Bookkeeping & Accounting
Monthly reconciliations, AP/AR, and financial statements in QuickBooks, Xero, Sage 50 or Zoho Books, reviewed by a US-based manager.
Messy books, fixed. However far back.
Messy books? We will fix them, however far back
Behind on bookkeeping, or inherited a mess from the last person? We reconcile the backlog, reclassify what was miscoded, rebuild the chart of accounts, and hand you back financials you can file from. Fixed price, not hourly.
Books cleanup, also called catch-up bookkeeping, brings a neglected or incorrect set of accounts back to an accurate, filable state. That means reconciling the backlog, correcting miscoded transactions, fixing the bank feed and rebuilding the chart of accounts where necessary. Veris quotes a fixed price after a free 48-hour diagnostic, and most cleanups complete in 2 to 4 weeks.
What's included
The full scope of books cleanup
Everything below is in the standard engagement. If something you need is not here, say so on the call and we will price it in or tell you it is out of scope.
- Books diagnosticA written assessment of what is missing, miscategorized or unreconciled, and how far back the problem actually goes. Delivered within 48 hours.
- Reconciliation catch-upEvery bank and credit card account reconciled from the point things went wrong to today.
- Transaction reclassificationMiscoded transactions found and corrected so your P&L stops lying to you about where the money went.
- Bank feed cleanupDuplicates removed, broken rules fixed, and the uncategorized pile emptied properly rather than dumped into Ask My Accountant.
- Chart of accounts rebuildRestructured where the existing one makes accurate reporting impossible.
- Historical financial statementsCorrected P&L and balance sheet for every period covered by the cleanup.
How it works
The process, start to finish
- Give us read accessRead-only access to QuickBooks or Xero, plus bank statements for the period. Nothing changes in your file at this stage.
- Get a diagnostic and a fixed quoteWithin 48 hours you get a written diagnostic and a fixed price. If it is going to take longer than the usual 2 to 4 weeks, we say so in the quote.
- We clean upSystematic work through the backlog with progress updates, and questions batched rather than emailed at you one at a time.
- Move onto monthlyOptional. Once you are current, monthly bookkeeping keeps you there. Plenty of clients stop at the cleanup, and that is fine.
What you receive
- A written books diagnostic and fixed-price quote
- Fully reconciled accounts through the cleanup period
- Corrected historical P&L and balance sheet
- A list of what was wrong and what we changed
- A tax-ready file your CPA can work from
Who this is for
- Businesses months or years behind on bookkeeping
- Owners who inherited a file from a departed bookkeeper
- Anyone facing a filing deadline with unusable books
- CPA firms clearing cleanup work off their own desks
Before you send us anything
How we handle your data
The same controls apply to every engagement, whether you are a sole trader or a 40-partner firm.
- Encrypted file transferClient files move over encrypted channels. Nothing sensitive travels as an email attachment.
- Role-based accessStaff see only the engagements they are assigned to. Access is revoked the day it is no longer needed.
- NDAs and DPAs as standardA mutual NDA and a data processing agreement are signed before the first file moves, not after the pilot goes well.
- US-managed reviewA US-based manager reviews work before it reaches you. The review layer is the product, not a courtesy.
How much does catch-up bookkeeping cost?
It is quoted as a fixed price after a free diagnostic, and the number is driven by three things: how many months are affected, how many transactions sit in those months, and how much of what is already recorded is wrong.
That third driver is the one people underestimate. Twelve months of nothing recorded at all is often cheaper to fix than six months recorded badly, because unwinding incorrect entries takes longer than making correct ones. A file where everything landed in Uncategorized Expense is straightforward; a file where transactions were coded confidently and wrongly, with reconciliations forced to balance, has to be taken apart first.
We look before we commit to a number. You give us read-only access, we return a written diagnostic and a fixed price within 48 hours, and the diagnostic is yours whether or not you go ahead. We do not bill cleanups hourly, because hourly billing on a cleanup means the messier your books are, the less certainty you get about the cost, which is exactly backwards.
Want a rough range before you talk to anyone? Our catch-up bookkeeping cost calculator gives typical market ranges from four questions and shows its method in full. It is not a quote, and the diagnostic is what fixes the price.
How do you know your books need a cleanup?
If more than one of these is true, the file needs work before it can be filed from or relied on:
- Bank or credit card accounts have not been reconciled for two or more months.
- There is a balance sitting in an "Uncategorized Expense", "Ask My Accountant" or suspense account.
- The balance sheet shows a negative bank balance, or an accounts receivable figure you do not recognize.
- Retained earnings changed for a closed prior year.
- Your P&L shows revenue in a month you know had none, or duplicate expenses in the same week.
- A bookkeeper left and no one has opened the file since.
- Your CPA has asked the same clarifying question three times.
How far back can a cleanup go?
As far back as the underlying records exist. Multi-year cleanups are normal work for us, and we have no cut-off after which we stop being interested.
The real limit is record availability, not willingness. Most banks retain statements online for 12 to 24 months, after which they have to be requested, and some charge per statement. Where a period genuinely cannot be reconstructed, we say so in the diagnostic and tell you what the gap means for filing. We will not invent entries to make a file balance, which is the one thing that turns a bookkeeping problem into a tax problem.
Primary sources referenced on this page
Books Cleanup: questions we get asked
How far back can you go?
As far back as the records exist. Multi-year cleanups are routine. Where bank records are no longer retrievable we tell you what cannot be reconstructed rather than inventing entries to make the file balance.
How long does a cleanup take?
Typically 2 to 4 weeks. Larger or older backlogs take longer, and the timeline is stated in the fixed-price quote before you commit. Rush turnaround is available where a deadline requires it.
How is it priced?
Fixed price, quoted after the 48-hour diagnostic, based on transaction volume and how many periods are affected. Not hourly, so the number does not move because the work turned out to be harder than expected.
Will you judge how bad it is?
No. Most cleanups start with someone apologizing. Nothing you send will be the worst we have seen, and the diagnostic is a work plan, not a report card.
Related
What usually goes with this
Year-End Reporting
Closing entries, general ledger reconciliation, annual financial statements and a handoff package your tax preparer can file from.
Tax Preparation
US (IRS) and UK (HMRC) return preparation across every entity type, plus Canadian GST/HST filings and CPA white-label prep.
Get a fixed quote for books cleanup
Book a free 30-minute call. We will scope the work, quote a fixed fee, and tell you honestly if a different service is the better fit.
- +1 (929) 600-0884
- info@verisfinancials.com
- We reply within one business day