Months behind on your books is not a character flaw. It is a busy-season tax on every growing trades business. The real cost is what you cannot see while the backlog sits: jobs that lost money without you knowing, a tax season that turns into an emergency, and no reliable numbers to take to a lender or bonding agent. We close the gap, get your books current, and keep them that way every month going forward.
A real catch-up is methodical. It is not a shortcut and not an estimate. Every month that is behind has to reconcile cleanly to the bank before the next one opens. That means gathering every bank statement, card statement, and loan statement for the full backlog period, and reconciling each month individually, oldest first. A missing transaction in March ripples through the rest of the year if the month never actually closes.
In parallel, the chart of accounts is reviewed and rebuilt for trade specifics. Generic QuickBooks setups lump materials, tools, subcontractors, and equipment into buckets that make the reports unreadable for a contractor. We restructure the accounts and reclassify existing transactions to match how your business actually incurs cost. Job costing through Class or Location tracking is set up or corrected so each job carries its own labor, materials, and sub costs going forward.
Subcontractor payments get reviewed against 1099 thresholds across the backlog period. If the catch-up touches a calendar year, any sub paid above the reporting threshold needs to be flagged and their W-9 confirmed. We surface that list so there are no January surprises.
If your books are behind and you are ready to fix it properly, the most efficient path is the six-month prepay. Prepay six months of ongoing monthly service and the catch-up is included at no additional charge. Truck tier covers approximately six months of backlog. Crew, Shop, and Builder tiers cover up to approximately twelve months back.
The logic is straightforward. You are committing to getting current and staying current in one step. We scope the backlog up front, clean it, and roll straight into the monthly service cadence. No separate catch-up invoice, no second onboarding, no gap between the cleanup and the ongoing work. One engagement, one outcome: books that close every month.
If you would rather scope and pay for the catch-up as a standalone project first, that option is also available. We scope the backlog, quote the project, complete the work, and then move into monthly service at whatever tier fits. The prepay route is more cost-effective for most contractors, but the standalone option works if you want to see the catch-up result before committing to a monthly engagement.
The catch-up solves the backlog. Staying current requires a monthly close with a fixed cadence. Every bank account and card reconciles to the statement each month. All transactions are categorized correctly. Job costs are tied to the right jobs. The close is reviewed and delivered every month without chasing.
That structure is the part most contractors have never had before. When a finished close is delivered on a fixed monthly cadence, you have current numbers while the current month is still young. Problems surface in time to act on them, not six weeks later when the window has closed. Your numbers are clean when a lender calls, when a GC asks for financial documentation, or when your accountant needs the P&L to file.
For more detail on how the monthly close works and what the ongoing engagement looks like by plan, see our construction bookkeeping services page.
Your catch-up and ongoing books are handled by Mary Mattison, our lead bookkeeper with 40 years in bookkeeping and tax preparation. She works inside your own QuickBooks Online file. You keep direct access throughout, and you keep the file if you ever leave.
Three things we commit to in writing: the scope is defined before work begins; every closed month is expert-reviewed before it is delivered; and you own your QuickBooks file from day one. No lock-in. No proprietary system. No data migration.
Skipping the backlog and starting fresh from today leaves the old months in limbo. Your tax preparer still needs that history, your job-cost picture is still broken for prior projects, and any lender or bonding agent looking at a full year will see the gap immediately.
Closing a month in QuickBooks with generic categories produces reconciled numbers that are still useless for a contractor. Materials in the wrong account, subs lumped with supplies, labor missing from jobs entirely. Clean balance does not mean accurate cost picture.
A one-time cleanup does not stay clean on its own. Without a monthly close cadence that someone owns, the books drift again within two or three months and you are back where you started.
There is no hard limit as long as the bank and card statements are available for the full period. In practice, most catch-ups cover the current year or the previous year. Older periods are possible but take longer and require statements some contractors no longer have on file. If you are unsure, download everything your bank has on record and we will scope from there.
There are two paths. If you prepay six months of ongoing monthly service, the catch-up is included at no additional charge: Truck tier covers approximately six months of backlog, Crew and above up to twelve. If you prefer to scope the catch-up as a standalone project first, we quote it before work begins so there are no mid-project surprises. Either way, scope is defined before anything is touched.
Your customers, vendors, job history, and invoicing stay in place. What changes is the accounting layer: reconciliations completed, transactions reclassified into the right accounts, and job costing set up or corrected. If a significant reclassification is required, we flag it before making the change. Nothing is removed or moved without your awareness.
No. Catch-up bookkeeping produces accurate, reconciled books for the period in question. It is the foundation your CPA or tax preparer needs, but it does not substitute for tax filing or tax advice. We are bookkeepers, not tax advisors. Once your books are current and clean, your accountant has the numbers they need to do their part without starting from scratch.
Scope depends on how many months are behind and how complete the source data is. Each month in the backlog requires its own reconciliation cycle. The first month usually takes the longest because that is when the chart of accounts and costing structure get established. Later months go faster. A six-month catch-up is real work but finishable in a reasonable window when done systematically. We give you a timeline estimate during scoping.
You move straight into ongoing monthly service at whatever tier fits your business. The same QuickBooks file, the same job structure, the same bookkeeper, closing the books every month going forward. You do not start over. You continue from a clean baseline.
The ongoing tier depends on your crew size, number of accounts, payroll, and subcontractor volume, not on the catch-up itself. Truck at $249/mo fits solo operators with simple job flow. Crew at $499/mo adds payroll and multi-crew job costing. Shop at $799/mo covers full payroll, 1099 sub tracking, and AR/AP. Builder from $1,299/mo is for larger operations with significant volume and complex reporting. We help you land on the right tier during the get-started conversation.
Trade-native categories, job costing, and an expert-reviewed close every month. You keep your QuickBooks file.