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NOW ACCEPTING ASCENT LAB CLIENTS
The financial picture you've never had - and someone who stays in the room after you have it.
WHERE YOU MIGHT BE
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You haven't opened Quickbooks in months - but the income kept coming.
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April surprises you. Every year. With a number you didn't plan for.
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You charge less than you should because raising the rate "feels weird."
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Your accountant only calls when something is due.
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You know the books are behind. You've been meaning to deal with it.
IF TWO OR MORE SOUND FAMILIAR, YOU'RE IN THE RIGHT PLACE.
AMS Consulting Group is the ongoing accounting, tax, and advisory partnership for service business owners ready to operate from information instead of instinct.
THE JOURNEY
One coherent path.
Every engagement begins with the same question: where are you, and what does your next step actually look like? The Clarity Assessment routes you. From there, the path opens — and stays open.
START HERE
Business Clarity Assessment
A free, 7-minute self-serve diagnostic across five dimensions of business health. Genuinely useful regardless of what you do next.
ROUTES TO ONE OF TWO STARTING POINTS
Self-led. Six modules. A 90-day CEO plan.
The on-ramp. Practitioner-to-CEO development for service business owners who are ready to participate in their own numbers.
$797 one-time·Lifetime access
Done-with-you. Monthly bookkeeping plus year-round strategy.
The ongoing accounting and advisory partnership. Monthly books, quarterly reviews, IRS representation, and a CFO in the room before the decision — not after.
$1,250 – $2,400 / mo·6-month minimum
Cleanup Engagement · runs in parallel
For when the books are behind, the taxes are unfiled, or the personal and business have never been separated.
A bounded engagement, scoped after a diagnostic conversation. Three routes — self-directed catch-up, AMS standalone, or a specialist referral. Not a recurring service. The path-clearer for the relationship that follows.
$500 – $8,500 flat fee · Scoped per situation
For owners building toward scale, independence, or a planned exit.
Full Ascent scope plus valuation prep, owner-independence documentation, transaction support, and professional coordination with M&A attorneys, brokers, and transaction advisors. Bespoke per engagement.
$2,500 – $5,000 / mo · By application
EVEN EXCHANGE
Most service business owners don't have a bookkeeping problem. They have a relationship problem — with their numbers, with their pricing, and with the professional who is supposed to help them see both clearly.
A bookkeeper records what happened.
They reconcile the bank, categorise the transactions, and send a report. That work is necessary. It is also the floor — not the ceiling.
An accounting relationship tells you what it means.
Quarterly review meetings. The proactive call before a decision. The flag when cash runway dips. The reminder before the quarterly estimate is due. The hire decision run through the financial threshold tests.
Your business should work as hard for you as you work for it.
From practitioner to CEO.
THE DUAL ENGINE METHOD
Most accountants are not coaches. Most coaches are not accountants.
Every financial decision a service business owner makes is behavioural before it is numerical. The rate, the hire, the unfiled return — each is shaped by belief before it shows up in the books. The Dual Engine is the framework AMS built from holding both credentials simultaneously for over a decade.
Build to Lead
Five operational and financial dimensions for business independence. The mechanics of running a service business that is not dependent on the owner's heroics.
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Financial visibility · the numbers, plainly
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Pricing & leverage · what the hour is actually worth
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Accounting relationships · who does what, when
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Owner pay & entity structure
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Delegation & team architecture
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Tax strategy across the year
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The 90-day CEO plan
Lead to Build
IPEC Energy Leadership coaching. The behavioral layer underneath financial decisions — the patterns that show up in the books before they show up anywhere else.
- Pricing avoidance & what it's protecting
- Financial shame · naming, releasing, replacing
- Decision-making from the bank balance
- The "numbers are someone else's job" pattern
- Identity past the practitioner role
- Energy leadership across the seven levels
- Owner independence as a felt experience
WHO THIS IS FOR
Service business owners. $50K–$5M revenue. Generating real income, operating without real infrastructure.
Six self-led modules. A connected Excel dashboard you actually open on Mondays. Lifetime access. Built for the place most service business owners are — not the place they wish they were.
Mental health practitioners & private practice
Therapists, psychologists, group practice owners. Session-fee economics, insurance reimbursement cycles, the W-2-to-1099-to-S-Corp transition, and the ethical discomfort around pricing that is specific to the helping professions.
Travel agents & agencies
Commission timing, supplier reconciliation, host-agency override structures, and the seasonal cash patterns that make planning feel impossible without a partner.
Independent consultants & advisory
Project-based revenue, S-Corp election thresholds, the retainer-vs-hourly question, and the advisory work that keeps getting under-priced.
Law firms (small + boutique)
IOLTA accounting, contingency revenue recognition, partner draws, and the operating account discipline that keeps the practice out of bar trouble.
Trades & contractors
Plumbers, electricians, HVAC. Job costing, equipment depreciation, fleet vehicles, payroll for crews, and the cash-rich-paper-poor pattern that surprises most contractors at tax time.
Boutique service businesses
Cleaning companies, gyms, agencies, transportation, media. If it is owner-operated, service-based, and somewhere between $50K and $5M — the framework applies.
THE DIFFERENTIATORS
Four (4) reasons clients choose to work with us long-term.
01. A year-round relationship, not a tax-season appointment.
We meet on a regular cadence — monthly check-ins, quarterly reviews — so the important questions get asked before the decisions get made, not after.
Ongoing partnership
03. The numbers are only half of the conversation.
How an owner relates to money shapes every financial decision they make. We help you build the habits and confidence underneath the books, not only the books themselves.
Owner-led approach
02. Built around how service businesses actually run.
A therapist's month does not look like a travel agent's, and neither looks like a consultant's. The work, the reporting, and the strategy are shaped to your industry.
Industry-specific
04. You are taught the system, not just handed reports.
A practical foundation in your own numbers — what they mean, what to watch, what to ask — so you can lead the business with clarity instead of relying on someone to translate it.
Financial fluency
Frequently asked questions
Pick the one that matches where you are right now!
I want to start with the assessment
Free. Self-serve. Seven minutes. Routes you to the right next step.
I'm ready to talk to a human.
Book a 30-minute fit conversation. We'll tell you honestly which tier - if any - is the right one.