Catch-up & cleanup
Three years of receipts in a truck console is a starting point.
Not a problem, and not something I have not seen before. If your books are months or years behind, or QuickBooks has become a file nobody wants to open, this is the service that fixes it.
What this actually looks like
Nobody is going to be told off
Books fall behind for ordinary reasons. Work got busy, the bookkeeper left, the software stopped matching how you actually run jobs. Every file I open is somewhere on that spectrum and none of it is interesting to me except as a starting position.
You get the number before the work, not after
The file review is free. When I have seen what is in there you get a single fixed quote to bring it current. Not an hourly rate, not a range that moves, and not an invoice at the end that is bigger than the conversation suggested.
The point is a file you can use, not a tidy one
Reconciled accounts are the floor. What makes the cleanup worth paying for is coming out the other side with job costing that works, so the year you just reconstructed can actually tell you which jobs made money.
What gets fixed
Every account reconciled, not just the operating account
Bank, credit cards, lines of credit, loans. A file where only the main checking account ties out is a file that is still wrong.
Miscategorised and duplicated transactions
The usual finds: owner draws booked as expenses, the same invoice entered twice, transfers recorded as income, and a chart of accounts that grew a new category every time somebody was unsure.
Job costing rebuilt from what is already there
This is the part most cleanups skip. Material invoices and labour usually carry enough information to be allocated back to jobs after the fact, which means the year you just paid to reconstruct is worth something beyond a tax return.
1099 exposure identified before January
Who you paid, how much, and whether they should have been on a 1099 or a W-2. Finding that in a cleanup is far cheaper than finding it in an audit.
A file your CPA can file from
The end state is a clean set of books handed over without a rebuilding exercise first, which is the thing your CPA is quietly charging you for.
How it works
- 1
Send the file
Your QuickBooks Online file, or read-only access to it. If you are on Desktop or spreadsheets, send what you have and I will tell you honestly whether moving is worth it.
Free. No obligation.
- 2
I tell you what is in there
What reconciles, what doesn't, how far back the problems go, and what it would take to make the file usable. In plain language, not an accountant's list.
- 3
One fixed quote
A single number to bring it current, agreed before any work starts. If you decide not to go ahead, you still keep the review.
- 4
Then a monthly rhythm, if you want one
Cleanup is a one-off. Most people who go through it move onto monthly bookkeeping afterwards, because the expensive part was getting current and staying current is the cheap part.
Questions I get asked
How far behind is too far behind?
There is no such thing. Years behind is a bigger job than months behind and the quote reflects that, but the work is the same work. The review tells us how big it is before you commit to anything.
Why a flat quote instead of an hourly rate?
Because an hourly rate makes my incentive the opposite of yours, and because you cannot budget against it. “About forty an hour” tells you nothing until the invoice arrives.
A fixed number means the risk of the file being worse than it looked sits with me, which is where it belongs, because I am the one who looked at it.
Will you tell my CPA how bad it was?
Your CPA gets clean books and a summary of what changed, because they need that to file correctly. They do not get commentary. Frankly they have seen worse and they will mostly be relieved.
Do I have to switch software?
No. If you are on QuickBooks Online we work in what you have. If you are on QuickBooks Desktop I will give you a straight answer about whether moving is worth it, and mid-year it often isn’t.
What happens after the cleanup?
Nothing automatically. Some people take the clean file and carry on themselves. Most move to monthly bookkeeping so it does not happen again, which is cheaper than doing this twice.
Start with the file review
It costs nothing, it takes a couple of days, and you will get a straight answer about what shape your books are in. If they are fine, I will tell you that too.