If your books are months or years behind, you're probably wondering what it will cost to fix them. The honest answer: it depends on how messy the file is, how many months need work, and how many accounts are involved. Here's what drives the price, and what you should get for it.
What affects the cost
Months behind. Three months of catch-up is a small project. Two years of unreconciled books is a much bigger one.
Transaction volume. A business with 50 transactions a month costs less to clean up than one with 500.
Number of accounts. Every bank account, credit card and loan has to be reconciled separately.
How the file got messy. Duplicate bank feeds, miscoded transactions, missing receipts and unapplied payments all take time to untangle.
Payroll and sales tax. If these need to be tied out too, the scope grows.
Typical pricing models
Most bookkeepers price cleanups one of two ways: hourly, or a flat project fee quoted after reviewing the file. A flat quote is easier to budget for, because you know the total before work starts.
What a good cleanup should include
A cleanup isn't just making the bank balance match. You should get:
Every account reconciled to the bank, month by month
A log of every correction and why it was made
A final summary of what was wrong and what was fixed
A plan, and ideally training, so the books stay clean afterward
If a bookkeeper can't show you their work, you have no way to know what changed in your file.
How we do it at Locus Point
We start with a free review of your books, then quote a flat project price. You get a reconciled workbook for every month we clean up, notes on every correction, and a final summary you can hand to your CPA. Once you're caught up, we can keep your books current with monthly bookkeeping, or train your in-house staff to do it.
See how our cleanups work or book a free call to get a quote.