Catch Up Bookkeeping Services and Catch-Up Accounting for Overdue Books

Any gap beyond 1-2 months creates risk. If you're 3+ months behind, you lack visibility into cash flow, can't answer basic questions about profitability, and tax filing deadlines approach without clarity. We've caught 18-month backlogs, and the damage compounds, missed deduction windows, unclear profit/loss, inability to qualify for loans.

Tell us the filing deadline and the condition of the records. If the deadline has not passed, an extension may be available, but extending filing does not extend payment. If a deadline has already passed, discuss the late-filing position and next steps rather than assuming an extension can be filed retroactively.

After catch-up, agree who will maintain the monthly close. You can discuss a separate recurring bookkeeping engagement with Taxstra or arrange a documented handoff. Ongoing service is optional and is scoped separately.

Not necessarily. Bank and credit card statements are the source of truth. We reconcile everything back to your statements. Missing receipts for specific transactions get flagged, but bank data is comprehensive. You'll need to locate key documents (invoices, contractor 1099s, loan docs) and access to your bank accounts.

Ideally, no. We recommend pausing data entry and switching focus to QuickBooks Online during the catch-up phase. Dual entry creates chaos and duplicate work. Once caught up and current, we own ongoing entries.

That's common and manageable. We start from bank statements, rebuild the chart of accounts if needed, and verify every entry. Messy books take longer and cost more in cleanup fees, but we've rebuilt books from spreadsheets and zero records. Transparency on timeline and cost happens at discovery.

Stop trying to find every receipt and start from the bank and credit card statements: they are the complete record of what moved. Export the statements for every missing month, rebuild the transactions in QuickBooks Online month by month, reconcile each account as you go, and keep a running list of the handful of items you cannot classify. That order matters because reconciling as you go catches duplicates and missing months before they compound. Taxstra runs this same process with a team and a written scope, which is why a year of backlog is usually a matter of weeks rather than months.

File the extension first so the return is not late, then pay a reasonable estimate of the tax with the extension, because an extension gives you more time to file but not more time to pay. With the deadline handled, the catch-up work can be done in the right order instead of rushed into a return that will need amending. Taxstra prioritizes the months and accounts that drive the return, gets the books to a filing-ready state, and files from clean numbers.

Catch-up bookkeeping records months that were never entered at all: the transactions exist only on bank and card statements, and we build the books from those. QuickBooks cleanup fixes a file where the months were entered but the entries are wrong: miscategorized, unreconciled, duplicated, or tied to bad opening balances. Most overdue books need both, because the last months that were kept are usually the months that were kept badly. We scope both in the same diagnostic review.

It depends on months behind, monthly transaction volume, the number of accounts, and the condition of the existing file. As a typical market range, a business six months behind with moderate volume generally lands in the low four figures, and a year or more with payroll and commingled accounts runs higher. Those are industry ranges, not our price list. Taxstra quotes a flat project fee after a diagnostic review of the file.

Often, at least as a starting point. A per-month figure only works if the months are alike, and they rarely are: a month with payroll, loan activity, and commingled personal spending takes far longer than a month of clean card charges. Ask what a per-month quote assumes about volume and accounts, and what happens when the file does not match.