Can You Fix Messy Or Overdue Books?

Cleaning up messy or overdue bookkeeping is a common reason businesses engage a professional bookkeeper. When bookkeeping has fallen behind, the problem is often bigger than simply entering missing transactions. There may be unreconciled bank accounts, duplicated transactions, incorrectly coded GST, unpaid invoices, old bills, missing receipts, incorrect opening balances or payroll entries that need investigation. 

The first step is to assess the accounting file and determine what is missing or incorrect. A bookkeeper can then work through the outstanding periods, reconcile the accounts and identify issues that require clarification from the business owner or accountant. 

If you use Xero, the cleanup can often be performed directly in your existing organisation rather than starting again from scratch. Xero's bank feeds and reconciliation features are designed to help businesses keep financial information current. 

Young Guns Bookkeeping can help Melbourne small businesses that have fallen behind with their bookkeeping or inherited a messy accounting file. The exact amount of work depends on how far behind the books are and how many issues need to be corrected. 

It is important not to simply rush through old transactions because errors can flow into BAS, management reports and tax information. A proper cleanup should establish a reliable starting point. Once the accounts are brought up to date, ongoing weekly, fortnightly or monthly bookkeeping can help prevent the same problem from happening again.