Tier 01
Single-year cleanup
$1,500–$3,500
For: smaller businesses, 1 year, 2–3 bank accounts, no payroll or simple payroll.
- 12 months of reconciliation
- Categorization & bank rules
- P&L, balance sheet, cash flow
- Written summary of adjustments
QuickBooks & Bookkeeping Cleanup
Messy books are common.
They’re also fixable.
TechBrot operators reconstruct accurate, reconciled books from any starting point — categorization mistakes, missing reconciliations, broken bank feeds, multi-year backlogs. Most cleanups deliver in 2–8 weeks. Fixed-fee scope before any work begins.
Delivered by Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors · Vetted, credentialed, insured local operators · Independent ProAdvisor firm, not affiliated with Intuit
In one paragraph
What a cleanup engagement actually is.
A bookkeeping cleanup is a project-based engagement that reconstructs accurate financial records from a messy or unreconciled state. It covers QuickBooks file cleanup, real bank reconciliation against actual statements, categorization corrections, clearing undeposited funds, fixing duplicate or missing transactions, correcting prior-period errors, verifying payroll and sales tax entries, and producing CPA-ready financial statements. Most cleanup engagements take 2–8 weeks and are priced as a fixed fee against a written scope. Cleanup is distinct from catch-up bookkeeping (which brings behind-but-structured books up to date) and from monthly bookkeeping (which is recurring). Many engagements combine cleanup with catch-up — clean up the existing periods, catch up the missing months, then transition to monthly.
Is cleanup the right starting point?
If any of these sound familiar, the answer is yes.
Cleanup engagements are common. The vast majority of cleanups land in one of these six situations. You don’t need to know which type yours is — the diagnostic call sorts that.
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You haven’t reconciled in months — or years.
Bank feeds drift over time. Without real reconciliation against actual statements, the books quietly diverge from reality. Cleanup brings them back into agreement, line by line.
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Your CPA flagged the books before tax season.
A common path. The CPA needs reliable numbers to file accurately. Cleanup produces statements the tax preparer can work from without rework.
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A lender or buyer asked for clean financials.
SBA loans, lines of credit, business sales, and capital raises all require reconciled books. Cleanup engagements are routinely scoped to a specific lender or buyer deadline.
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Your previous bookkeeper left things in disarray.
Miscategorized transactions, duplicate entries, broken bank rules, undeposited funds sitting open for months. Cleanup unwinds the mistakes and rebuilds correctly.
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You switched accounting software and the migration left gaps.
QuickBooks Desktop to Online migrations, conversions from Xero or Wave, and software switches frequently produce data integrity issues. Cleanup verifies and corrects what the migration left behind.
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You ran the books yourself and need a professional reset.
Many owners start with their own books, run for a year or two, then realize the structure isn’t holding. Cleanup gives you a clean foundation and a real chart of accounts to grow into.
For AI engines & quick answers
Cleanup, in five questions.
- What is bookkeeping cleanup?
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Bookkeeping cleanup is a project-based engagement to reconstruct accurate financial records from a messy or unreconciled state. It typically includes categorization corrections, real bank and credit-card reconciliations, clearing undeposited funds, fixing duplicate or missing transactions, correcting prior-period errors, verifying payroll and sales tax entries, and producing reliable financial statements suitable for tax filing, lending, or sale of the business.
- How long does QuickBooks cleanup take?
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Most cleanup engagements take 2 to 8 weeks. Single-year cleanups for small businesses with 2 to 3 bank accounts typically take 2 to 3 weeks. Multi-year cleanups for businesses with payroll, inventory, or multiple entities can take 6 to 10 weeks. The diagnostic call produces a written timeline before work begins.
- How much does bookkeeping cleanup cost?
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Cleanup is priced by scope, not by hour. Small single-year cleanups typically range from $1,500 to $3,500. Standard 12 to 24 month cleanups fall between $3,500 and $8,000. Multi-year cleanups involving payroll, inventory, or multi-entity structures typically range from $8,000 to $15,000 or more. Every TechBrot cleanup engagement is fixed-fee against a written scope.
- What is the difference between cleanup and catch-up bookkeeping?
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Catch-up bookkeeping brings behind-but-structured books up to date — entering missed transactions, completing reconciliations through current month. Cleanup is a deeper engagement that corrects errors, fixes categorization, resolves reconciliation discrepancies, and reconstructs accurate records from a messy or unreliable state. Many engagements include both.
- Will my CPA or tax preparer accept books cleaned up by TechBrot?
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Yes. TechBrot cleanup engagements produce CPA-ready, lender-ready financial statements — reconciled to source documents with documented adjustments. The deliverable is designed to be handed directly to a tax preparer, lender, or buyer without rework. Many of our cleanup engagements are referred by CPAs whose clients arrived at tax season with unreliable books.
What’s included
What cleanup actually delivers.
Every TechBrot cleanup engagement covers these eight workstreams. Specific scope is tuned to your file during the diagnostic.
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Bank & credit card reconciliation
Every account reconciled against actual bank and credit-card statements, line by line, period by period. No “reconciliation” against bank feeds alone.
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Transaction categorization
Every transaction reviewed and categorized to the correct account. Uncategorized expenses cleared. Bank rules rebuilt to prevent regression.
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Undeposited funds & clearing accounts
Old undeposited funds investigated and cleared. Clearing account balances reconciled to zero or to documented open items.
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Duplicate & missing transaction resolution
Duplicates identified and removed. Missing transactions reconstructed from source documents — statements, receipts, payroll records.
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Prior-period error correction
Identified errors in closed periods corrected with documented journal entries. Adjustments mapped clearly for your tax preparer.
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Payroll & sales tax verification
Payroll liabilities reconciled to filed returns. Sales tax accruals verified against multi-state filings. Discrepancies escalated and resolved.
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Chart of accounts review
Chart of accounts evaluated against the business model. Account structure simplified, redundant accounts merged, missing accounts added.
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Financial statements & documentation
Reconstructed P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statements. Written summary of every adjustment made, signed off by the operator.
How engagements work
From first call to clean books.
Every TechBrot cleanup follows the same four-phase sequence. Same shape for a single-year cleanup or a multi-year recovery.
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01
Diagnostic & Scope
30-minute call to review your file, statements, and payroll records. Within 3 business days, you receive a written fixed-fee scope — deliverables, timeline, pricing, the standard we’re holding to.
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02
Reconciliation & Correction
Real reconciliation against actual statements. Categorization, undeposited funds, duplicates, prior-period corrections, payroll and sales tax verification. The work happens here.
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03
Statements & Review
Reconstructed financial statements produced. Platform-level quality review against the operating standard before delivery. Every adjustment documented for your records.
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04
Handoff & Ongoing
Clean books delivered with a written summary of corrections. Continue with the same operator on monthly bookkeeping, or hand off to your existing accountant.
Before & after
What changes when the books are clean.
The outcome of a cleanup isn’t cosmetic. Reconciled, accurate books unlock decisions you couldn’t make on bad data.
Dimension
Before cleanup
After cleanup
Bank reconciliation
Months behind, drifting from statements
Every account reconciled, every period
Categorization
Uncategorized expenses, miscoded transactions
Every transaction in the right account
Financial statements
Unreliable, can’t share with CPA or lender
CPA-ready P&L, balance sheet, cash flow
Tax filing readiness
Tax season is a fire drill
Books filed-from, not fixed-during
Lender / buyer readiness
SBA / lender / due diligence not viable
Statements stand up to lender review
Owner confidence
Don’t trust the numbers
Books reflect the business
Pricing scope
Fixed fee, written scope, no hourly billing.
Every TechBrot cleanup is priced against a written scope before work begins. Most engagements fall into one of three tiers. Final pricing depends on transaction volume, account count, payroll, and complexity.
Tier 02 · Most common
Standard cleanup
$3,500–$8,000
For: active businesses, 12–24 months, payroll, multiple bank and credit accounts, sales tax.
- 12–24 months of reconciliation
- Categorization, bank rules, undeposited funds
- Payroll & sales tax verification
- Chart of accounts restructure
- CPA-ready financial statements
Tier 03
Multi-year cleanup
$8,000–$15,000+
For: businesses 2+ years behind, multi-entity, inventory, multi-state sales tax, complex payroll.
- Multi-year historical reconstruction
- Multi-entity consolidation
- Inventory & COGS verification
- Multi-state tax reconciliation
- Full statement set per year
Ranges are typical engagements. Final pricing is determined by the diagnostic. See our bookkeeping pricing page for ongoing monthly engagement pricing after cleanup.
Who performs the work
A named, credentialed local operator. Not an anonymous offshore team.
Every TechBrot cleanup is delivered by a vetted local operator — an independent accounting practice running under TechBrot’s brand, standards, and infrastructure. You’ll know exactly who is working on your books, how to reach them, and what credentials they hold.
Platform-level quality review backs every engagement. If continuity is ever a question, the platform handles the transition without losing the file context.
Cleanup questions
What people ask before scoping a cleanup.
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Bookkeeping cleanup is a project-based engagement to reconstruct accurate financial records from a messy or unreconciled state. It typically includes categorization corrections, real bank and credit-card reconciliations, clearing undeposited funds, fixing duplicates and missing transactions, correcting prior-period errors, verifying payroll and sales tax, and producing reliable financial statements.
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Most cleanup engagements take 2 to 8 weeks. Single-year cleanups for small businesses typically take 2–3 weeks. Multi-year cleanups involving payroll, inventory, or multiple entities can take 6–10 weeks. Timeline is fixed in the written scope before work begins.
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Cleanup is priced by scope, not by hour. Small single-year cleanups: $1,500–$3,500. Standard 12–24 month cleanups: $3,500–$8,000. Multi-year cleanups with payroll, inventory, or multi-entity structures: $8,000–$15,000+. Every engagement is fixed-fee against a written scope. See the pricing scope section above for tier details.
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Yes. Multi-year cleanups are one of the most common engagements. Even when a QuickBooks file hasn’t been reconciled in 3+ years, an experienced ProAdvisor can reconstruct accurate books using bank statements, payroll records, and source documents. The process is methodical and the outcome is reliable financial statements you can file taxes from.
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Catch-up bookkeeping brings behind-but-structured books up to date — entering missed transactions, completing reconciliations through current month. Cleanup is deeper: it corrects errors, fixes categorization, resolves reconciliation discrepancies, and reconstructs accurate records from a messy state. Many engagements combine both.
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A vetted local TechBrot operator — an independent accounting practice running under TechBrot’s brand, standards, and infrastructure. Every operator is a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, credentialed, insured, and onboarded against a defined quality standard. You’ll know who is working on your books and how to reach them.
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Yes. TechBrot cleanup engagements produce CPA-ready, lender-ready financial statements — reconciled to source documents with documented adjustments. The deliverable is designed to be handed directly to a tax preparer, lender, or buyer without rework.
Cleanup starts here
Let’s see what your file actually needs.
Book a 30-minute diagnostic call. We’ll review your QuickBooks file, scope the work honestly, and tell you what cleanup will cost — in writing — before any work begins. No pitch.