Cleanup and Catch-Up

Your Books Are Behind.
Let's Fix That.

Messy records, months of backlog, or books that have never been right. We work through what is broken and get you to a clean set of financials you can rely on.

What this service covers
Full bookkeeping cleanup and reconstruction
Bank and credit card reconciliations
Prior-period corrections and reclassifications
QuickBooks Online reorganization
Backlog bookkeeping by month
Handoff to monthly accounting or tax prep
The Real Problem

Behind on your books is not just an inconvenience. It is a liability.

When your books are behind or unreliable, everything downstream is affected. Tax prep takes longer and costs more. Lenders cannot evaluate you. Financial decisions become guesswork.

Most owners know their books are in bad shape but keep deferring it. The longer it goes, the more it costs to fix.

  • Months or years of transactions never properly categorized
  • Bank accounts never reconciled against the books
  • QuickBooks set up incorrectly from the start
  • Prior-year returns that may have been filed with bad numbers
  • No clear picture of what the business has made or spent

We have seen it all. We know how to work through it.

Duplicate transactions, unreconciled years, charts of accounts that make no sense, missing data going back multiple years. Cleanup is methodical work and we do it well.

We start with a diagnostic review so you know exactly what you are dealing with before committing to anything. From there, we work month by month until every period is closed and the numbers can be trusted.

The goal: books you can hand to a tax preparer, a lender, or a potential buyer with confidence.
What Is Included

Everything it takes to go from broken to clean

Scope varies by situation. Here is what we typically address depending on what your books actually need.

01

Diagnostic Review

We assess the state of your books before any work begins. You get a clear picture of what needs fixing and a proposal based on what is actually there.

02

Bank and Card Reconciliations

Every account reconciled against actual statements, period by period. Discrepancies investigated and resolved.

03

Transaction Categorization

Uncategorized, miscategorized, and duplicated transactions reviewed and corrected with a consistent chart of accounts applied throughout.

04

Prior-Period Corrections

If prior years were filed with incorrect numbers, we document what changed and why so your tax preparer has what they need.

05

QuickBooks Reorganization

If the file was set up incorrectly, we restructure it: chart of accounts cleaned up, vendors organized, settings corrected.

How It Works

We scope it first, so there are no surprises

1

Free Consultation

We discuss how far behind things are and whether we are the right fit.

2

Diagnostic and Proposal

We review your QuickBooks file and bank statements, then provide a fixed-scope proposal.

3

Cleanup Work

We work through the backlog period by period and flag anything that needs your input.

4

Handoff

Clean financials delivered with a summary of what was corrected. Transition to monthly accounting or tax prep if needed.

What Changes

Before and after cleanup

Before Cleanup
Accounts that do not reconcile with bank statements
Transactions dumped into miscellaneous or uncategorized accounts
P&L and balance sheet numbers you cannot trust
Tax prep that takes longer and relies on reconstructed records
No ability to get a loan, sell, or bring on investors
After Cleanup
Every account reconciled against actual statements
Transactions categorized consistently with a clean chart of accounts
Financial statements you can read and hand to others
Tax prep that starts from clean data and moves efficiently
Records ready for lenders, buyers, or ongoing monthly accounting
Who This Is For

For owners who know their books are broken and are ready to fix it

Cleanup is a one-time project. You bring us the mess, we work through it until the books are clean. What you do after that is up to you.

Most clients transition into monthly accounting after cleanup. But that decision happens after the work is done, not before.

  • Owners with months or years of backlog that has never been addressed
  • Anyone who has been doing their own bookkeeping and realizes the records are unreliable
  • Owners switching accountants and needing prior years cleaned up first
  • Businesses preparing to apply for a loan, sell, or bring on a partner
  • Books that were set up incorrectly from the beginning and have never been right

Also Worth Knowing

Cleanup is priced as a fixed-scope project after the diagnostic review. You will know the full cost before any work begins.
We work in QuickBooks Online. If your books are on a different platform, we can discuss what migration would involve.
We do not file amended returns as part of cleanup, but we document prior-period corrections so your tax preparer has what they need.
Most clients transition into monthly accounting after cleanup. We coordinate that handoff so there is no gap.

Not sure how bad the books actually are?

Start with a free consultation. We ask the right questions to get a clear sense of scope before anything else.

Get a Free Consultation
Get Started

The longer the books stay broken, the more it costs to fix them

A free consultation is the first step. We assess the situation and give you a clear picture of cost and timeline before any work begins.