The Month-End Guy for game studios · Dallas-Fort Worth
A controller-level close, without the controller-level hire.
Close Crafters is a fractional controller for venture-backed game studios and technology companies: a CPA who owns the month-end close end to end. Reconciled books, clean revenue, and board-ready financials every month, at a fraction of what a full-time controller costs. One studio’s close went from twenty days to seven.
| Month 1 | Diagnose and document what exists today | Day 12 |
| Month 3 | Reconciliations standardized and reviewed | Day 10 |
| Month 6 | Recurring schedules and imports automated | Day 8 |
| Month 12 | Your time goes to review, not data entry | Day 5 |
Illustrative. Where you start depends on your systems and how clean the data is, and some closes will never land on day 5. Shorter every quarter is the promise; a specific date is not.
What you get
Everything a controller would own, without adding headcount.
One accountable CPA, a documented process, and a team behind it. You see the results in a close that finishes on schedule and numbers you can defend.
Month-end close ownership
A written close calendar, reconciliations across every balance sheet account, accruals and prepaids, fixed assets, and intercompany. Tied out and reviewed before it reaches you.
Revenue and deferred revenue
Subscription, platform, and usage revenue recognized on schedule under ASC 606, with deferred revenue rollforwards that reconcile to billing.
Reporting and analysis
A monthly financial package with variance commentary, headcount and spend analysis, and forecast models your leadership team and board can actually use.
Audit and tax support
PBC lists, auditor requests, tax accruals, and 1099 filings handled, so audit season runs on a schedule instead of a fire drill. Your tax CPA and auditors keep their roles; they just get cleaner books.
Systems and automation
NetSuite and QuickBooks Online, AP and expense tools, imports and scripts that replace manual entry, and AI-assisted checks that catch errors before the close, not after.
A team behind the CPA
Repetitive preparation is handled by a vetted, long-tenured offshore team working under CPA review. That is what makes controller-level ownership cost a fraction of a full-time hire. How that works.
How it works
Diagnose the close, own it, then automate it.
The same model has run a venture-backed studio's books since 2023. It is built to make each month shorter than the last.
Diagnose
A two-week review of your close, your systems, and your reporting. You get a written close calendar, a reconciliation status by account, and a ranked list of what to fix first.
Own
Michael runs the close as your controller. Vetted staff handle the repetitive preparation under his review, and he signs off on every number before your package goes out.
Automate
Each month, recurring work moves into imports, scripts, and AI-assisted checks. The close gets shorter, and your fee buys more analysis and less data entry over time.
The delivery model
One CPA accountable. A team behind him.
This is the part most firms are vague about, so here it is plainly. I own your close and review every number that reaches you. The repetitive preparation underneath it is done by a long-tenured team in India that I have worked with for years, under a written subcontract.
That structure is the whole reason this costs a fraction of a full-time controller. A controller in Dallas runs well over $150,000 fully loaded, and most companies at your stage do not have enough controller-level work to fill the seat. What they have is a lot of preparation work and a few hours a month that genuinely need a CPA. Splitting those two apart is the entire model.
You are not buying cheap labor. You are buying my judgment on top of capacity, priced so that you can afford the judgment.
- ReviewNothing reaches you unreviewed. I sign off on every reconciliation and every reporting package personally.
- ContinuityThe same named people on your account month to month, not a rotating pool. If someone becomes unavailable, the team is contractually required to supply a qualified replacement.
- ConfidentialityA written subcontract binding the team to strict confidentiality on your data for five years after it ends, plus mutual non-solicitation and non-circumvention terms.
- SecurityMFA and current endpoint protection are contractually required on every team login and device that touches your data, with a 72-hour security-incident notification obligation.
- Insurance$1M professional liability and $1M cyber, carried by Close Crafters, backing the whole engagement.
- Your callIf you would rather I do everything personally, say so. The fee is higher and the capacity is smaller, and for some engagements that is the right answer.
Who it's for
Built for venture-backed companies that need a real month-end close but are not ready for a full-time controller.
- Venture-backed game studios and technology companies, from seed stage through roughly $50M in revenue
- Running on a bookkeeper, a lean team, or a founder doing it at night, with no one who owns the close end to end
- Facing a first audit, a financing, a diligence process, or a new board that expects real monthly financials
- A CFO, VP of Finance, or founder who wants to stop being the controller and get back to running the business
- Companies moving to NetSuite, or already on it, that need someone who can run the close inside it
- PE-backed portfolio companies that need the same close discipline
A note for CPAs, fractional CFOs, and advisors
Close Crafters does not prepare tax returns and does not issue audit opinions. When a client of yours needs a monthly close owned properly, the tax relationship stays with you and you get clean, reconciled financials back every month.
The best referrals for me: a venture-backed client whose CFO or VP of Finance is still closing the books, whose controller just left, or who is heading into a fundraise or an audit with books that aren’t ready.
If that sounds like a client you have, let's talk.
Track record
Quiet, consistent work for companies that cannot afford surprises.
The monthly close at a venture-backed game studio, rebuilt to run itself and run by Close Crafters since 2023: systems implementation, revenue accounting, intercompany and consolidated reporting, runway forecasting, and audit and tax support.
Accounting, audit, and AP support for a NASDAQ-listed company, delivered by our offshore team.
NetSuite and QuickBooks Online in daily use, with imports, amortization schedules, and AI-assisted review built around each client's close.
About
Michael Dobe, CPA
Founder and Fractional Controller
Michael is a Texas CPA who got into games as an accountant at Gearbox, then joined a venture-backed game studio to bring its accounting in house from an outside firm. The close there was taking twenty days, with revenue data scattered across four systems and stitched together by hand. He rebuilt it to run itself and got it down to seven.
In 2023 he founded Close Crafters to give growing companies the kind of controller they usually cannot hire yet, and he still runs that studio’s close today. He spends most of his working hours in NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, and the spreadsheets in between. He has played games his whole life, so the niche is not a marketing decision.
His approach is simple: own the close personally, document everything, push repetitive work to a trusted team and to automation, and never let a number leave the building without a second look.
He works from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, with clients across the country.
Contact
Start with a 20-minute call.
Tell me about your close, your systems, and what keeps you up at month end. If Close Crafters is not the right fit, I will point you to someone who is.