Biotech & Life Sciences Accounting in San Diego
Clear runway numbers, grant spending you can defend, and investor reporting your board trusts, while your scientists stay focused on the science.
Most early-stage biotech companies spend for years before they earn meaningful revenue. Cash comes from equity rounds, convertible notes and non-dilutive grants, and it goes out to lab space, CRO contracts, supplies and highly paid scientific staff. The question that matters every month is how long the money lasts. Answering it well depends on books that separate research costs from general and administrative spending, track each grant on its own terms, and reflect commitments to vendors before the invoices arrive.
Skyward runs accounting and finance for biotech and life sciences companies across San Diego County, from our office in Escondido. We keep your books in QuickBooks Online with classes for programs, grants and departments, close every month on a consistent schedule, and deliver statements, burn analysis and budget-versus-actual reports in Excel or Power BI. Your team shares invoices, contracts and approvals through a secure Karbon portal, so nothing important lives only in someone's inbox and the record behind every number is easy to find.
Scientific teams bring their own HR demands. Compensation is often weighted toward stock options, offer letters reference vesting schedules, and recruiting competes with much larger employers in the region. Our HR team keeps offer letters, onboarding, policies and personnel records consistent, supports benefits administration, and helps you stay current with California employment rules as headcount grows. Engagements run on a fixed monthly fee, which makes finance one of the few lines in your budget that does not move.
Services we typically run
- Fractional CFO
- Forecasting & Budgeting
- Outsourced Accounting
- Financial Reporting & Dashboards
- Outsourced HR
What we handle
The realitiesof your sector.
01
Knowing your true burn rate and runway
A bank balance divided by last month's spending is not a runway. We calculate burn from reconciled books, adjust for lumpy items like annual license fees and milestone payments, and layer in signed commitments to CROs and suppliers. You get a runway figure your leadership and board can rely on, along with scenarios showing how hiring or study timing changes the date you need to raise.
02
Tracking SBIR and NIH grant costs
Federal awards come with cost principles, allowable and unallowable categories, and documentation expectations that ordinary bookkeeping does not cover. We set up each award as its own class or project, code direct costs as they are incurred, and track spending against the approved budget. When it is time for a drawdown request or a progress report, your principal investigator has the supporting detail ready.
03
Capturing R&D costs for your CPA's credit study
Research credits depend on documentation assembled long after the work is done unless someone captures it as it happens. We tag research wages, supplies and contract research expenses consistently throughout the year and keep records organized by project. We do not prepare or file credit claims, but your CPA or credit specialist receives clean, well-supported cost data rather than a year of reconstruction.
04
Investor and board reporting
Boards and investors want the same core numbers every quarter, presented consistently: cash, burn, runway, spending by program and progress against the operating plan. We build a reporting package that pulls straight from your closed books, so it is ready within days of month-end rather than assembled in a rush before each meeting. Consistent reporting also makes diligence far easier when the next round begins.
05
HR for equity-heavy scientific teams
When much of a scientist's compensation is equity, offer letters, grant approvals and personnel files need to agree with each other and with your cap table records. Our HR team keeps those documents consistent, manages onboarding and terminations properly, and supports benefits administration. Equity plan design and securities questions stay with your attorney, and we make sure the paperwork they need is complete.
FAQ
Questions,answered plainly.
How do you calculate cash runway for a pre-revenue biotech?
We start from reconciled monthly spending, separate one-time items from recurring burn, and add committed future costs such as signed CRO work orders and lease payments. Then we model scenarios for hiring plans, study timing and grant income. The result is a forecast that shows when cash runs short under each plan, which is the number your board will ask about first.
Can you manage the accounting for our SBIR or NIH grant?
Yes. We track each award separately, code direct costs as they occur, monitor spending against the approved budget, and prepare the financial detail your team needs for drawdowns and reports. We work alongside your grants administrator or principal investigator. Any required audits or formal compliance reviews are performed by an independent CPA firm, and we keep records ready for them.
Do you file R&D tax credit claims?
No. Skyward is not a CPA firm and does not prepare tax returns or credit claims. What we do is capture research costs throughout the year, tagged by project and category, so your CPA or credit study provider has organized, reconciled data to work from. That usually makes their work faster and the support behind the claim stronger.
When does a biotech startup need a fractional CFO?
Common triggers are preparing for a priced round, taking on a first significant grant, building an operating plan for the board, or reaching the point where the founders are spending evenings in spreadsheets. A fractional CFO gives you forecasting, investor reporting and financial strategy without the cost of a full-time executive, and can scale up as the company does.
What does biotech accounting with Skyward cost?
We charge a fixed monthly fee set by scope, for example the number of grants, entities and reporting requirements, and whether fractional CFO or HR support is included. Engagements start with a six-month initial commitment and continue month-to-month after that. Contact us for a quote, and we will scope it against your current stage and plans.
Services
Built forbiotechnology & life sciences.
- Strategy
Fractional CFO
Strategic finance without a full-time salary: cash-flow forecasting, budgets, KPIs, board and lender reporting, pricing analysis and a finance function built to scale.
- Strategy
Forecasting & Budgeting
Annual budgets, rolling forecasts, scenario planning and financial projections for launches and fundraising, built in models your team can understand and use.
- Finance
Outsourced Accounting
A full accounting department without the overhead: classifications, reconciliations, AP and AR support, month-end close and reporting, delivered by one steady team for a fixed monthly fee.
- Finance
Financial Reporting & Dashboards
Monthly statements, budget versus actual by department, AR and AP aging, weekly cash reporting and KPI dashboards in Power BI, Excel or Google Sheets.
- People
Outsourced HR
Comprehensive oversight of HR practices, policies and procedures: onboarding, compliant terminations, contractor classification under AB5, payroll support and audit-ready records.
Ready to take yourbusiness Skyward?
Tell us where your finance and HR operations stand today. We'll map out what fixed-fee support would look like — usually live within about a week.