# Median

> The accounting firm that answers your money questions. Median keeps the books current for owner-led businesses and startups, software companies and professional services firms alike, then answers what they mean: profitability by person or channel, spend headroom against your target margin or runway, and where the money is actually going. One flat monthly fee set by revenue band under $1M in annual revenue, custom pricing above that, scoped on a call. Median works the same way whether or not you have investors: most of what it answers is about margin, profit, and cash, not fundraising.

## About
Bookkeeping gives you a record of what already happened. Median keeps that record current, then answers the question you were actually asking. Connect your bank, Stripe, Ramp, and payroll; we categorize and post transactions every business day with AI, and a dedicated accountant reviews the exceptions and is accountable for the result. On top of those books, Median answers which of your people or channels is worth what you pay for it, how much more you can spend this month without breaking your margin or runway, and where your money is going by category, vendor, and class.

## The Three Questions Median Answers
- Which of my people is actually worth what I pay them, or which of my channels is worth what I spend on it. Profitability by person, team, role, client, project, or acquisition channel, tied to what each one brings in and what it costs, with CAC and payback by signup month where it applies.
- How much more can I spend this month without breaking my margin or my runway. Live margin and cash position against the target you set, with the headroom number stated directly and committed spend and aging AR already netted out.
- Where is my money actually going. Spend by category, vendor, and class, current, with the things that changed called out.

## What You Also Get
- The books underneath, done for you. No forwarding statements, chasing receipts, or living in spreadsheets.
- Reports and scenarios on demand: P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, your key metrics, or a what-if scenario, built from your live numbers when you ask.
- Current data your AI can use, from books updated daily. Median runs a read-only Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. After signing in with their Median account, AI assistants such as Claude can read the company's chart of accounts, journal entries, transactions, P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, general ledger, A/R and A/P aging, and the company overview, which includes Median's runway, burn and MRR figures. The connection cannot post or change entries or move money. Customer MCP access is in preview. Contact Median to confirm access before connecting.

## Audiences
- [For software companies](https://medianfi.com/software-companies): Bootstrapped or venture-backed, pre-seed through Series B. Which channel is earning its budget, how much room is left before runway gets tight, plus MRR, R&D credits, and investor reporting off the same ledger. Investor reporting and R&D credits are available, not assumed; a self-funded software business uses the same books for margin and cash without them.
- [For professional services firms](https://medianfi.com/professional-services): Agencies, consultancies, studios, and firms billing by project or retainer, typically owner-operated and not raising. Which people and clients actually earn, margin headroom this month, plus revenue recognition, AR, tax, and sales tax.

## Services
- [Bookkeeping](https://medianfi.com/services/bookkeeping): Categorized and posted every business day with an accountant reviewing the exceptions; accrual or cash-basis; a real accountant on your account
- [Tax Filing](https://medianfi.com/services/tax): Federal, state, 1099 prep
- [R&D Tax Credits](https://medianfi.com/services/r-and-d-tax-credits): Full study, Form 6765, from $5,000

## Pricing
Two parts, split at $1M in annual revenue. Prices published at https://medianfi.com/pricing.
- Under $250K in annual revenue: $200 per month, flat
- $250K to $1M in annual revenue: $500 per month, flat
- Under $1M that flat fee is the whole bill. Nothing is charged per transaction on top, and volume does not move the fee inside a band.
- Over $1M in annual revenue (Scale): custom priced. We scope the work on a call and quote one monthly price in writing.
- Every user seat and every analytics, ad, or CRM data-source connection included
- Reports, scenarios, and daily bookkeeping included at every price
- No setup fee, no seat fees
- Online signup bills monthly, month to month, and you can cancel whenever. A prepaid twelve-month term is available only under a separately signed agreement.
- The bands are set by annual revenue, a number a founder already reports, rather than by monthly expenses or by which feature plan you pick
- Tax filing add-on: from $1,499/year (federal, one state, 1099s)
- R&D tax credit: $5,000 flat under a $50,000 estimated credit, 10% of the credit at $50,000 and above
- Sales tax filing: from $99/month per jurisdiction
- Multi-entity consolidation and international tax scoped separately

## How It Works
1. Create your account, see your price, and subscribe. Then connect your bank, cards, Stripe, Ramp, and payroll; migration and cleanup follow an agreed timeline.
2. Every business day, we categorize and post the new activity with AI, and a dedicated accountant reviews the exceptions and is accountable for the result.
3. Ask anything. Get the three answers above, pull reports and what-if scenarios, get answers on Slack or email on business days, with complex work scoped separately, or request preview access for your AI to query supported reports through the Median MCP server.

## Key Capabilities
- Bookkeeping done for you: categorized and posted every business day by AI, with a dedicated accountant reviewing the exceptions
- Reports and what-if scenarios on demand, built from your live numbers (runway, margin, CAC, channel profitability)
- Read-only MCP server so Claude and other AI assistants can read your books and pull reports when preview access is confirmed for your company, with connection setup on request; see https://medianfi.com/claude-cowork
- Answers from your books plus connected ads, analytics, billing, and vendor data
- A real accountant on your account, not rotating staff; reach them on Slack or email
- Connected to 10,000+ financial institutions (Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc.)
- Direct integrations with Ramp, Mercury, Brex, Stripe, Gusto, Deel

## Pages
- [Home](https://medianfi.com/)
- [About](https://medianfi.com/about)
- [Features](https://medianfi.com/features)
- [Pricing](https://medianfi.com/pricing)
- [Run Your Finances From Claude (MCP)](https://medianfi.com/claude-cowork)
- [Resources](https://medianfi.com/resources)
- [Get Started](https://medianfi.com/get-started)
- [Contact](https://medianfi.com/contact)
- [Privacy Policy](https://medianfi.com/privacy)
- [Terms of Service](https://medianfi.com/terms)

## Reference
- [Median in finance: definition and calculator](https://medianfi.com/median-finance): what the median means in finance, how to calculate it, and a free median, mean, and mode calculator.
- [Median in accounting: salary data and meaning](https://medianfi.com/median-accounting): the median accountant salary from BLS data and what the median means as a statistic in accounting.

## Customers
- [Curve](https://medianfi.com/customers/curve): A full year of investor-ready books built from scratch for a startup with no prior bookkeeper.
- [OpenCures](https://medianfi.com/customers/opencures): In their words, how Median's onboarding review found years of errors where the books no longer matched the filed return, and refiled.
- [PetWorks](https://medianfi.com/customers/petworks): A nationwide pet-care marketplace on Stripe Connect. Median established the Connect model, restated two years so the top line reports platform revenue rather than booking volume, and delivered the filing package ahead of the deadline.

## Guides and comparisons
- [Fractional CFO services for startups: what they do, when to hire, and what they cost](https://medianfi.com/blog/fractional-cfo-services-for-startups)
- [Daily bookkeeping vs month-end: what changes when the ledger stays current](https://medianfi.com/resources/daily-close)
- [Startup Runway and Cash Burn: How to Calculate and Extend It](https://medianfi.com/resources/startup-runway)
- [Cash vs Accrual Accounting for Startups](https://medianfi.com/resources/cash-vs-accrual)
- [SaaS Metrics That Matter: MRR, ARR, NRR, CAC, LTV](https://medianfi.com/resources/saas-metrics)
- [The Federal R&D Tax Credit for Startups: A Plain-English Guide](https://medianfi.com/resources/rd-tax-credit-guide)
- [Best AI Accounting for Startups: How to Choose](https://medianfi.com/resources/best-ai-accounting-for-startups)
- [AI Bookkeeping vs Traditional Bookkeeping Services](https://medianfi.com/resources/ai-bookkeeping-vs-traditional)
- [Median vs DIY QuickBooks: When to Switch](https://medianfi.com/resources/median-vs-diy-quickbooks)

## Head-to-head comparisons
- [Best Startup Bookkeeping Services, Compared Honestly](https://medianfi.com/compare/best-startup-bookkeeping-services): Pilot, Bench, Kruze, Finta, Haven, and Median side by side on price, close cadence, and what each is built for, with how to choose and where each one wins. Public figures as of September 2026.
- [Median vs Kruze Consulting](https://medianfi.com/compare/median-vs-kruze): AI-native bookkeeping posted every business day, priced by revenue band, vs a premium CPA firm for venture-backed C-corps.
- [Median vs Haven](https://medianfi.com/compare/median-vs-haven): Two modern AI-plus-human firms compared on close cadence, pricing model, and AI access.
- [Median vs Digits](https://medianfi.com/compare/median-vs-digits): Accounting software you run yourself vs a firm that runs it for you. Both are AI-native ledgers with MCP access. Digits runs $65 or $100 a month with a $250 tier listed as coming soon, and the difference is whether an accountant reviews the work and answers for it. Digits figures verified 2026-09-30.
- [Median vs Zeni](https://medianfi.com/compare/median-vs-zeni): Two AI-plus-human services compared on what the entry price buys, whether the ledger is portable QuickBooks or the provider's own, and close cadence. Both offer a read-only MCP server for Claude, and Zeni starts at $549 a month on top of QuickBooks Online Plus. Zeni figures verified 2026-09-30.
- [Median vs Burkland](https://medianfi.com/compare/median-vs-burkland): A CFO-led advisory firm for venture-backed startups vs an AI-native bookkeeping firm. Different budgets and different jobs. Burkland figures verified 2026-08-17.
- [Median vs Puzzle](https://medianfi.com/compare/median-vs-puzzle): The cheapest modern ledger here, and it is software you operate, vs a firm that operates it for you. Includes Puzzle's AI credit limits. Verified 2026-08-17.
- [Median vs inDinero](https://medianfi.com/compare/median-vs-indinero): A full outsourced accounting department from $750 per month vs daily bookkeeping on a flat fee set by your revenue band. inDinero figures verified 2026-08-17.
- [Median vs Fondo](https://medianfi.com/compare/median-vs-fondo): A Delaware C-corp tax and compliance specialist vs current books. Fondo's cheap plans buy annual or quarterly reporting, not current numbers. Verified 2026-08-17.

## Blog
Longer writing on running a company's finances in practice, published at [medianfi.com/blog](https://medianfi.com/blog). Every post is listed in the sitemap at https://medianfi.com/sitemap.xml and in the feed at https://medianfi.com/rss.xml, which are the current sources; the list is not repeated here because it changes.
- [Financial Operations](https://medianfi.com/blog/category/financial-operations): closing the books, categorization, reconciliation, and the systems around them
- [Startup Bookkeeping](https://medianfi.com/blog/category/startup-bookkeeping): what bookkeeping looks like before and after a first raise
- [Founder Financial Literacy](https://medianfi.com/blog/category/founder-financial-literacy): 409A valuations, equity, burn, and the vocabulary founders get asked to use
- [Tax Credits](https://medianfi.com/blog/category/tax-credits): the R&D credit and the other credits software and services businesses qualify for
- [Investor Readiness](https://medianfi.com/blog/category/investor-readiness): due diligence, reporting, and what investors check
- [Tool Stack and Integrations](https://medianfi.com/blog/category/tool-stack-and-integrations): QuickBooks, Xero, Stripe, Ramp, and the connections between them
- [SaaS Metrics](https://medianfi.com/blog/category/saas-metrics): MRR, churn, CAC, and payback measured off the ledger

## Contact
- Book a 20-minute intro: https://cal.com/jacob-sheldon/20-min-median-intro
- Create account (no card to see price): https://app.medianfi.com/signup
- Pricing: https://medianfi.com/pricing
- Email: hello@medianfi.com
- Website: https://medianfi.com

## Help Center and developer documentation

- Help Center: https://medianfi.com/help. Customer guides for sign-in, onboarding, connections, documents, reports and accountant questions.
- Developer documentation: https://medianfi.com/docs. Customer MCP setup, authentication, tool reference and troubleshooting. Access and client compatibility depend on account enablement.
- Customer MCP quickstart: https://medianfi.com/docs/mcp/quickstart. Authenticated, company-scoped, read-only connection at https://api.medianfi.com/api/v1/mcp.
- REST reports reference: https://medianfi.com/docs/api. Curated implementation reference for account-enabled read-only access; provisioning and support are confirmed with Median before use.
- Public utility tools: https://medianfi.com/docs/public-tools. The separate https://medianfi.com/mcp endpoint provides public tools and does not access customer books.