Behind on the books, or not sure the numbers in them are right? Catch-up bookkeeping fills in the months that were never recorded. A cleanup fixes the months that were recorded wrong. Both end in the same place: every account reconciled to the bank, and financial statements you and your CPA can trust.
Months that were never recorded. Transactions sit in the bank feed, uncategorized, with nothing reconciled.
Months that were recorded wrong. Miscategorized transactions, duplicates, and balances that don't match the bank.
A bit of both. A few months skipped, a few done in a hurry, so the two get scoped together as one project.
One of these is a quick fix. Several at once usually means the problem goes back months, and it tends to surface right when a tax deadline, a loan, or a fundraise forces the question.
The software can be QuickBooks, Xero, or a spreadsheet. The steps are the same.
Four things set the size of the job:
A rough rule of thumb is about 4 hours of work for every month of backlog. The catch-up cost calculator turns that into a directional number for your situation. A real quote comes after someone looks at the actual books.
Timing depends less on the work and more on the documents. Missing statements and unanswered questions about old transactions are what usually slow a cleanup down, so gathering them first is the fastest way to finish.
Before tax season is the best time to start. A return is only as accurate as the books behind it, and a cleanup that begins before year-end has time to finish before filing deadlines.
Staxiom is an accounting team built by founders, investors, CPAs, and startup people, and the team includes former Big 4 accountants. We get your books current first, then keep them that way with monthly bookkeeping, so there's never another backlog to clear. Monthly plans start at $200/month; see every plan.
Already have a CPA? Keep them. We hand them reconciled books at tax time. See how we work alongside your CPA.
A cleanup fixes books that exist but are wrong: miscategorized transactions, duplicate entries, accounts that don't reconcile to the bank, and balances nobody can explain. The goal is a ledger where every account ties out and every number on the P&L and balance sheet can be trusted.
Catch-up bookkeeping fills in months that were never recorded. A cleanup corrects months that were recorded badly. Most backlogs need some of both, which is why the two usually get scoped as one project.
It depends on how many months are behind, how many bank and card accounts are involved, how many transactions each month carries, and how much was recorded wrong rather than not at all. A rough rule of thumb is about 4 hours of work for every month of backlog. The catch-up cost calculator turns that into a directional number for your situation, and a real quote comes after someone looks at the actual books.
The work itself scales with the number of months and accounts. The bigger variable is usually documents: missing bank statements, receipts, and answers about unclear transactions. A cleanup moves as fast as those come back.
Yes, if you can. A return is only as accurate as the books behind it, and a CPA working from a spreadsheet in March has to either rebuild the year or file from numbers nobody has checked. Starting a cleanup before year-end gives the work time to finish before filing deadlines.
Yes. A cleanup ends with reconciled books and financial statements your CPA can file from. Many businesses keep the CPA they already trust and hand off only the bookkeeping.
Without a monthly routine, books drift back to where they started. The usual next step is monthly bookkeeping: transactions categorized, accounts reconciled, and the month closed on a schedule, so there's never another backlog to clear.
Answer three quick questions, then book a free intro call with the bookkeeping team.