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Collective
Bookkeeping, payroll and taxes run as one back office for a business of one
The most complete hands-off option for a profitable solo S Corp — the catch is price and that it only serves businesses of one.
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What Collective is — in our words
Collective is not software you operate; it is a membership that bundles the whole back office a solo business needs. Monthly bookkeeping is automated and reviewed, invoicing and financial reports are built in, quarterly tax estimates are calculated, and on the S Corp tier it files your election, helps set a defensible reasonable salary, runs owner and contractor payroll, and prepares and files the annual business return, with a dedicated account manager as your point of contact. That bundling is the point for a high-earning solo founder: the expensive mistakes in an S Corp are rarely arithmetic, they are missed elections, a salary set too low, or payroll and books that do not agree — and Collective is structured to keep those pieces consistent in one place. The LLC tier covers formation or review of an existing entity, bookkeeping and a basic individual return, while personal returns on the S Corp tier and catch-up bookkeeping for past months are add-ons to budget for. It only serves solo businesses by design, so a company planning to hire a team and raise capital will outgrow it. Priced against hiring a bookkeeper, payroll service and tax preparer separately, many solos find the single monthly fee easy to justify.
What it does end-to-end
- Runs automated monthly bookkeeping and produces monthly financial reports
- Files S Corp election and the annual Form 1120-S business return on the S Corp tier
- Runs employee and contractor payroll with reasonable salary support
- Calculates quarterly federal and state tax estimates and flags key deadlines
- Provides invoicing and a dedicated account manager on the S Corp tier
What it does NOT do
- Only for businesses of one — teams and venture-backed startups are out of scope
- Personal return on the S Corp tier and catch-up bookkeeping cost extra
- No path to keep using it as a multi-person company with complex operations
- Formation and tax posture are US-specific
Pricing — checked 2026-11-04
Two flat monthly membership tiers by entity type; catch-up, late election relief and some personal returns are paid add-ons.
| Plan | Published price |
|---|---|
| LLC | $199/month |
| S Corp | $349/month |
Integrations we verified: Bank connections, Payroll (included on S Corp tier), Invoicing (built in)
Pros — our take
- Bookkeeping, payroll, election and business filing genuinely bundled in one fee
- Dedicated account manager on the S Corp tier — a named human, not just software
- Designed exclusively for solos, so onboarding and advice assume a business of one
Cons — our take
- Setup takes days, including entity and payroll work, not minutes
- Add-ons for catch-up and personal returns can raise the first-year cost
- You will outgrow it if you hire a team or raise venture funding
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