What pre-season bookkeeping cleanup includes
- Bank and credit card reconciliations for every account, month by month, with unreconciled items listed
- Uncategorised and suspense transactions coded to the chart of accounts using your firm's rules, with unclear items queued as client questions
- Catch-up bookkeeping for months or quarters the client never recorded
- Loan and payroll clearing accounts reconciled to statements and payroll reports
- Owner draws, contributions and personal expenses flagged for your preparer to decide on, never reclassified by guesswork
- A trial balance and a cleanup memo listing the adjustments made, open questions, and items that need professional judgement
Cleanup that follows your firm's chart-of-accounts rules
Cleanup goes fastest when your firm writes its conventions down once: the chart of accounts structure you prefer, capitalisation thresholds, how to treat recurring ambiguous items, and what should always go to a preparer. Support staff apply those rules and flag the exceptions. Judgement calls with tax consequences stay with your team.
What your preparer receives at handoff
| Item | What your preparer receives |
|---|---|
| Reconciliation reports | One per account per period, tied to statements, with outstanding items explained |
| Adjustment log | Every reclassification and entry made, with reason and date |
| Open questions | A client question list, ready to send or already sent through your portal |
| Judgement items | Transactions left for your decision: capital versus expense, owner items, unusual receipts |
| Trial balance | Exported in your firm's format, ready for workpapers |
The trial balance is the starting point for tax workpaper preparation, which the same support team can pick up if you want.
What your firm provides
- Access to the client's accounting file, ideally as an accountant user your firm controls
- Bank and card statements, or access to the client portal where they're stored
- Your chart-of-accounts conventions and a short list of judgement items to leave alone
- A named reviewer for questions during the first batch
When to schedule bookkeeping cleanup
Before the season starts is best: late fall for year-round clients, and January for clients who only appear at tax time. Cleanup done in March competes with return preparation for the same review hours. The tax-season table on the home page shows where it usually fits.
Bookkeeping cleanup questions to ask
How is turnaround estimated?
By the number of accounts and months, transaction volume, and how far behind the books are. Ask for an estimate per client after a quick look at the file instead of a flat promise.
Can support staff contact our clients directly?
Only if your firm wants that. Many firms route client questions through their own portal or staff so the client relationship stays with the firm.
Does bookkeeping support continue after the season?
It can. Monthly bookkeeping keeps next year's cleanup small, and the same rules carry over.
Planning support for next season? Tell us your firm's volume, software and review process, and a service partner will reply with a proposed scope.
Request a scope