When you can’t trust the accuracy of your company’s financial records, it’s a clear sign that it’s time for a cleanup. You need accurate financial statements to make informed business decisions and correctly gauge your performance. This is especially true for small business owners who handle their own bookkeeping.
If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “My books are a mess!” then it’s time to bring in a professional bookkeeper. Relying on inaccurate financial data can hold back your business’s growth and may even hurt your chances of securing financing. Don’t let messy books stand in the way of your success!
At Cape May Counting House, we have extensive experience in bookkeeping cleanups. Our team works closely with you to ensure your financial reports are as accurate as possible.
First Steps
During a bookkeeping cleanup, one of our experienced bookkeepers will review the results of the Diagnostic Review and develop a plan of attack for your Cleanup. They will generate financial statements to use as a baseline before diving into the cleanup process.
Next, they will request key documents such as bank, credit card, loan, and mortgage statements. These records help ensure all transactions are accurately recorded in the accounting software and that there are no duplicate entries. They will also request insurance policy details to understand policy periods and payment dates. The most recent business tax return will also be needed to ensure your QBO account is reflecting what your most recent business tax return shows. This usually comes up when your accountant or tax preparer reports deductions on your return but didn’t provide that information to your bookkeeper, such as for depreciation.
Getting to Work
Once we have all the required supporting documentation, we can get to work! Using the Diagnostic Review as a guideline, we will address and correct the issues from that review. Prompt responses from you to our questions and concerns will make the Cleanup move along more quickly.
As you can see, cleanups can be both time-consuming and costly. Depending on the availability of source documents and the responsiveness of everyone involved, a cleanup project can take weeks or even months. However, don’t let this discourage you from getting your books in order. The longer you wait, the more complicated the situation can become, requiring even more time.
When you’re ready to start cleaning up your books, contact us. We’d be happy to discuss how we can help and determine if we’re the right fit for your needs!
Once Your Cleanup is Complete
A cleanup is a detailed process, as we work to address various problem areas to ensure your books are accurate and organized. Once your cleanup is complete, Cape May Counting House offers a few options for ongoing support to keep your finances in top shape.
Option #1: Reconcile
Our basic service, Reconcile, allows you to have your monthly bank, credit card, and loan statements reconciled. This option is best for businesses who already have experienced and competent bookkeepers working in-house on their account and just need someone to reconcile their bank, credit card, and loan accounts. No other services are included in this option.
Option #2: Bookkeeper+
Now that your books are organized, you can boost your business up a notch with our Bookkeeper+ service. This is our premium option which includes having an experienced bookkeeper handle your monthly bookkeeping, perform monthly reconciliations, perform a basic, monthly financial statement analysis, work with you to identify specific metrics to monitor, help create workflows, provide training, and be available as a bookkeeping advisor and troubleshooter. If you have internal accounting staff, we may recommend some tasks be handled in-house to minimize the potential for duplicating work.
Option #3: Quarterly Review
If you are satisfied with your existing in-house bookkeeper but just want an external bookkeeping professional to look over your books on a quarterly basis, this option is for you. We will review certain sections of your QBO account, pull some reports, and provide feedback to you as to what we found that seems amiss. With this service, we do not modify your books in any way, this is simply a review. You can then review our recommendations and provide them to your in-house bookkeeper for review and consideration.
