A CPA for Sanford small business.
Tax preparation, monthly bookkeeping, and year-round planning for Sanford and Seminole County. Mount Dora–based, 30 minutes south via SR 46. Florida-licensed CPA. One person, books to return.
Sanford at a glance
Historic Waterfront Gateway City, and Seminole County’s engine.
Sanford sits on the southern shore of Lake Monroe, the third-largest city in the Greater Orlando MSA and the county seat of one of Florida’s fastest-growing small-business markets. Founded by Henry Shelton Sanford in 1870, incorporated in 1877, and home to a thriving Historic Downtown along a 4.5-mile RiverWalk, this is a city built for small business.
66,919
Residents (2024)
1877
Incorporated
4.5 mi
RiverWalk
1913
County Seat
Accounting services
For the brewery on Sanford Avenue, the contractor at SFB, and everyone in between.
Whether you run a craft brewery off 1st Street, a hospitality business along Lake Monroe, an airport-vendor LLC at SFB, or a service company billing into the Heathrow corporate corridor, here’s what I do.
Monthly bookkeeping
Real-time books. No shoebox.
Secure portal, bank integrations, and clean books reviewed by a CPA, not a bookkeeping mill. You see the numbers whenever you want.
Tax preparation
Federal, state, multi-state.
Individual and business returns, S-Corp, LLC, sole proprietor, partnership, prepared by a licensed CPA. Multi-state filings welcome; SFB and Heathrow clients often need them.
Startup advisory
Opening something in Sanford?
Entity selection, EIN registration, Florida sales-tax registration, bookkeeping setup, first-year tax planning, the structural decisions you only want to make once, made right.
The short answer
I’m a one-person CPA firm serving Sanford and Seminole County from my Mount Dora office, 30 minutes south via SR 46. Lake Mary is next door and gets the same engagement. I keep the books and prepare the return myself, and every client gets a secure portal with real-time dashboards and automatic bank sync. Each engagement is scoped for the business it serves, scoped on a discovery call. No other Seminole-area firm combines this technology with this level of personal attention.
Why local matters
Four things a Sanford business has to get right.
Seminole County Seat
A constant flow of business filings.
Sanford has been the Seminole County seat since 1913, courts, county admin, public records, real estate closings, and business filings all happen right downtown. That steady drumbeat of business formation is exactly the moment a new owner needs entity selection, EIN registration, and a bookkeeping system that does not need fixing in year two.
Craft Beverage & Hospitality
Restaurants, breweries, and the rules they actually have to follow.
Hollerbach's, four downtown breweries, Loggerhead Distillery, and a tightly packed restaurant cluster make Historic Downtown Sanford a Central Florida Ale Trail destination. That is sales tax, tip reporting, inventory accounting, and, for breweries and distilleries, federal excise tax compliance. I understand the accounting details specific to each one.
Heathrow / Lake Mary Corridor
High-income clients on Sanford’s south doorstep.
The Heathrow and Lake Mary corporate corridor, AAA national HQ, Fiserv, financial services, tech, sits right on Sanford’s southwestern edge. That means S-Corp owners, RSU holders, multi-state W-2 / consulting splits, and rental-property landlords. The kind of returns that reward proactive year-round planning, not a once-a-year filing sprint.
A Real Multimodal Hub
SFB, the Auto Train, and SunRail, all inside city limits.
Sanford is the only Florida city with an international airport (Orlando Sanford International), the southern terminus of the Amtrak Auto Train, and the northern terminus of SunRail. That ecosystem creates airport vendors, ground handlers, charter operators, and contractors with multi-state revenue, fuel-tax exposure, and complex business structures. I build books and tax plans that match.
Rooted in Sanford
A city worth building a business in.
Historic Downtown
Brick-paved streets along the southern shore of Lake Monroe, anchored by the 4.5-mile RiverWalk and a downtown reborn through the 2004–2014 streetscaping initiative. Restaurants, galleries, and the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center within walkable blocks.
Celery City heritage
Founded in 1870 by Henry Shelton Sanford as “The Gateway City to South Florida.” Built by Swedish settlers, sustained by celery farming after the Great Freeze, and shaped by Naval Air Station Sanford from 1942 to 1968. The history is in the streets.
A real multimodal hub
Sanford is the only Florida city with an international airport (SFB), the Amtrak Auto Train southern terminus, and SunRail’s northern terminus, all inside city limits. That kind of connectivity is unusual, and it shapes the businesses that thrive here.
What makes me different
Most Seminole County firms still run on paper. I built something different.
Most accounting offices in the area still operate on paper forms, phone calls, and once-a-year check-ins. I built a modern platform from scratch, and I use it with every client.
Secure client portal
Upload, view, track, from anywhere.
Documents, reports, and real-time financials accessible from any device. No email attachments, no fax machines, no lost paperwork.
Bank integrations
Transactions sync automatically.
Plaid-powered connections pull transactions nightly, so your books stay current without a shoebox of receipts or a manual data-entry pass at year-end.
Real-time dashboards
See your numbers whenever you want.
P&L, cash flow, and expense breakdowns available any day of the month, not just when I send a PDF. Curious in the middle of July? Log in.
Free financial tools
Calculators for the questions you ask yourself.
S-Corp savings, quarterly estimated tax, 1099 vs W-2 comparison, all free, no signup required. Run the numbers before you call me.
No other CPA firm serving Sanford offers this combination of CPA-level work and modern client tooling.
Services & pricing
Custom engagements, priced on a call.
Book a discovery call and I’ll walk your numbers with you, or explore the core services below.
Every engagement
Custom-built
scoped on your discovery call
Bookkeeping in Sanford
Looking for a Sanford bookkeeper? You already are.
Most Sanford small businesses end up paying twice, once for a bookkeeper, then again for a CPA at tax time to clean up the bookkeeper's work. I'm a Florida CPA who also does your monthly bookkeeping, so it's one person on both sides.
Books run on Forty Two Six, my in-house bookkeeping platform, no QuickBooks subscription. Custom engagement, scoped on a discovery call.
“Tim's depth of knowledge is apparent from the first meeting; he truly understands the complexities of business filings. What sets him apart is his efficiency — he streamlined the entire process and turned everything around much faster than expected.”
J Teran, Google Review
Questions I hear in Sanford
Frequently asked questions.
How much does a bookkeeper in Sanford cost?
As of 2026, in Sanford the going rate for an independent bookkeeper runs $200–$500 monthly, plus the $800-and-up a CPA usually charges to fix categorizations before filing. I combine both roles: the bookkeeping is done by the CPA, so there is nothing to clean up in March. Every engagement is custom, scoped on a discovery call.
Do you offer bookkeeping services near Sanford?
Yes. Mount Dora to Historic Downtown Sanford is about 30 minutes on SR 46, and I serve Sanford businesses daily through my secure client portal, encrypted documents, live dashboards, automatic bank feeds, with in-person meetings whenever they earn the drive.
What's the difference between a bookkeeper and a CPA in Sanford?
A bookkeeper records and categorizes transactions; a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is a state-licensed accountant who can also sign tax returns, represent you before the IRS, and provide tax strategy. In Sanford you can hire either one easily; hiring them in one person is the rare part. I keep the books monthly under my Florida CPA license (#AC62625) and sign the same numbers in the spring.
Do you have an office in Sanford?
My office is in Mount Dora, about 30 minutes southwest of Historic Downtown Sanford via SR 46. Most client work happens through my secure online portal, encrypted documents, real-time dashboards, and automatic bank sync, but I make the drive when an in-person meeting is the right call.
How much does a CPA cost in Sanford?
Every Sanford engagement is scoped individually. A downtown taproom and a Heathrow-corridor consultancy need very different work. Book a discovery call at timcpa.com/contact and I'll walk you through what the engagement would look like.
Do you work with breweries, distilleries, and restaurants in Sanford?
Yes. Sanford's craft beverage and hospitality scene, Hollerbach's, Sanford Brewing, Deviant Wolfe, Loggerhead Distillery, and the downtown restaurant cluster, comes with its own tax complexity: sales tax, tip reporting, inventory accounting, and federal excise tax for breweries and distilleries. I handle all of it.
Do you handle Florida sales tax and tip reporting for downtown Sanford restaurants and bars?
Yes, DR-15 sales tax filings, tip reporting and the FICA tip-credit math most operators leave on the table, and the inventory and cost-of-goods bookkeeping a working kitchen or taproom actually needs. Those three rails carry the whole downtown cluster, and getting any of them wrong is expensive.
Do you help with new Seminole County business startups?
Yes. I help new business owners with entity selection (LLC, S-Corp, etc.), EIN registration, Florida sales tax registration, bookkeeping system setup, and first-year tax planning. Sanford is the Seminole County seat, so most filings happen right downtown.
Ready for a Sanford CPA who picks up the phone?
Book a discovery call and we’ll go over your business. If I’m not the right fit, I’ll say so, and point you somewhere better.
Tim
More reading
Curious about costs? Read my complete guide: How Much Does a CPA Cost? with real pricing ranges for bookkeeping, tax preparation, and advisory services.
Behind on your books? See my catch-up bookkeeping guide. Run a trade or contracting business? See bookkeeping & taxes for Florida contractors. Based in Mount Dora, I also have pages for Eustis and the Lake County overview.
Timothy LeGendre CPA LLC | Florida CPA License #AC62625 (firm #AD72267) | Mount Dora, FL | (407) 417-1064 | Contact