Some QuickBooks cleanups are relatively straightforward: a few accounts have not been reconciled, transactions need to be corrected, or several months of bookkeeping need to be caught up. Others involve years of inconsistent entries, incorrect balances, duplicate transactions, improperly recorded loans or payroll, and financial statements the business owner no longer trusts.

Those situations should not cost the same. The useful question is not “What is the average QuickBooks cleanup price?” but how much work will it take to make your books accurate and usable again?

What Is QuickBooks Cleanup?

QuickBooks cleanup is the process of reviewing existing bookkeeping, identifying problems, correcting the records and bringing accounts to a point where the financial information can be relied upon.

Depending on the file, that can include reconciling bank and credit-card accounts, correcting transaction categories, resolving duplicate or missing entries, reviewing account balances, fixing improperly recorded activity and catching up months of unfinished bookkeeping.

What Determines the Cost of a QuickBooks Cleanup?

• How far behind the books are. One unreconciled month is different from a year or more of unfinished bookkeeping.
• Transaction volume. A business with a handful of monthly transactions creates a very different cleanup project from one processing hundreds or thousands.
• Number of accounts. Multiple bank accounts, credit cards, loans and other balance-sheet accounts can increase the work required.
• Quality of the existing records. Books that are simply behind are often different from books containing years of incorrect entries.
• Payroll and other integrations. Payroll, payment processors, ecommerce systems and other connected platforms can add complexity.
• Industry-specific accounting needs. Job costing, project tracking, restricted funds or other specialized requirements may require additional review.

Behind Is Not the Same as Broken

A company that simply stopped keeping up with bookkeeping may need catch-up work. A company that has been entering transactions incorrectly for a long time may need a more involved cleanup.

That distinction matters. Ten months of straightforward transactions that were never entered can sometimes be easier to correct than three months of complicated bookkeeping that was entered incorrectly.

Can You Quote QuickBooks Cleanup Without Reviewing the Books?

A reliable quote usually requires enough information to understand the scope of the problem. Transaction volume, number of accounts, how far behind the bookkeeping is and the types of issues involved all matter.

Be cautious about assuming a flat advertised cleanup price will apply to every business. A small service company with one checking account is not the same project as a contractor with payroll, credit cards, loans, subcontractors and job-costing issues.

What Happens After the Cleanup?

Cleanup should not just produce cleaner historical records. It should create a reliable starting point for the future.

Once the books are current and accurate, the business can move into a consistent monthly bookkeeping process so the same problems do not accumulate again. Capacity provides both bookkeeping cleanup and catch-up services and ongoing QuickBooks bookkeeping services.

Should Your CPA Clean Up QuickBooks?

Your CPA and bookkeeper serve different but complementary roles. A tax professional may identify problems while preparing a return, but ongoing transaction-level cleanup and reconciliation is bookkeeping work. Keeping the books accurate before tax time can also give the CPA cleaner information to work with.

The goal is not to replace your tax professional. It is to make sure the records you provide are organized, reconciled and useful.

Why QuickBooks Expertise Matters

QuickBooks is powerful, but it will faithfully produce reports from whatever information has been entered—even when that information is wrong. A cleanup therefore requires more than knowing where the buttons are.

Capacity’s team includes Certified Elite QuickBooks ProAdvisors and has experience untangling bookkeeping problems for businesses with very different levels of complexity.