Catch-Up & Clean-Up Bookkeeping
Behind on your books? You are not alone, and you do not need to feel guilty about it. Running a business is hard enough without adding bookkeeper to your job title. Whether you fell behind three months ago or three years ago, the anxiety of knowing your financials are a mess can weigh on every decision you make.
We specialize in digging into the backlog, untangling the mess, and delivering clean, accurate, tax-ready books. No judgment. No lectures. Just a clear path from chaos to clarity so you can stop dreading your inbox and start making confident financial decisions again.
Signs You Need a Catch-Up
If any of these scenarios sound familiar, it is time to stop putting it off and let a professional take this off your plate.
You are months (or years) behind
You promised yourself you would do the books every Sunday evening. That lasted about two weeks. Now it has been eight months and you have a shoebox of receipts, a bank account you have not reconciled since last spring, and a growing sense of dread every time you think about it. The longer it goes, the harder it feels to start, so you keep putting it off another week.
DIY bookkeeping went sideways
You watched a few YouTube tutorials, connected your bank feed to QuickBooks, and figured you had it handled. Six months later you realize half your transactions are duplicated, your categories are a mess, and your profit and loss statement says you made negative forty thousand dollars last quarter. Our expert team untangles DIY bookkeeping disasters every week.
Your accounts do not reconcile
You log into your accounting software and the bank balance shows one number, but your actual bank account shows something completely different. You have tried to figure out where the discrepancy is, but after three hours of scrolling through transactions you are more confused than when you started. Something is wrong and you cannot pinpoint what.
Tax season is bearing down on you
Your CPA just sent you a reminder that they need your financials by March 1st. It is now February 10th and you have not categorized a single transaction from the entire year. You are staring down an extension filing or worse, an inaccurate return based on incomplete books. The clock is ticking and the stress is compounding daily.
Your previous bookkeeper left a mess
You trusted someone else with your books and they let you down. Maybe they disappeared mid-year, or maybe you just discovered that the work they did was full of errors. Transactions are in the wrong accounts, reconciliations were never actually completed, and now you are paying to fix someone else's mistakes. It is frustrating, but it is fixable.
You need clean books for a loan or investor
The bank wants two years of financial statements before they will approve your line of credit. An investor wants to see your profit margins before writing a check. But your books are a disaster and you know they will not survive scrutiny. You need clean, professional-grade financials and you need them fast.
Our 5-Step Catch-Up Process
A proven, systematic approach to getting your books current, no matter how far behind you are.
Free Assessment
Everything starts with a conversation. We review your current situation, find out what accounting software you are using (or if you are using any at all), check what bank and credit card access you have, and determine exactly how far behind your books are.
This call typically takes 20 to 30 minutes. By the end of it, we will have a clear picture of the scope of work and can give you an honest timeline and flat-rate price for the entire catch-up project.
There is no obligation and no pressure. If we are not the right fit, we will tell you that too.
Document Collection
We send you a simple checklist of everything we need: bank statements, credit card statements, loan documents, 1099 forms, receipts for major purchases, and access credentials for your accounting software. We know this part can feel overwhelming, so we prioritize and guide you through it.
If you can get us online access to your bank accounts, we can often download the statements ourselves and save you the hassle. The goal is to minimize the work on your end so you can stay focused on running your business.
We start working as soon as we have the core documents. You do not need everything gathered before we begin.
Reconstruction & Reconciliation
This is where the real work happens. We go through your books month by month, categorizing every transaction, reconciling every account, and fixing every error we find along the way. Duplicate entries get removed. Miscategorized transactions get corrected. Missing transactions get entered.
We reconcile each bank account and credit card to the penny against your statements. If something does not match, we track down the discrepancy and resolve it. No rounding, no fudging, no unresolved differences.
Throughout this process we may reach out with questions about specific transactions we cannot identify from the bank description alone. We keep these questions batched and organized so we are not interrupting your day constantly.
Financial Statement Generation
Once the reconstruction is complete, we generate a Profit & Loss statement and Balance Sheet for each period in the catch-up. These are the reports your CPA needs for tax preparation, your bank needs for loan applications, and you need for understanding how your business is actually performing.
We review these statements with you so you understand what they mean and can ask questions. Many clients are surprised by what they learn when they finally see accurate numbers for the first time.
All reports are formatted, organized by period, and ready to share with your CPA, lender, or business partner.
Transition to Monthly Service
Getting caught up is only half the battle. Staying current is how you actually benefit from clean books. Once your catch-up is complete, we offer a seamless transition to our monthly bookkeeping service so you never fall behind again.
Because we already know your business, your accounts, and your chart of accounts from the catch-up work, the handoff is completely smooth. There is no onboarding period, no learning curve, no repeating yourself to a new person.
If you prefer to hand the clean books off to your CPA or manage them yourself going forward, that works too. We will make sure everything is set up for success either way.
Common Problems We Fix
We have seen it all. Here are the specific issues we clean up most often during catch-up projects.
Duplicate Transactions
Bank feeds and manual entries creating the same transaction twice, inflating expenses and making your books unreliable. We identify and remove every duplicate.
Personal & Business Mixing
Using the same card for business lunches and groceries creates a tangled mess come tax time. We separate personal and business expenses cleanly so only legitimate deductions end up on your books.
Incorrect Depreciation
Assets that were never set up for depreciation, wrong useful life estimates, or depreciation that was never recorded at all. We correct asset records and get depreciation schedules right.
Missing 1099 Contractor Payments
Paying contractors without tracking who got what creates serious tax compliance risk. We identify all contractor payments and organize them so 1099 filing is straightforward.
Uncategorized Transactions
Hundreds of transactions sitting in "Uncategorized Expense" or "Ask My Accountant" make your financial statements meaningless. We categorize every single one properly.
Bank Feed Import Errors
Broken bank connections, partial imports, and transactions that downloaded multiple times. We clean up the feed history and ensure every transaction is accounted for exactly once.
Incorrect Opening Balances
If your books were set up with wrong opening balances, every report you have generated since then is inaccurate. We trace back to the root, correct the opening balances, and ensure everything flows correctly from that point forward. This is one of the trickiest problems to diagnose, but it is something we see regularly and know how to fix.
Timeline & Pricing
Every catch-up project is different. Here is what you can generally expect based on how far behind you are.
Typical Timelines
- 3-6 months behind: Typically 1-2 weeks. Straightforward catch-up with relatively fresh data.
- 6-12 months behind: Typically 2-4 weeks. More reconciliation work required but still manageable.
- 1-2 years behind: Typically 4-6 weeks. Significant reconstruction work, but we have done this many times.
- 2+ years behind: Custom timeline based on your specific situation. We will build a phased plan.
Project-Based Pricing
Every catch-up project is quoted as a flat fee so you know exactly what you will pay before we start. Pricing depends on:
- Number of months to catch up
- Transaction volume per month
- Number of accounts to reconcile
- Complexity and extent of cleanup needed
Need it done before a tax deadline?
We offer priority scheduling for clients facing IRS deadlines, audit responses, or loan application timelines. Rush projects are priced slightly higher to account for the accelerated schedule, but we will always be upfront about the cost before we start. If you are under a deadline, mention it during your free assessment and we will let you know exactly what is possible.
Most catch-up projects range from $500 to $3,000 depending on scope. We will give you an exact quote after reviewing your situation during the free assessment. No surprises, no hidden fees.
Get Your Free QuoteFrequently Asked Questions
Answers to the questions we hear most often from business owners who are behind on their books.
From Catch-Up to Monthly: Stay Current Forever
The biggest risk after a catch-up project is falling behind again. That is why most of our catch-up clients transition directly into our monthly bookkeeping service. The transition is seamless because we already know your business inside and out from doing the catch-up work.
With monthly bookkeeping, your transactions are categorized and reconciled every month. You get financial statements delivered on a predictable schedule. You always know where your business stands financially, and when tax season arrives, your CPA gets a clean, organized set of books without the annual scramble.
Clients who move from catch-up to monthly service also receive a discount on their first three months as a thank-you for trusting us with both the cleanup and the ongoing work.
Learn about Monthly BookkeepingStop Avoiding Your Books
The longer you wait, the harder it gets and the more it costs. Every week you put this off is another week of transactions piling up, another week of financial uncertainty, and another week closer to the next tax deadline.
Let us take this off your plate. Book a free assessment today and find out exactly what it will take to get your books clean, current, and working for you instead of against you.