Cleanup
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. As a small business owner, you need precise financial statements to make informed decisions and accurately gauge your business’s performance.
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!
First Steps
During a financial cleanup, an experienced bookkeeper will start by generating preliminary financial statements before diving into the cleanup process. A quick review of these reports allows them to identify major issues and prioritize their work.
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 gather insurance policy details to verify coverage and payment dates, as well as the most recent business tax return to ensure everything is up to date.
Diagnostic Review
From the preliminary financial statements, an experienced bookkeeper can quickly identify if something seems “off” and investigate further. Common issues include transactions being incorrectly categorized or appearing on the wrong financial statements. By working closely with the business owner, the bookkeeper will ask detailed questions to fully understand the business and pinpoint problem areas.
They will also review your chart of accounts to ensure accounts are set up properly, eliminating any duplicates, and ensuring everything is mapped correctly. Similarly, product and service lists will be checked to verify that they are properly configured.
To improve the accuracy of your reports, all expenses should be assigned to Payees and bill payments should be applied against bills, not just logged as checks or expenses. Similarly, all payments received should be matched to Customers and applied to invoices, rather than simply recorded as bank deposits. This attention to detail will help clean up both your accounts payable and accounts receivable, giving you a clearer picture of your financial health.
Getting to Work
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.
At Cape May Counting House, we have extensive experience in financial cleanups. Our team works closely with you to ensure your financial reports are as accurate and detailed as possible.
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 two 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. 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 option includes having an experienced bookkeeper handle your monthly bookkeeping, perform monthly reconciliations, perform a 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.
