Bookkeeping cleanup and catch-up services for books that fell behind

Bookkeeping clean up services are priced as one flat project fee, based on the size of the backlog, not billed by the hour. Two things drive the fee: how many months are open and how many accounts need reconciling. We quote after a free look at your actual file. The fee is fixed, so it holds even if the work turns out messier than it looked.

Most bookkeeping catch-up projects take 3 to 15 business days. One quarter with working bank feeds can take a few days. Two or three years across several accounts, with missing statements, sits at the long end. The finish date is written into the quote, so you know it before you agree. For a three-year file, here is a real eleven-day timeline, day by day. Our guide explains what moves a file toward 3 days or toward 15.

There is no limit on how far behind the books can be. We often take on files two or three years behind, files a past bookkeeper left mid-year, and businesses bought with no usable records. The IRS generally expects you to keep records for at least three years, so older gaps can still matter at tax time. Fischman Asphalt came to us six months behind, with no reconciliations done.

Catch-up fills in work that was never done, while cleanup fixes work that was done wrong. In a catch-up, months of transactions sit uncoded and unreconciled. In a cleanup, entries exist but are miscoded, doubled or unreconciled, so the reports cannot be trusted. Most real files need both, so we quote cleanup and catch up bookkeeping services as one project. To tell which one your file needs, read catch-up vs. cleanup bookkeeping.

A bookkeeping cleanup covers entering missing transactions, coding them correctly, reconciling every account and fixing wrong balances. We also clear the usual problem accounts, such as Uncategorized Expense, Undeposited Funds and Opening Balance Equity. The chart of accounts gets merged and tidied. You get corrected statements for each period, a change log and a file your CPA can use.

Yes, we can fix messy books for taxes as long as the deadline is realistic, and we confirm that before you commit. Tell us the date on the first call. If we cannot make it, we will say so rather than take the work and miss. Your CPA can then file an extension, such as Form 7004 for a business return. An extension moves the filing date, not the date tax is due.

Send bank, card and loan statements for every open month, plus access to your accounting software. Payroll reports, sales tax filings and last year's tax return help too. If statements are missing, we list exactly which ones to request from your bank. You do not need to sort receipts before we start. Here is the full documents list, with where to get each one.

Yes, but it is optional and quoted on its own. Many clients take the corrected file back and keep it themselves. Most move to our outsourced bookkeeping service, because a clean file tends to drift within a couple of quarters when nobody closes it. The cleanup price does not depend on that choice.