The books are behind
Months, sometimes years, of activity has not been entered or categorized, so the current records no longer reflect where the business actually stands.
QuickBooks Cleanup & Catch-Up
Get the File Current Again.
QuickBooks Online cleanup and catch-up for construction, real estate, and property-management businesses with overdue or unreliable books. Meridian works entirely remotely from Lake Stevens, Washington, serving businesses nationwide. Each cleanup is a defined project with a written scope agreed before work starts, so you know what is being fixed and how the timetable is set.
A free 30-minute review, and an honest answer about the size of the project before you commit to anything.
- No obligation
- No sales pressure
- 30 minutes
- Virtual
- Free
Defined scope before work starts Agreed completion date Optional ongoing bookkeeping after
- QuickBooks ProAdvisor Gold
- 10+ Years Finance Systems Experience
- Secure Cloud Bookkeeping
- Serving Clients Nationwide
What Goes Wrong
Signs the File Needs Cleanup or Catch-Up
None of these mean anything went wrong on purpose. Bookkeeping falls behind when the business is busy, and once it does, the file stops being something you can make decisions from.
Accounts have never reconciled
Bank and credit card accounts have not been reconciled in a long time, so nobody can say whether the recorded balances match the statements.
Transactions are miscategorized
Expenses landed in the wrong accounts, transfers were recorded as income, and owner draws are mixed with operating costs. The reports distort accordingly.
Reports don’t match reality
The Profit & Loss shows a number you know is wrong, the Balance Sheet carries accounts that should have cleared years ago, and neither one gets used.
Prior bookkeeping was incomplete
A previous bookkeeper left mid-year, the work was inconsistent, or the file was handed over without documentation. There are gaps and no one to ask.
Something is coming up
A lender, a partner, a buyer, or your tax professional is about to ask for financials, and the records are not in a state you would want to hand over.
What Is Included
Scoped Around the Condition of Your File
Every cleanup is different, because every file is behind in its own way. After the review, the work is scoped explicitly, and depending on what the file needs, it can include:
Getting the Records Right
- Full review of the current QuickBooks Online file
- Transaction categorization and corrections
- Bank and credit-card reconciliations for the period covered
- Review of outstanding, stale, or negative balance-sheet accounts
- Catch-up entry for periods that were never completed
Making the File Usable Again
- Cleanup of opening balances where appropriate
- Chart-of-accounts organization and consolidation
- Vendor and customer record cleanup, including duplicates
- Clearer Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet reporting
- Recommended next steps for ongoing monthly bookkeeping
Scope of services: Meridian Ledger Group LLC provides bookkeeping, payroll support, QuickBooks Online services, and financial reporting. We do not provide tax preparation or tax filing, and we do not provide legal, tax, audit, or investment advisory services. The goal of cleanup work is organized, reliable records, not a specific tax outcome.
Before & After
What the File Looks Like on Either Side of the Project
Cleanup is not cosmetic. It is the difference between a file you work around and a file you make decisions from.
Before
- Months, sometimes years, of entry never completed
- Reconciliations that have never tied to a statement
- Opening balances and suspense accounts nobody can explain
- Duplicate vendors and customers splitting the same history
- Reports that change depending on who runs them
After
- Every period in scope entered and closed
- Bank and credit-card accounts reconciled to the statement
- Balance-sheet accounts reviewed, explained, and cleared where appropriate
- One clean record per vendor and customer
- Profit and loss and balance sheet that read the same way every month
Where the work usually starts
Most files that need catch-up are not broken everywhere. They are broken in two or three specific places, and everything downstream inherits the problem. The review identifies those places first, so the scope covers what actually matters instead of every line in the file.
- The oldest unreconciled monthNothing after it can be trusted until it is closed, so it is where the sequence begins.
- The accounts that never clearUndeposited funds, suspense, and opening balance equity usually explain most of the variance.
- The categories that stopped meaning anythingA chart of accounts rebuilt around jobs, properties, or units, rather than around the bank feed.
Who This Is For
Where Cleanup Work Matters Most
Cleanup and catch-up support is available nationwide. It matters most where transaction volume is high and costs have to be traceable to a job, a property, or an entity, because that is where a disorganized file does the most damage.
Construction & Contractors
Job costs, subcontractor payments, and equipment expenses piled up in one undifferentiated bucket. Cleanup restores project-aware records and a chart of accounts that supports job costing.
Construction bookkeeping
Real Estate Businesses
Income and expenses blended across properties and entities. Cleanup separates them so property-level and entity-level reporting becomes possible again.
Real estate bookkeeping
Property Management Companies
Owner distributions, rent activity, and deposits recorded inconsistently. Cleanup brings reconciliations current so monthly reporting by property holds up.
Property management bookkeeping
How It Works
A Simple, Structured Process
Five stages, from the first conversation to records that stay current. You know the scope before any work starts.
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Stage 1Discovery
A short conversation about your business, the state of your books, and what the records need to support.
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Stage 2Review
A pass through the QuickBooks Online file to find what is behind, unreconciled, duplicated, or miscategorized.
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Stage 3Scope
A written scope covering periods, accounts, and priorities, agreed and priced before any work begins.
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Stage 4Cleanup
The work itself: reconciliations, recategorization, the chart of accounts, and the corrections the review identified.
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Stage 5Monthly Support
Optional. A monthly close routine so the file never drifts this far again, or a clean handover if you prefer.
Stage one is free, and it is the stage that tells you how big the project really is.
- No obligation
- No sales pressure
- 30 minutes
- Virtual
- Free
Before You Commit
Planning a Cleanup: Records, Price and Timing
The size of a cleanup depends on the records available and the condition of the file. Both are confirmed at the initial review, before any scope or fee is agreed.
Records to Gather
- The periods that need attention
- Bank, credit-card, and loan statements for those periods
- Invoices, bills, and other supporting documents
- Payroll-provider reports, where payroll is part of the file
- How jobs, properties, or entities need to be tracked
The access method is agreed with you directly. Never send passwords or other sensitive credentials through a website form.
What Shapes the Quote
- How many months the books are behind
- Transaction volume
- The number of accounts and entities
- Reconciliation gaps and missing documents
- Job, property, or entity complexity
Scope and fee are agreed before work begins. No standard price or turnaround is published, because dates depend on what the review finds, the records available, the agreed scope, and capacity.
Working Toward a Lender or CPA Deadline?
Tell Meridian the exact deadline, the periods involved, and the reports required at the initial review. The review establishes what information is missing and whether a proposed scope and timetable are feasible, before anything is agreed. Rush availability, lender approval, and a completion date are not promised ahead of that review.
If the lender requires a CPA-reviewed, audited, or compiled statement, that is a separate requirement to coordinate with your CPA. Meridian’s service is bookkeeping and internal reporting, not assurance.
What the Written Scope Covers
The periods, accounts, and priorities in the project, and the intended approach to correcting them. Changes outside the agreed scope need your approval first. Items that cannot be resolved from the records available are documented for you or your CPA rather than guessed.
Deliverables
What You Actually Receive
Not a status update. A finished file, and the reports that come out of it.
- Reconciled bank and credit card accounts for every period in scope, matched to statements.
- An organized chart of accounts that reflects how the business runs, with duplicates merged and dead accounts retired.
- A reviewed Balance Sheet where balances in scope are traced to supporting records, with opening balance equity resolved where the source records allow.
- A Profit & Loss you can compare period over period, with income and direct costs classified consistently.
- A cash flow view that explains the difference between the profit on the report and the money in the account.
- A clean general ledger. Journal entries explained and holding accounts cleared where the records support it, with anything unresolved listed for you or your CPA.
- CPA-ready books your tax professional can work from, with the supporting documents you provide attached and any unresolved items noted in writing.
- Monthly reporting, if you continue. The same reports on a schedule, so the file stays in this condition.
Meridian Ledger Group LLC provides bookkeeping, payroll support, QuickBooks Online services, and financial reporting. We do not provide tax preparation or tax filing.
Start Here
Find Out How Far Behind You Actually Are
Thirty minutes with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor Gold, reviewing your file and the condition of your accounts. No cost, no obligation, and you leave knowing the size of the job before you commit to it.
- No obligation
- No sales pressure
- 30 minutes
- Virtual
- Free
Mon–Fri, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Pacific Virtual, nationwide
Questions
Cleanup & Catch-Up FAQ
What is the difference between bookkeeping cleanup and catch-up bookkeeping?
Cleanup focuses on correcting existing records: fixing miscategorized transactions, reconciling accounts that are out of balance, and organizing a QuickBooks Online file that already has data in it. Catch-up focuses on entering and organizing records for periods that were never completed, bringing books that are months or years behind up to the current date. Many engagements involve both: catching the file up to date and cleaning up the records along the way.
Can you clean up several months or years of QuickBooks records?
Yes. Cleanup and catch-up work can cover anything from a few months behind to multiple years of records. The scope is confirmed after reviewing the current QuickBooks Online file so the work is planned around the actual condition of the accounts.
I have a lender or CPA deadline. Can the cleanup be finished in time?
Tell Meridian the exact deadline, the periods involved, and the reports required at the initial review. The review shows what information is missing and whether a proposed scope and timetable are feasible before anything is agreed, so no completion date, rush availability, or lender outcome is promised in advance. If the lender needs a CPA-reviewed, audited, or compiled statement, that is a separate requirement to arrange with your CPA; Meridian provides bookkeeping and internal reporting, not assurance.
What affects the cost of a QuickBooks cleanup?
The number of months behind, transaction volume, the number of accounts and entities, reconciliation gaps, missing documents, and the complexity of job or property tracking. Scope and fee are agreed in writing after the initial review and before work begins; there is no published standard price or turnaround.
Can you work alongside my existing CPA or tax professional?
Yes. The goal of cleanup and catch-up work is organized, reconciled records and clearer Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet reporting that your CPA or tax professional can work from more easily. Questions of tax treatment stay with them, and items that cannot be resolved from the available records are documented for their review. Meridian Ledger Group LLC provides bookkeeping support and does not provide tax preparation or tax filing.
Do I need to give accountant access to QuickBooks Online?
Accountant access to your QuickBooks Online file is the most efficient way to review and correct records, but access is arranged in whatever way you are comfortable with. Access levels and secure sharing are discussed during onboarding, and you remain the owner of your QuickBooks Online account.
Can cleanup transition into ongoing monthly bookkeeping?
Yes. Once records are current and organized, cleanup and catch-up work can transition into an ongoing monthly bookkeeping process so the books stay reconciled and reporting stays reliable. Ongoing support is optional and recommended based on your needs.
Do you file taxes once the cleanup is finished?
No. We do not provide tax preparation or tax filing, and we do not provide legal, tax, audit, or investment advisory services. Cleanup work produces organized, reconciled books that your CPA or tax professional can work from directly.
Go Deeper
Before You Start a Cleanup
The published checklist below is the same one Meridian works from, so you can see the scope before you commit to anything.
Read the detail
- The QuickBooks cleanup checklist, step by step
- Rebuilding job costing after a cleanup
- Rebuilding property-level books after a cleanup
The work behind it
- What ongoing monthly bookkeeping looks like
- Reporting once the file is reliable
- All four services compared
- The close checklist we run afterwards
Also From Meridian Ledger Group
Construction & Contractors
Job costing, subcontractor payables, and payroll support for crews.
Construction bookkeeping
Real Estate
Entity and property-level books for investors, agents, and developers.
Real estate bookkeeping
Start With a Review
A complimentary 30-minute review of your file, your setup, and your process.
Book a Review