When bookkeeping falls behind or becomes messy, two focused approaches restore clarity and control: Clean Ups and Catch Ups. Each serves a distinct need and timeline; choosing the right one depends on the state of your records and your immediate goals. Click here to schedule a free consultation call to elect for a clean up or catch up.

What a Clean Up is

• Purpose: Correct errors, reclassify transactions, reconcile accounts, and align your books with accounting standards and tax rules.

• When to use: You have ongoing bookkeeping but notice inaccuracies, inconsistent categorization, uncleared reconciliations, or a messy chart of accounts.

• Typical scope: Review of current year (and sometimes prior year), bank and credit card reconciliations, categorization and reclassification, correcting payroll entries, adjusting depreciation, and preparing clean month-end reports.

• Timeline: Often completed within days to a few weeks depending on volume and complexity.

• Deliverable: Clean, reconciled ledgers; an adjusted trial balance; month-end financial statements; a list of recommended process improvements.

What a Catch Up is

• Purpose: Bring completely behind-the-scenes or severely outdated books up to date so you can produce reliable financial reports and meet tax or lender deadlines.

• When to use: Multiple months or years of transactions are missing, payroll and sales tax haven’t been recorded, or you need up-to-date statements for tax filings, loan applications, or management decisions.

• Typical scope: Importing and organizing historic transactions, bank and credit card reconciliations for each missing period, payroll and sales tax reconciliation and remittance tracking, catch-up journal entries, opening balance adjustments, and prior-period error corrections.

• Timeline: Weeks to several months depending on the length of the backlog and transaction volume.

• Deliverable: Current-period financial statements, a documented audit trail of catch-up entries, recommendations for avoiding future backlogs, and optional conversion to a clean bookkeeping process.

How we approach both

• Diagnostic review: Identify problem areas, risks, and deadlines.

• Prioritization: Address payroll, taxes, reconciliations, and any compliance-critical items first.

• Systematic work plan: Break the task into periods and assign milestones.

• Transparent documentation: Provide a clear list of adjustments, a summary of changes, and recommended controls.

• Communication cadence: Regular updates during the engagement plus a final walkthrough of the restored books.

Practical considerations

• Access: Provide online accounting access, bank/credit card statements, loan agreements, payroll reports, and past tax returns if available.

• Cut-off decisions: Agree on a start date for catch-up work and any reporting period boundaries to avoid scope creep.

• Records retention: Maintain copies of original source documents; we’ll return a reconciled file and backup.

• Preventing recurrence: Implement a monthly close checklist, categorize transactions consistently, set up automation where appropriate, and schedule periodic reviews.

We’ll set up your QuickBooks account or transition your business smoothly, accurately, and efficiently. Below is a clear, step-by-step plan we follow, what we need from you, typical timelines, and expected outcomes. Click here to schedule a free consultation call to elect for a set up in QuickBooks

What we do

• Review your current accounting system and business needs to determine the best QuickBooks product (Plus, Advanced or Enterprise) and chart of accounts structure.

• Clean up prior accounting data: reconcile bank and credit card transactions, correct historical errors, remove duplicate or obsolete accounts, and ensure consistent classifications.

• Set up chart of accounts tailored to your industry and reporting needs, including classes and locations if applicable.

• Configure customers, vendors, employees, payment methods, products/services, and sales tax settings.

• Migrate and import prior-period data: opening balances, trial balance, A/R and A/P aging, inventory, fixed assets, payroll history (if applicable), and supporting documents.

• Establish banking connections and automation rules for feeds, and set up bank and credit card reconciliation workflows.

• Implement internal controls: user roles and permissions, approval processes, and month-end procedures.

• Customize invoices, statements, estimates, purchase orders, and financial reports.

• Train you and your staff on daily workflows, best practices, and month-end close; provide written procedures.

• Provide post-conversion review and support: catch-up adjustments, tax-period readiness checks, and troubleshooting for 30–90 days.

What we need from you (typical)

• Recent financial statements (balance sheet, profit & loss) and last fiscal year-end trial balance.

• Access to current accounting system and data export (CSV, Excel, IIF, QuickBooks backup) or copies of ledgers.

• Bank and credit card statements for the current fiscal year and prior year (recommended 12–24 months for clean-up).

• Accounts receivable and payable listings, open invoices, vendor statements, and customer account details.

• Inventory counts and valuation method (if applicable), fixed asset list with purchase dates and depreciation, and sales tax IDs.

• Payroll records or payroll provider access, including tax filings and employee withholding records.

• Business formation documents, chart of accounts preferences, and any industry-specific requirements.

• A primary contact and decision-maker for approvals during the project.

Typical timeline

• QuickBooks Online new setup (simple): 3–7 business days.

• QuickBooks Online switchover (small business with clean records): 7–14 business days.

• QuickBooks Online switchover (cleanup required, moderate complexity): 2–6 weeks.

• QuickBooks Desktop or Advanced conversions, payroll migrations, and inventory-heavy transitions: 3–8 weeks. Timelines vary by data completeness, responsiveness, and complexity.

Deliverables

• Fully configured QuickBooks file or Online account with opening balances and reconciled accounts to the agreed start date.

• Cleaned and categorized transactions for the agreed look-back period.

• Set of standard financial reports (customized) and comparative statements.

• Documented accounting procedures and a short user manual tailored to your workflows.

• Training session(s) recorded for future reference.

Pricing (guideline)

• New account setup (simple): fixed fee to be determined.

• Switchover with minimal cleanup: fixed fee to be determined.

• Cleanup and full conversion (moderate to complex): time-and-materials or fixed-fee proposal based on scope.

• Payroll migration and setup: additional fee. We’ll provide a detailed proposal and quote after a brief discovery call.

Next steps

1. Schedule a free consultation call so we can assess your needs and provide a fixed proposal.

2. Provide the documents and system access listed above.

3. Approve proposal and project timeline.

4. We begin the conversion and keep you informed with regular progress updates.

Outcome you can expect

• Accurate, audit-ready accounting records from your chosen start date.

• Faster month-end closes and reliable financial reporting.

• Reduced manual entry through automation of bank feeds and recurring transactions.

• Clear, documented workflows for day-to-day bookkeeping and internal controls.

• Confidence that your books are ready for taxes, lending, or investor review.

To move forward, tell us whether this is a new setup or a switchover, the QuickBooks product you prefer (Plus, Advanced or Enterprise), during your free consultation call.