QuickBooks Cleanup for Palo Alto Small Businesses



Most QuickBooks files I see have the same three or four problems.

The bank feed was left to auto-categorize for too long.

Reconciliations are months or years behind.

Transactions not matched correctly with phantom revenue and expenses are showing up in the P&L.

Cleanup is the work of taking that file and making it trustworthy again.

Book a 20-minute call to discuss your cleanup

What cleanup actually looks like

  • Reconcile every bank, credit card, and loan account, month by month, from your starting point forward.
  • Rebuild the chart of accounts to match how your business actually runs.
  • Recode miscategorized transactions — the bank feed’s “best guess” is almost always wrong for anything non-obvious.
  • Separate owner draws, owner contributions, and personal expenses from business activity.
  • Clear Undeposited Funds, Opening Balance Equity, and any other suspense accounts that should be zero.
  • Fix A/R and A/P so the aging reports reflect what’s actually owed.
  • Reconcile payroll liabilities against what was actually remitted.
  • Produce a clean P&L and balance sheet your CPA can file from without follow-up questions.

What it costs

$2500 Engagement Min

  • Before any work starts, I’ll review your QBO file (read-only access, takes two minutes to set up) and send you a written estimate with a fixed hour range and a timeline. You’ll know what you’re committing to.

How long it takes

Typical cleanup engagements run two to six weeks of calendar time. The actual work is usually 20–60 hours depending on how far behind you are and how many accounts are involved. I send a written progress update every week so you’re never wondering what’s happening.

What you get at the end

A reconciled, tax-ready QuickBooks file your CPA can work from.

A written summary of what was fixed, what assumptions I made, and where to watch for recurring issues.

A clean chart of accounts documented in plain language.

Book a 20-minute call to discuss your cleanup