Bookkeeping Health Check

A bookkeeping health check is a free look at your books by someone who does this every day. You give me access to your QuickBooks Online file, I spend about an hour in it, and then we talk for twenty minutes. You leave the call knowing what is clean, what is not, and what it would cost to fix and keep clean. No charge, no strings, whether or not you ever hire me.

Most owners have never had anyone look at their books who was not also trying to get through them as fast as possible. That is the gap this fills.

What I look at

Five things, in this order. They are the same five things that decide the price of any bookkeeping work, so by the end you have a real number, not a guess.

1. Whether every account is reconciled. Bank accounts, credit cards, loans. If an account has not been matched to its statement, every number downstream of it is decoration.
2. What is sitting uncategorized or duplicated. The “Uncategorized Expense” line, the transactions entered twice, the transfers booked as income. This is where most of the mess lives.
3. How much of the money in the account is already spoken for. Sales tax collected but not paid, payroll due, the truck payment, the parts bill. Most owners see the balance and think it is theirs. I show you the gap.
4. How many months are behind. Not what the software says, what the statements say.
5. Whether your CPA could file from this today. Tax-ready means reconciled, categorized, and consistent with last year. If it is not, I tell you what stands between the file and a clean handoff.

What you get

• A twenty-minute call where I walk you through what I found, in plain English.
• A short written note afterward with the same findings, so you have it in writing.
• A price to fix it and a price to keep it clean, if either is needed. Both are on the pricing page already, so nothing on the call will surprise you.
• If the books are in good shape, I say so. That happens, and it is a good outcome.

What it is not

• Not a sales pitch. The findings are the findings. What you do with them is your call.
• Not tax advice. I do not prepare or file returns. I can tell you whether your CPA will be able to.
• Not a cleanup. I do not change anything in your file during the look. If you want it fixed, that is a separate, quoted project. How QuickBooks cleanup works.

How it works

1. Book a time. Pick a slot below. The call is twenty minutes.
2. Add me as an accountant user in QuickBooks Online. It takes two minutes from your QuickBooks settings, it is read-only unless you say otherwise, and you can remove me the moment we are done. I send the exact steps when you book.
3. I look before we talk. About an hour in your file, so the call is about what I found, not about setting up access.
4. We talk, you decide. Clean, needs work, or somewhere in between. You get the note either way.

Book a free look

Who this is for

Owners of small service businesses who run their books in QuickBooks Online, or want to, and are not sure what the bank balance actually means. Trades, contractors, and one-truck operations especially, because their money moves in seasons and their books rarely keep up. Based in New Jersey? Here is how I work with New Jersey small businesses. Everything runs virtually, so the look is the same anywhere in the country.

If your books are on spreadsheets or in another system, book anyway. I will tell you honestly whether QuickBooks Online is worth the move, and what a proper setup looks like if it is.

Health check questions

Is it really free?

Yes. No charge for the look, the call, or the written note. I do it because it is the fastest way for both of us to find out whether we should work together.

What access do you need?

Accountant access to your QuickBooks Online file. You add me from your own settings, it is read-only by default, and you can remove me at any time. I never ask for your login.

Do I have to hire you afterward?

No. Plenty of owners take the note and fix things themselves, or hand it to whoever already does their books. That is a fine outcome.

How long does it take?

About an hour of my time in your file before the call, and twenty minutes together. The written note usually lands the next business day.

What if my books are a mess and I am embarrassed?

Then you are exactly who this is for. I have seen years of backlog, shoeboxes, and accounts that were never reconciled once. None of it is a surprise to me, and none of it is a judgment on you.