Catch-Up Bookkeeping
Too Busy for Bookkeeping?
Many small business owners fall behind on bookkeeping, with some dedicating just 10 hours a month to managing their books. Nearly 70% of small business owners do not have an accountant which contributes to the backlog. – World Metrics
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!If you are like most business owners, you’re probably in the same boat. Running a small business comes with endless responsibilities pulling you in different directions, and keeping up with bookkeeping often takes a back seat.
Without accurate bookkeeping, key financial statements like your income statment and balance sheet won't reflect your business' true financial position, making strategic decisions harder.
- Better Books
- Better Business
- Better Results
Better Books Better Decisions
Better books mean better business—and we prove it every month.
Falling behind on your books can lead to problems, especially come tax season, when obligations need to be met but your books are in disarray. This can lead to missed tax deadlines and potential IRS fines and penalties.
What is Catch-Up Bookkeeping?
Catch-up bookkeeping is the process of updating and organizing your financial records when they’ve fallen behind. Whether it’s been a few months or even a few years, catch-up bookkeeping removes the bookkeeping backlog, restores clarity to your business’s finances, and helps with tax season preparation.
This is NOT Catch-up Bookkeeping
Catch-up bookkeeping isn’t a quick fix for messy financial management. While it gets your records in order, it’s not a replacement for consistent, ongoing bookkeeping. Think of it as a necessary step to correct your financial course and set you up for proper bookkeeping habits moving forward.
Catch-Up Bookkeeping Is Important
Accurate financial records are the foundation of any successful business. Falling behind on bookkeeping doesn’t just create extra paperwork—it can lead to missed opportunities, costly tax penalties, and poor decision-making.
Signs Your Books Needs Catching Up
Unreconciled Bank Accounts
If your bank statements don’t match what’s recorded in your financials, that’s a clear red flag. Unreconciled accounts can lead to discrepancies that distort your financial reports, making it difficult to understand where your business truly stands.
Pile of Unrecorded Transactions
A backlog of receipts, unpaid invoices, or unrecorded payments is a sure sign that things have fallen behind. The longer this pile grows, the harder it becomes to manage, and the more likely you are to miss important details.
Missed Tax Deadlines
If you’ve struggled to meet tax deadlines or filed incomplete returns, it’s a strong indicator that your financial records need attention. Catch-up bookkeeping helps organize your financials and ensures you stay compliant with tax laws to avoid penalties.
Benefits of Keeping Your Books Up-to-Date
Manage Expenses
Every business expense needs to be accounted for. It could be paperclips for the office or a desk lamp.
Big or small, it needs to be entered in your books. Knowing how much you've spent, and how much you've earned is critical information for the day-to-day operations of your business.
Business Budgeting
Staying on top of your expenses is great. Making a plan for every dollar you earn next year is even better.
You can’t make a budget without having a realistic idea of what you spent last year. That’s your baseline. Then, you plot out what you (hope) to spend this year. With updated books, you can see that the printer has to wait.
Revenue Forecasting
There are certain times when you absolutely need an accurate forecast, and the best way to get an accurate forecast is by looking at your past financial statements.
How will you know you can afford to pay another new hire, unless you can anticipate the amount of money you’ll have coming into your business during the rest of the summer?
Stress Free Tax Season
When your books are up to date, you can glide into tax season and the new year with an easy mind.
Having all your business transactions recorded up to December 31 means you’ve got everything you need so an accountant can prepare your tax return for you. Come New Years’ Eve, you can worry about popping champagne, not prepping your taxes.
Reach the end of the year with out-of-date books, though, and you could find yourself scrambling.
Loan Prepared
Need to expand. Before the bank is willing to extend your line of credit, they want proof that your business is making money. (After all, they’d like it if you eventually paid off the money they’re letting you borrow.)
For that, you’ll need to present up-to-date financial statements.
The three key financial statements are the income statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement.
These three statements let you know, respectively, how much money you’re earning, how your expenses affect your revenue, and how money is moving throughout parts of your business.
Emergency Ready
When you run your own business, it’s smart to expected the unexpected. But sometimes, Murphy’s Law gets the upper hand.
When you’re facing a sudden spike in expenses—or a decline in revenue—you need to be able to make up the difference. That could mean drawing on backup reserves.
Current books tell you how much you’ve saved. They’ll also let you know when you can start withholding more from your income, or when you need to divert some of that emergency fund savings to cover more immediate costs.
7 Steps to Catch-Up
1. Quick Discovery Call
No Judgment
We'll start with a free call to understand your current situation, how far behind you are and the what systems you're using (or not using).
2. Secure Documents
Secure Portal
You'll get a secure link to upload your bank statements, receipts, any financial docs needed. No need to stress – the process is automated and it guides you every step of the way.
3. System Setup
We Need Access
If you're using QuickBooks, Great! So do we. If not, we will need to get you set up on QuickBooks to proceed. Don't worry, it's easy and we do 99% of the work.
4. Full Financial Reconstruction
Honesty is Important
We roll up our sleeves and bring your books up to date – month by month. Depending on how behind you are, this can take a minute. We categorize all transactions, reconcile accounts and organize everything to IRS and CPA standards.
5. Clear, Accurate Reports
Clean, Modern Statements
Once caught up, we deliver a video with clean financial statements so you can finally see where your business stands.
6. Tax-Ready & Audit-Proof
Tax Season Ready
We make sure your books are ready for tax season or any financial review. We hope you become our client, but if not, we'll collaborate directly with your tax preparer or CPA. .
7. Ongoing Support
If You Want It
We offer ongoing monthly bookkeeping, tax strategy, and CFO level advisory services to help you stay current and profitable.
Let's keep the slate clean so you can focus on growth, not guesswork.
