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    Bookkeeping cleanup, however far behind you are.

    Six months behind, two years behind, or a QuickBooks file nobody has reconciled since the last bookkeeper left. We count what is actually in there, tell you the price before we start, and get every prior month closed.

    Book a 20-minute call

    No judgment about how bad it is. We have seen worse.

    14 months behind

    cleanup
    Operating checking
    1,412 uncategorized
    cleared
    Business credit card
    806 uncategorized
    cleared
    Stripe payouts
    229 unmatched
    cleared
    Prior months closed14 of 14

    What a bookkeeping cleanup actually is

    A cleanup brings books that have fallen behind, or that were kept wrong, back to a state you can file taxes and make decisions from. It is five jobs: categorizing the transactions nobody coded, reconciling every account against the real statements, correcting entries that were coded wrong the first time, removing duplicates and filling gaps, and formally closing each prior month so the totals stop moving.

    Catch-up and cleanup are often used to mean the same thing. Where people separate them, catch-up is work that was never done, and cleanup is work that was done wrong. Most real engagements are some of both, and we price them the same way. Owner-led businesses usually land here after a stretch with nobody on the books, and the ongoing version of that job is what a small business bookkeeper does month to month.

    If you are not sure how much of either you need, we do a free twenty-minute teardown. Share accountant access to QuickBooks or Xero and we will give you the ranked list of what is actually wrong before you decide anything.

    “Until working with Median, our books were a black box. The platform gave us a real, granular view of where the money was going, and cutting unnecessary spend became obvious.”
    Greg Mayer, CEO, Curve

    Bank-level security. Your accounts connect through Plaid with read-only access. We never store your login and never move your money.

    A real accountant on your books. AI does the volume, a real accountant owns the result. You always have a person accountable for your numbers.

    What a cleanup costs

    We review the records, covered periods, and work required before confirming the scope and timeline. Historical cleanup is included when you start ongoing bookkeeping; standalone projects receive a separate written quote.

    If you are starting ongoing bookkeeping with us, the cleanup is included. We bring your prior months current as part of onboarding, because books we did not fix are books we would be guessing from every month after. If you want the cleanup on its own, we scope it from the transaction count and quote it in writing before anyone starts. What runs after that is daily bookkeeping, so the backlog does not build back up.

    What the cleanup covers

    • Every uncategorized transaction coded, across every connected account
    • All accounts reconciled to the actual bank and card statements
    • Miscoded entries corrected, duplicates removed, missing periods filled
    • Each prior month closed, with a P&L and balance sheet you can file from
    • A written summary of what was wrong and what we changed

    Ongoing bookkeeping is $200 a month under $250K in annual revenue, $500 from $250K to $1M, and scoped above $1M. See full pricing.

    How the cleanup runs

    01

    We look at the file before we tell you anything

    You give us read-only access to your books and your bank feeds. We count what is actually there: how many transactions are uncategorized, which accounts have never been reconciled, where the balances stop matching the statements. You get that picture, and a timeline, before you commit to anything.

    02

    The volume work runs through software

    Every uncoded transaction is categorized against your own history, deposits are matched to payouts, and duplicates and gaps are flagged. This is the part that makes a hand-kept cleanup expensive. Software handles the repetitive work; an accountant handles the exceptions.

    03

    An accountant makes the judgment calls

    Owner draws against expenses, commingled personal spending, prepaids that should be amortized, anything the software flagged as ambiguous. Where a document would settle it and we do not have one, we ask you rather than guess.

    04

    Each prior month gets closed properly

    Accounts reconciled to the statements, month closed, totals fixed in place. You get a P&L and balance sheet for every period we cleaned, so you can file and so the numbers stop changing behind you.

    Can AI clean up your QuickBooks?

    Most of it, and the volume work is exactly where it helps. Software can code thousands of transactions against your own history, match deposits to payouts, and surface duplicates and gaps in minutes rather than weeks.

    What it cannot do on its own is decide. Whether a payment was an expense or an owner draw, how to split a card you used for both the business and groceries, which prepaid should be amortized across the year. Those need an accountant, and where a document would settle it and we do not have one, we ask you rather than guess. For ongoing work, the cleanup happens on Median after migration. For a standalone project, we agree the ledger in writing before starting. Learn about our QuickBooks bookkeeping service.

    • Software does the categorizing, matching, and duplicate detection
    • A real accountant reviews every judgment call before it posts
    • Anything unresolvable comes back to you as a question, never a guess

    14 months behind

    cleanup
    Operating checking
    1,412 uncategorized
    cleared
    Business credit card
    806 uncategorized
    cleared
    Stripe payouts
    229 unmatched
    cleared
    Prior months closed14 of 14

    Books fall behind for ordinary reasons

    The bookkeeper left and nobody picked it up

    This is the most common one. Someone was handling it, they stopped, and the gap only became obvious at tax time. Nothing is wrong with the business, the record just stopped.

    Bookkeeping for owner-led businesses

    You grew faster than the process did

    Transaction volume climbed, a Stripe account and two cards got added, and the spreadsheet that worked at the start quietly stopped reconciling. Common ahead of a raise or a diligence request.

    Bookkeeping for software companies

    Common questions

    If you are starting ongoing bookkeeping with us, the cleanup is included. We bring your prior months current as part of onboarding rather than billing it as a separate project. If you want the cleanup on its own, without ongoing work, we scope it from the transaction count and quote it in writing before anyone starts.

    Bringing books that have fallen behind, or that were kept wrong, back to a state you can file taxes and make decisions from. It covers categorizing transactions nobody coded, reconciling every account against real statements, correcting entries that were coded wrong the first time, removing duplicates, and closing each prior month so the totals stop moving.

    Most of it, yes, and the volume work is where it helps most. Software can categorize thousands of transactions against your own history, match deposits to payouts, and flag duplicates and gaps far faster than a person. What it cannot do alone is make the judgment calls: whether a payment was an expense or an owner draw, how to split a commingled personal card, which prepaid should be amortized. We run the volume through software and put a real accountant on the decisions, which is why our cleanups are cheaper than a firm doing it by hand and more reliable than a tool doing it without review.

    Intuit sells cleanup through QuickBooks Live, priced separately from your QuickBooks subscription and quoted after a consultation. We do it the other way around: we migrate your books onto Median at no charge, clean them up there, and keep that ledger current from then on. When you start ongoing bookkeeping with us the cleanup is included rather than quoted as its own project.

    It depends less on how many months you are behind than on how much we have to ask you. A year of clean bank feeds moves quickly. A year of commingled cards with missing receipts takes longer, because every unexplained transaction becomes a question only you can answer. We give you a timeline once we have looked at the file, before the work starts.

    For ongoing bookkeeping, we migrate your history to Median at no charge and Median becomes the system of record. Your existing file stays yours. For standalone cleanup, we agree in writing which ledger we will work in before starting; migration is not assumed.

    Your books stay current. We work them every business day and a real accountant reviews the exceptions, so the backlog does not rebuild. Ongoing pricing is $200 a month under $250K in annual revenue and $500 from $250K to $1M, regardless of account count. Above $1M we scope the work.

    Clean books come first, because a return built on bad books has to be amended later. Once the cleanup closes we can file the open years. Tax filing is a separate add-on and we scope it once we can see what the years actually contain.

    Agree the scope before work starts.

    Migration and historical books
    Migration to Median and cleanup are included when you start ongoing bookkeeping. We agree the periods, required records, and timeline with you. Median becomes the system of record for ongoing work.
    Standalone cleanup
    A separate project is quoted in writing. We confirm the ledger where the work will happen, the periods covered, deliverables, and timing before you commit.
    Setup and completion
    Connecting accounts is setup. Reviewing and correcting historical books takes a separate timeline, depending on the records and questions to resolve.
    Additional services
    Tax filing, multi-entity consolidation, inventory, multi-currency, and recurring operating meetings are separately scoped. See pricing and add-ons.

    Find out what your cleanup costs.

    Give us read-only access and we will count what is actually in the file, then tell you what it takes to fix and how long it will run, before anyone starts work.

    Book a 20-minute call

    Or reach out directly: jacob@medianfi.com