The judgement-free catch-up: what to do when you haven’t looked at your books for six months.
Unexpectedly, you've gotten behind.
It’s easy enough to do - the busy season hits and you’ve got a million promises to fulfill. Everything else is back-burner. Materials are purchased, jobs are completed, you’re rocking and rolling!
But when things finally quiet down, you turn and face the pile of bookkeeping that’s accumulated. Details are foggy. Nothing totally makes sense. And everything takes twice as long when you’ve put off dealing with it. A few weeks has turned into six months, and now you officially need a professional bookkeeping clean-up.
But don’t worry! It happens more often than you think, and it can be fixed. That's where SWIFT comes in.
The good news: your business is successful and busy! Everything else can be managed.
In the grand scheme of things. you're in a fantastic position if your business is busy. The bookkeeping crisis will be a thing of the past soon enough, and then your books will be rock solid moving forward.
Do you need a 'clean-up' or a 'catch-up?'
Here is how we identify what you need.
The 'catch-up.'
If you normally keep pristine books that are reconciled monthly, but simply fell behind for a few months, that’s considered a ‘catch-up.’ When the bookkeeper opens this set of books, the Balance Sheet is in balance, the transactions are correctly categorized, and everything is in order. They just need a few extra month’s worth of bookkeeping.
The 'clean-up.'
If you have had a lot of hands in your books, or have guessed a lot at categorizing and where to put things, that’s a clean-up, and it’s a bit more complicated, because sets of transactions will need to be reclassified to the correct accounts, and the details of each entry will need to be confirmed as accurate.
When you open a set of messy books, it’s best practice to check all of the details.
What happens to your books?
Here's the process for each workflow.
Process for a 'catch-up'
Each month that requires bookkeeping goes through the same process.
The transactions and receipts are uploaded to Quickbooks, and checked for accuracy.
The bank feeds are downloaded for the same time period.
The accounts are reconciled.
Reports are run and sent.
The books are closed.
Process for a 'clean-up'
We establish your opening balance from your last filed tax return.
All transactions are reviewed, corrected and verified for accuracy.
All receipts are confirmed as acceptable evidence.
Journal entries are made as needed, in coordination with your CPA.
The accounts are reconciled.
Reports are run and sent.
The books are closed.
What happens once your books are all caught up and cleaned up? (Hint: set it and forget it.)
If you turn your bookkeeping over to a pro, you're buying peace of mind, efficiency, informed decision-making and all of that time you used to spend tracking money. And best of all, you're elevating your business and positioning it for a whole new level of success.
You'll get apps to handle your receipts and mileage, accounts fully reconciled, and accurate, informative monthly reports.