Catch-up bookkeeping

How long does it take to catch up two years of bookkeeping?

Most two-year catch-ups land inside 15 to 20 business days, because we run the months in parallel once source documents are in. It was never 24 sequential one-month jobs. What really drives the timeline is how quickly the client's bank statements and receipts for the missing period can be gathered, not the number of months.

What a catch-up usually looks like

Months showing a flat zero balance because nothing was ever booked

Flagged: Never entered

A transaction list pulled straight from the bank feed, every row still marked "For Review"

Flagged: Bank-feed only

Accounts that have never once been matched to a bank statement

Flagged: No reconciliation

Invoices, receipts, or a prior bookkeeper's file that needs gathering before work can start

Flagged: Records missing

This is a different starting point from cleanup. There's no existing categorization to correct, because there's no existing categorization at all. That's exactly what makes the parallel timeline possible: nothing to untangle, only source documents to enter.

Is catch-up bookkeeping worth it if I'm three years behind?

Usually yes. Three years behind is roughly 36 months of backlog priced per month rather than one alarming project fee, and because we work them in parallel it never takes three years to fix three years. Most engagements this size still land inside four to six weeks. The cost of leaving a client behind is usually a lender, a buyer or a filing deadline that won't wait, and that tends to be the bigger number.

Which months get done first

Whichever months your firm needs soonest, usually the most recent quarter, because that's what a lender or a landlord or a loan application is asking about right now. Everything else runs behind it in parallel instead of waiting for the oldest month to finish first. That's the opposite order most people expect, and it's the reason a multi-year catch-up doesn't take years.

If there's a specific deadline, whether that's a tax filing, an SBA loan underwriting request or a due diligence data room, tell us before work starts. We'll schedule that month or quarter against your date instead of queueing it behind the rest of the backlog.

Who this is for

Client files with real bank and card statements for the missing period, even if nothing was ever entered from them. A restaurant that has run three years on a spreadsheet next to QuickBooks. A contractor whose bookkeeper left and was never replaced. If the source documents exist, we can enter the backlog however long it's been.

It's not the right fit if the months in question were entered at all, even badly, since that's cleanup and it's priced lower because there's less to build from nothing. It's also not the right fit for a client still deciding whether to use QuickBooks, which is a new file setup first.

What's included

• Every missing month entered from the bank feed and the client's source documents, categorized to the file's actual chart of accounts.
• Every account reconciled to the statement balance for each month brought current, starting from the last known good balance where one exists.
• Open items list of invoices, bills or transactions we can't classify without an answer, sent to your firm as one batch instead of a drip of one-off questions.
• A closing trial balance for the period, ready to hand to a tax preparer or lender the day it's finished.

What has to be gathered

Bank and credit card statements for the full backlog period. QuickBooks' bank feed typically only reaches back 90 days, so older months usually need statements downloaded straight from the bank. Beyond that: accountant-level QuickBooks access, any payroll reports for the period, and loan or lease agreements if the client carries debt. After the file review we send your firm a specific, numbered list instead of a generic checklist.

What happens on day one

We request access the day you agree to the engagement, then inventory exactly which months are missing what. Some are missing everything, some just need reconciling. You get a month-by-month plan back with the document list for each, and work starts on whichever months already have statements attached, so the earliest months are never left waiting on the latest ones.

Why the bank feed alone usually isn't enough

QuickBooks' bank feed typically only pulls transactions from the past 90 days at connection time, so a catch-up reaching back further almost always needs statements downloaded straight from the bank, usually from its own online portal and sometimes by request if the account has been closed. This drives how long a catch-up takes more than transaction volume does, and it's the one part of the schedule that depends on the client rather than on us.

Some banks make historical statements genuinely hard to reach, charging a fee per statement or capping how far back an online account shows. Where that happens we flag it specifically instead of letting it quietly stall a month's worth of work.

How you'll know it's actually done

Each missing month moves through the same three states, statements gathered then transactions entered then account reconciled, tracked as a count of months still open instead of one end-of-project report:

What about payroll and loan payments in the missing months?

Payroll runs are entered from the client's payroll provider reports rather than reconstructed from the bank feed alone, since a single net-pay deposit hides tax withholding and employer contributions that need their own accounts. Loan payments get split between principal and interest using the lender's amortization schedule instead of being booked as one flat expense. That shortcut is common in files nobody entered correctly the first time, and correcting it is one of the more consequential things a catch-up does to the reported profit.

If this isn't quite the file

If the months are all present but wrong, not missing, that's cleanup, not catch-up. Once the file is current, keep it that way with monthly bookkeeping, or hand a clean year to the client's tax preparer through the CPA handoff pack. Every offer and every number is on the pricing page.