Guides for getting caught up
Most bookkeeping advice assumes you are current and want to stay that way. These guides assume you are not, and start from there.
They are arranged roughly in the order a person who is behind needs them. If you are deciding whether to do anything, start with how far behind is too far. If you have a date, start with what your preparer needs and the extension guide. If you want to know what hiring this out costs before reading anything else, start with the cost guide.
What a QuickBooks Cleanup Costs (2026)
What small businesses pay for a QuickBooks cleanup or catch-up in 2026: ranges by size and months behind, what moves the number, deposit and retainer.
How Far Behind Is Too Far? What a Catch-Up Can Recover
What can be rebuilt from bank statements, processors, payroll providers and IRS transcripts, how far back records exist, and what cannot be recovered.
Catch-Up vs. Cleanup: Which One You Need
The difference between books that were never done and books that were done badly, how to tell which you have, and why most backlogs are some of each.
What Your Tax Preparer Needs From Your Books, and By When
The year-end package a preparer needs for a sole proprietor, S corporation or partnership, the filing and extension dates, and what to send if not ready.
The Seven Mistakes Behind Most QuickBooks Cleanups
Undeposited Funds, doubled bank feeds, deposits as income, loans as expense, owner draws, sales tax, Opening Balance Equity: the symptom and fix for each.
The QuickBooks Cleanup Checklist
A step-by-step checklist for cleaning up a QuickBooks Online file: what to check, in what order, which tools to use, and where to stop and hand it over.
Filing an Extension With Real Numbers Behind It
An extension is more time to file, not to pay: what that means for penalties, why a bank-based estimate beats a guess, and finishing by the new date.
Bookkeeping for Unfiled Years: Rebuilding From the Bank
How books are rebuilt for unfiled years: what the IRS already knows, the records that anchor each year, the order of work, and the handover to tax.
Reading because a deadline is closer than the books are? The quickest way to find out whether the date is reachable is to have someone who does this all week look at the statements. The first conversation is free.
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Where to start, depending on your situation
The guides answer different questions and the titles do not always make it obvious which applies to you, so here is the short version.
The books were never done
Read how far behind is too far, then the unfiled-years guide if there are returns outstanding. Both explain what can be rebuilt from the bank and what the IRS can supply for years you have nothing for.
There is a QuickBooks file and you do not trust it
Read the seven mistakes, then the cleanup checklist. If you recognise three or more of the seven, catch-up versus cleanup will tell you which kind of project you are looking at.
A deadline is coming
Read what your preparer needs, then the extension guide. An extension is more time to file, not more time to pay, and the second half of that sentence is what the guide is about.
You want to know what this costs
The cost guide gives ranges by size and months behind, what moves a project from one end to the other, and how the deposit, retainer and monthly fee fit together.