Cleanup & Catch-Up
Behind or messy? We get your books current and correct first.
There are two different problems, and most businesses have both. Catch-up means the books are behind, with months of transactions never processed. Cleanup means the books exist but are wrong: unreconciled accounts, duplicates, miscoded categories, off opening balances, or a balance sheet that doesn’t make sense. We handle both. We process old periods, reconcile every account, fix the coding, clean the chart of accounts, review AR/AP, correct the balance sheet, and validate the reports, so you can move forward on numbers you trust.
What’s included
What this service includes
- ✓Catch-up of behind or missing periods
- ✓Bank, credit card, and loan reconciliations
- ✓Re-categorization of miscoded transactions
- ✓Investigation of uncategorized & suspense items
- ✓Duplicate transaction and entry removal
- ✓Clearing Undeposited Funds and Opening Balance Equity
- ✓Chart of accounts review and de-duplication
- ✓AR and AP aging review and correction
- ✓Balance sheet review and adjusting entries
- ✓Validated P&L, balance sheet, and reconciliation reports
How a cleanup actually works
A proper cleanup follows a sequence. You can’t fix coding before accounts are reconciled, and you shouldn’t touch tax-filed periods casually. This is the path we follow.
- Diagnostic review: report the state of the books (no changes made)
- Protect prior periods: lock or adjust already-filed years
- Reconcile every bank, card, and loan account to statements
- Fix transaction coding and resolve uncategorized items
- Clean and de-duplicate the chart of accounts
- Review and correct AR and AP aging
- Fix balance sheet accounts and post adjusting entries
- Validate financials and hand off a clean baseline
How your fee is scoped
Cleanup engagements start at $750 and are finalized as a fixed quote from your free diagnostic. There is no hourly billing. A straightforward month often runs from about $300, but treat that as an example and not a formula: a single month with broken payroll postings, inventory, multicurrency, or historical balance-sheet problems can cost more than several clean months. The exact number reflects these drivers; you get one number upfront, before any work starts.
- How many months you are behind
- Average monthly transaction volume
- Number of bank, card, and loan accounts
- Condition of the balance sheet: unreconciled items, suspense balances, and payroll postings
- Complexity: inventory, multicurrency, sales tax, or multiple entities
Why cleanup comes first
Ongoing bookkeeping built on unreconciled accounts, miscoded history, or unexplained balances simply propagates the problem. Then it surfaces at the worst possible time, during a tax filing, fundraise, or audit. A proper cleanup resets the baseline so every month afterward starts from numbers you can trust.
Best for
New clients whose books are behind, were poorly maintained, or have never had a real reconciliation, before moving onto a monthly plan.
Start with a clean, reconciled baseline.
Run the free diagnostic and we’ll give you a fixed cleanup quote, starting at $750.