Accounts payable cleanup: know what you actually owe.
When bills were paid by check or card without being marked paid, vendor credits sit unused and the same vendor exists twice, the payables aging overstates what you owe — and expenses get counted twice. We clean it up in your own QuickBooks file, bill by bill, on a written fixed-fee scope.
What you can check before you sign
- Fixed fee, written first
- Your own QuickBooks file
- No hourly billing
If your file needs our paid diagnostic first, its fee is credited in full against the cleanup. Either way, you get a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.
An accounts payable cleanup matches payments to the bills they paid, applies vendor credits, merges duplicate vendors, completes 1099 vendor records and ties the payables aging to the balance sheet, in your own QuickBooks file. The fixed fee is $1,200–$3,000 when payables are the only issue, otherwise within the $1,200–$15,000+ cleanup range. You keep approval of every payment.
They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.
What stood out the most was TechBrot Inc’s attention to detail.
Why a payables balance drifts.
A bill entered in QuickBooks stays open until a payment is applied to it. Pay the vendor by check or card and record the payment as an expense instead, and the bill stays open while the expense is counted twice.
Months of that leave an aging full of bills you already paid, expenses overstated, and a balance sheet that shows more owed than you owe.
What a payables cleanup turns up.
Bills paid but still open
Payments recorded as expenses or checks instead of bill payments, so the bill and the expense both count.Vendor credits never applied
Credits and refunds sitting on vendor records while bills stay open.Duplicate vendors
The same vendor set up more than once, with bills on one record and payments on another.1099 records incomplete
Contractors not flagged for 1099 reporting, or missing W-9 details, so year-end 1099s start from gaps.An aging that does not match the balance sheet
Journal entries posted straight to payables, so the aging and the balance sheet disagree.Bill by bill.
- STEP 1
Pull the aging and the ledger
Open bills, vendor credits, and every entry to the payables account for the periods in scope. - STEP 2
Match payments
Each payment applied to the bill it paid, against the bank and card statements; duplicate expenses removed. - STEP 3
Apply credits and merge vendors
Vendor credits applied or documented; duplicate vendors merged. - STEP 4
Complete 1099 records
Contractors flagged and their W-9 details requested, ready for 1099 preparation. - STEP 5
Tie and hand over
The aging tied to the balance sheet and a written summary of every correction.
What a payables cleanup costs.
Payables cleanups are priced as cleanup (published at $1,200–$15,000+) or, when the issue is payables alone, a focused QuickBooks cleanup ($1,200 to under $3,000), fixed fee against a written scope.
TechBrot keeps the records and prepares 1099 information returns as a separate service; it does not file income-tax returns.
Questions about cleaning up payables.
How much does a payables cleanup cost?
Bookkeeping cleanup is published at $1,200–$15,000+, and a focused QuickBooks cleanup of a single issue at $1,200 to under $3,000; the written scope states the exact figure before work starts.
Will you pay my vendors?
Not as part of the cleanup. Ongoing payables management prepares payments for your approval; you keep approval of every payment.
Will the cleanup change my expenses?
It can, where a bill and its payment were both counted. Removing the duplicate lowers expenses to what you actually spent.
Do you file 1099s?
1099 preparation is a separate service. The cleanup makes the vendor records ready for it.
Get payables matched and tied.
Tell us what’s wrong with the books. We’ll tell you whether cleanup, catch-up or monthly bookkeeping fits.
Or send the details instead