Service
Catch-up bookkeeping for months or years behind
Behind on your books? We rebuild prior months in order, reconcile every account and hand you filing-ready financials with a fixed quote up front.
The short answer
- Catch-up bookkeeping rebuilds past periods in order so each month's ending balances become the next month's starting point.
- Price is normally quoted per month behind and depends on transaction volume, account count and how much documentation exists.
- Most six-month catch-ups finish in two to four weeks; multi-year cleanups take longer because of missing statements.
- Do catch-up before starting monthly service, or the new work inherits old errors.
Why order matters
You cannot reconcile March until February is right. We work forward from the last month that was truly reconciled, so every closing balance carries into the next month and errors do not compound.
The complexity assessment
Before quoting, we count transactions, accounts, loans and payroll periods, and check whether statements and receipts exist. That is what makes a fixed quote possible instead of an open-ended hourly bill.
- Number of months open and the last reconciled date
- Bank, credit card, loan and merchant accounts
- Transaction volume per month
- Payroll, sales tax and inventory complexity
- Availability of statements and receipts
Missing documents, handled once
We build a single chase list per period instead of emailing you every day. Where a document truly cannot be found, we document the treatment so your CPA sees the reasoning rather than a hole.
What you get at the end
Reconciled accounts for every catch-up month, a clean balance sheet, profit and loss by month so trends are visible, and a written summary of the corrections we made.
Typical results we see
Typical catch-up length
8 months
Median for new catch-up clients
Turnaround
2–4 weeks
For six months with documentation available
Corrections per month
31
Median count of reclassifications
Nine months behind, two bank accounts and three cards
- Months rebuilt
- 9
- Transactions processed
- 3,140
- Accounts reconciled
- 5
- Misclassified transactions corrected
- 287
- Personal spending moved to owner draws
- $21,600
- Deductions recovered
- $14,900
What this tells you: The recovered deductions more than covered the catch-up fee, which is common when personal and business spending were mixed.
What you see inside LedgerDude
What you see when the work is done: one page with your money on it.
How catch-up bookkeeping works
- 1
Assess
We measure volume, accounts and documentation to score complexity.
- 2
Quote
You receive a fixed written price per catch-up month before work starts.
- 3
Rebuild
We rebuild each month in order, reconciling as we go.
- 4
Chase
One batched document request per period fills the gaps.
- 5
Deliver
Filing-ready financials plus a summary of every correction.
Real example
Two years behind and a tax deadline in five weeks
Where they started: An owner had filed extensions twice and had no reconciled account since the prior spring.
What we did: We assessed complexity, quoted 22 catch-up months and rebuilt them in order while chasing statements in batches.
How it ended up: Filing-ready financials were delivered with nine days to spare, and monthly service started clean.
22
Months rebuilt
9 days early
Delivered
7
Accounts reconciled
What is included
- Complexity assessment and a fixed written quote
- Month-by-month rebuild in chronological order
- Full reconciliation of every bank, card and loan account
- Missing document chase list, batched not drip-fed
- Filing-ready year-end financials for your CPA
Quoted per month behind, after a free complexity assessment.
Questions people ask
How much does catch-up bookkeeping cost?
It is normally quoted per month you are behind, at a rate close to your regular monthly fee. Volume, account count and missing documentation move the price, which is why we assess before quoting.
How long does catch-up take?
Six months of reasonably documented activity usually takes two to four weeks. Multi-year cleanups take longer, mostly because of chasing statements.
What if I lost receipts?
Bank and card statements substantiate most spending. For anything material without documentation we record the most defensible treatment and note it for your CPA.
Keep reading
Monthly bookkeeping, closed by the 10th
Every transaction categorized, every account reconciled, one short list of questions and a close package you can read in five minutes.
QuickBooks Online cleanup and diagnostic
Fix a QuickBooks file that no longer ties: bad reconciliations, a bloated chart of accounts, negative inventory, wrong opening balances and duplicate transactions.
Financial reporting that answers questions
Dashboards, trends and a written executive summary each month, so you know what changed, why, and what to do about it.
All services
Everything we can take off your plate.
Pricing
Flat monthly plans based on your revenue.
Industries
How we set the books up for your kind of business.
Want your books handled for you?
We read your receipts, match your bank activity, and close your books every month. You get one short list of questions and a dashboard that always tells the truth.