QuickBooks setup, catch-up and cleanup

Which one do you need?

People use these words for the same thing, but they're three different jobs. Once I've looked at your actual file, I'll tell you which one fits.

What setup includes

• A company file built around how your business actually runs, not the default template.
• A chart of accounts trimmed to what you need, so every transaction has an obvious home.
• Your bank and credit card feeds connected, with rules so repeat transactions sort themselves.
• Your customers, vendors, and products or services entered.
• Opening balances from a clean start date, matched to your bank statements.

Moving over from QuickBooks Desktop, Xero or a spreadsheet? We'll decide together how much history is worth bringing along and how much to leave behind. Sometimes a fresh start from a clean date is the better choice.

What catch-up looks like

I start from your last reconciled month, or from your opening balances if there isn't one, and work forward one month at a time. I reconcile each month to your bank and card statements before I move on, so a mistake in March can't hide inside June. If I find a transaction I can't identify, I ask you. I don't guess.

When I'm done, you get financial statements for every month I caught up, and your books are ready for monthly bookkeeping.

What cleanup looks like

You may need cleanup if any of these sound familiar:

• The Profit & Loss doesn't look like your year.
• Large balances are sitting in Uncategorized Income, Uncategorized Expense or Ask My Accountant.
• The bank balance in QuickBooks doesn't match your bank.
• Opening Balance Equity has a balance, or Undeposited Funds is holding deposits from years ago.
• The same transaction shows up twice, once from the bank feed and once entered by hand.
• Credit card payments were recorded as expenses.
• Personal spending is mixed in with business spending.
• Your CPA keeps sending questions back.

I go through your file account by account and fix what's wrong. I keep a list of what I changed and why, so you and your CPA can see it.

How I price it

I price each one separately, because no two businesses need the same amount of work.

Setup is priced by how complicated your business is: how many accounts you have, whether you're moving from other software, and how much history comes along.

Catch-up and cleanup I never quote from a conversation. You give me access to your file, or send me your reports, and I take a look. Then I give you a fixed price, set per month behind or per month affected.

One-time work is paid for before I start. Once your books are current, monthly bookkeeping starts at $350 a month to keep them that way.

What I'll need from you

• Access to your QuickBooks file, if you have one. For QuickBooks Online, that means inviting me as an accountant user.
• Bank, credit card and merchant statements for the months we're working on.
• Your last filed tax return, or your tax preparer's final numbers, if you have them.
• A note about anything unusual, like a new bank account, an owner draw or a big purchase.

Your accounts stay yours. I never hold signature authority or move money.