QuickBooks File Cleanup

Where Do I Start?

I was recently asked: “Hi Laura. Thanks for taking time to share your expertise. I just started my acctg service a few months ago. What’s the best way to get started on a QB account that you took over that’s kind of a mess?”

I get this question often and the ease of the answer might surprise you:

•  Make sure cash or credit cards are reconciled in QuickBooks, not just on the paper statement

• Then review your Balance Sheet accounts, one by one to outside source documents where possible

• Then review the Income Statement for posting of expenses or income to the proper accounts

You no doubt will come up with some messy situations during this review. I will often create an Equity type account and name it “Suspense” until I get everything cleaned up. But you can’t leave that balance there. It has to be recorded to either an Income Statement or Balance Sheet account. If the resulting balance is significant you will need to discuss with the owner, accountant, etc. how to handle.

Next, review your lists, making sure Items are posting to the proper accounts, payroll is setup correctly

You will find my QuickBooks 2010 Solutions Guide a perfect resource for just this type of clean-up. More information is on my website:

www.quick-training.com/book.html

Be sure to download the two chapters from the book on that site, you will find them both useful when working with your client’s files.