QuickBooks Cleanup ServiceThe questions, before the editing
The first pass is a set of ordinary questions. A payroll line holds because each amount has a match, and these questions are that kind of match.
Hear the questionsWhat we ask before any edit
People trust a payroll run when every line has a name and a match, and they rarely stop to thank the questions that made those lines trustworthy. We like that kind of confidence, and we also like the questions. The questions below are what keep a cleanup from being only a costume of new reports. They are ordinary, and they are what we ask before a single row moves.
Does cash on the balance sheet agree with the bank on a specific statement date. If you do not know, we do not guess a yes. We pick a statement and we look. A cleanup that skips this question is a tour of the chart of accounts.
Is undeposited funds a hallway or a storage unit. We look at the age of what is sitting in it. A deposit from last week is a hallway doing its job. A lump from two springs ago is storage, and it is hiding income or hiding transfers.
Does the profit in a filed year still match the return that was sent. We are not looking for a penny of drama. We are looking for a recode that happened after the return left. If the year moved, you should know before we add another entry on top.
Are loans recorded as the payments you made, or as the balance the lender still claims. A payment expensed in full, with no principal and no interest split, makes profit too low and the balance sheet silent. We ask for the latest statement. We do not invent an amortization from a memory of the original amount.
Is payroll a set of wage accounts that agree with the provider, or a single lump coded on payday. We set the file up so the provider's reports and the books can describe the same pay. We do not take over payday itself. If the lump is all the file has, the first job is to give wages, taxes, and the clearing account their own rows.
Do customers and vendors exist twice. This sounds petty until a receipt is applied to the twin and the original still ages. We merge only when you agree the two names are one person. We do not merge because the names look similar on a Tuesday.
Are there accounts with the word temp, suspense, or ask my accountant in the name, still holding a balance. Those names were honest. They were a promise to come back. A cleanup keeps the promise or it tells you the question is still open. It does not rename the account to something vaguer and call that progress.
What we write down from those questions is short enough to read on a phone. You should finish it knowing what is wrong, what is only late, and what we will not touch yet. A file that can wait gets that verdict in writing, and we leave the month alone instead of padding it with tasks.
The hope changes the order
A useful first pass also asks what you hope the file will do next. Some owners need a lender package and then discover they need a signed report we do not offer. Some need a return. Some need to know whether they can take money out without guessing. The hope changes the order. A return can wait while cash is explained. A lender date cannot, and we will say so if the date and the file are not going to meet.
We ask who else sees the reports. A partner, a person who still enters bills, a payroll provider. People who will keep posting during the work need one rule for those weeks. New bills can be entered. Old months stay put. That rule keeps the file from moving under the work.
We ask about a liability account only enough to know whether it has been used as a drawer. A balance that never gets paid and never gets reconciled makes the balance sheet a story. The filing calendar for that liability is a separate conversation, and we do not invent it on this page.
Write down the hope, the other people in the file, and whether some quiet liability has sat untouched for a year. Those three lines, plus the month you last trusted, are a better start than a perfect export. If a report you already handed someone may have to change, you will hear that before any invoice, not after.
Keep going
Send the month and the worry
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.
Send the month and the worry
The questions above are the first pass. Your month tells us where to start.