Portland, Oregon-based bookkeeping and cash-flow coaching for small businesses — so you know where your money is and where it's going. Working in your business is easy to love. Someone's also got to work on it.
Book a free 15-minute consultationWorks with 
QuickBooks, 
YNAB, and 
REI Hub (property management accounting).
Services
A clear read on your numbers and what they mean for your business.
Reliable financial reports delivered on a rhythm that works for you.
Timely tax payments and organized year-end reports for your tax preparer.
Payroll and customer invoicing handled accurately and consistently.
Stay ahead of vendor bills without losing track of cash flow.
Careful tracking and reconciliation of funds held in trust.
Property finances organized with experience in REI Hub, plus fluency navigating Buildium-managed properties.
Your bookkeeper
Eric Fair-Layman has been bookkeeping in Portland since 2022 and running Equalizer Bookkeeping since 2024. Before that, he taught science and math — and at 13 helped his mother write what became a best-selling Algebra 1 textbook.
Eric brings that same lifelong love affair with numbers to small businesses across real estate, landscaping, textiles, restaurants, and more. Numbers explained, never assumed.
FAQ
The Smoking Gun
My sister, who runs Brooklyn Bookkeeping and trained me in this field, taught me that the numbers rarely lie — a close look at the books is often the fastest way to find what's actually wrong in a business, from simple mismanagement to outright theft. AKA. the smoking gun. Too many bookkeepers cut corners, leaving messes that make it even harder for a struggling business to recover and thrive. I don't take shortcuts, and I ask questions about anything that looks off, because tracking your money accurately is the foundation of getting it right.
Here's a real situation I once inherited: employees were tossing all the money into one shared pot and paying for everything out of it — partial invoice payments with no follow-up, no receipts, no tracking, the occasional unexplained cash withdrawal. A client claimed they'd been overbilled, but there was no way to even check. We dug through receipts, built spreadsheets from scratch, called vendors directly, and pieced it back together — in the process, we found tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices the business didn't know it was owed, and helped it become profitable again. If there's a way to untangle it, I'll find it.
No, not that kind of Equalizer. No ex-special-forces past, no 3am calls to action — just a ledger where both sides finally agree, so you always know where your money is. Get your business equalized
(former math teacher plus being a father equals bad math puns)
There's an old saying: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Wave and FreshBooks are popular QuickBooks alternatives, but they don't have the depth to handle much beyond a solopreneur-sized business. For bigger portfolios with more complexity, Xero and QuickBooks are usually the better bet. I can quickly figure out what your business actually needs after a consultation.
Buildium is great for leasing, rent collection, and tenant records, and I navigate it regularly. Its accounting module, though, isn't something I rely on for real bookkeeping — I keep the actual books in cleaner software like REI Hub or QuickBooks, working inside Buildium alongside it for the parts it's genuinely good at. If you have just a few properties and only one bank account for business operations, Buildium's accounting can be sufficient — however, more complex portfolios usually need to find third-party accounting software.
Onboarding
01
Start with a free 15-minute call to see whether we're a good match.
02
Review your books together and develop a plan; the first hour is free.
03
Receive a clear service agreement and rates for your approval.
04
Set access, communication, timing, and expectations for the work ahead.
In their words
"Eric is magical! I came to him with a unique bookkeeping situation and he adapted to it with no problem. He's SO talented and a joy to work with. He even proactively reached out to me with ideas about how I can make my business even more efficient. He's a dream!!!"
Scott WienerOwner, Scott's Pizza Tours (NYC)
"I have worked with bookkeepers and accountants for over 25 years in my own business and organizations I've consulted with. My standards are high, and Eric is top notch! He tracks details and keeps things clean by using smart processes. When the inevitable happens, he's quick to find a solution, explains what happened, and proposes a way forward — with a sense of humor. This is truly rare, and so relieving. Last year was the smoothest tax prep year in 20 years! If you need someone to help keep your financial world organized and relate to you with kindness and understanding, he's your next bookkeeper."
Carri MunnOwner, Circle Generation
"The 'business' part of owning a small business is so much more than just money, or books, or payroll etc. It can be emotionally difficult and confusing. It was SO important for me to have someone that I felt an interpersonal rapport with and felt comfortable sharing that complicated aspect of the business with. Eric had grace, compassion, experience and good humor. Lots of people can keep books but far fewer can also be a business cheerleader at the same time. I highly recommend Eric!"
Rachel IveyOwner, Room to Grow Daycare
Ask me about Profit Coaching
A simple, disciplined system for paying yourself first, setting money aside for taxes before they surprise you, and treating profit as its own line item — not whatever happens to be left over at the end of the month.
Pro tip: if you're waiting for money to be left over, you have it backwards.
Start with a free 15-minute call to talk about your business and see if Equalizer is a good fit.
Schedule consultation(confidence-inspiring graphic)
Pricing
Every business's books look different, so the exact rate comes after the free "deep dive" consultation call where we look at yours together — you'll leave that call with a clear, fixed monthly quote, not a guess.
Already running something other than QuickBooks? I'm glad to learn whatever software your business already uses, on my own time, so it costs you nothing extra.
Nonprofit? Do-Gooder? Ask about discounted rates for your organization.
After the books are balanced and organized, with all the moving parts in your business, you might not see the profit you can take. This is a separate offering to help you set aside your money before it's spent.
Sometimes creatives and solopreneurs just need a little help getting their books on track. For example, one client I see sporadically just wants a second pair of expert eyes on things before she sends her numbers to her CPA. Reach out if that sounds like you.