 2848, the power-of-attorney form. Then look that person up in the IRS Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers.

On settlements, the page says "nobody can promise that," and it notes that a payment plan or hardship status is often the better outcome. Our tax resolution calculator shows which of those your numbers support.

Murphy Accounting Pros and Cons

Murphy Accounting's strength is one person tying your books, return, and payroll together under a fixed written price. Its gaps are no published fees, no stated credential, and no client stories yet.

What works in Murphy Accounting's favor:

• One named contact who does the work and answers the phone, with no account managers.
• A specific fixed price in writing before work starts, with backlog quoted separately.
• Books closed monthly and built so the tax return comes straight from them.
• A written responsibility document for payroll tasks, so filings do not fall between you and your provider.
• Clear exclusions, including legal advice, audit and attestation work, and guaranteed savings figures.

What works against it:

• No prices or ranges on Murphy Accounting's site.
• No CPA or enrolled agent credential stated, so IRS representation needs a direct question.
• The client stories page is still being built, with no published cases yet.
• A small practice, so March and April capacity is worth asking about early.

Who Should Skip Murphy Accounting

Skip Murphy Accounting if you only need a once-a-year return and nothing in between. Murphy Accounting's own page says some businesses need nothing more than that, and its service is built around monthly books and year-round planning. A seasonal preparer costs less for that job.

Skip it if you need audited or reviewed financial statements for a lender, a grant, or a nonprofit board. Murphy Accounting says audit and attestation work is a separate engagement it does not perform.

Skip it if you want a large firm's brand, deep specialist expertise, or the cheapest compliance filing available. Murphy Accounting's About page names those three groups as the clients it may not suit.

What Would Change Our Verdict on Murphy Accounting

Our verdict on Murphy Accounting would improve if it stated its professional credentials on the site, or named who represents clients before the IRS. That would move tax resolution from "ask first" to a service we could recommend on the page alone.

It would also improve with published fee ranges, even broad ones, for monthly bookkeeping and a business return. Client stories approved by real clients, which the site says it plans to publish, would add outside evidence.

The verdict would turn negative if the written fixed price gave way to open-ended billing, or if the named contact gave way to a rotating team. Those two features are the reason to choose Murphy Accounting today.

The Verdict on Murphy Accounting

Book the first conversation with Murphy Accounting if you run a sole proprietorship, single-member LLC, or S corporation near Easton. It fits owners who want books, taxes, and payroll handled by one person who knows all three. You get a fixed price in writing, a monthly close, and planning before year-end.

Ask two questions on that call: what range a business your size usually pays, and who would represent you if the IRS writes. Call (508) 205-7333 or start on Murphy Accounting's Get Started page.

Frequently asked questions