Months Behind? Years? Start Here
Unreconciled since 2023, a BAS or two outstanding, and a file nobody wants to open. We have seen it many times, we quote it as a fixed piece of work, and nobody here is going to make you feel bad about it.
Nobody Decides to Fall Behind
It is always the same shape. One busy quarter, one month skipped, and then the backlog becomes big enough that starting feels worse than continuing to avoid it.
Then a trigger arrives: a finance application, an ATO letter, a partner asking for figures, or simply a year end that cannot be avoided again. That is usually the week people call us.
The important thing to know is that this is ordinary. It is one of the most common reasons a business changes bookkeeper, and it is a defined piece of work with an end date rather than an open-ended disaster.
Get a Fixed PriceThe finance application
A lender, a landlord or an equipment financier wants two years of reconciled accounts by Friday. This is the most common trigger by a wide margin.
The letter from the ATO
Outstanding lodgements, or an amount that has quietly accrued interest. Deal with the books first; your registered agent can then act with real numbers.
The accountant who has had enough
Year-end quoted at three times last year because they are rebuilding rather than preparing. Fixing the books upstream is almost always cheaper.
The bookkeeper who left
Suddenly nobody knows the password, the process, or what the suspense account was for. Often the file is fine underneath and just needs picking up.
The sale, or the partner
Someone is buying in, buying out, or doing due diligence. Nothing exposes an unreconciled file faster than a stranger with a checklist.
Why We Start With the Current Year
Working forwards from the oldest gap is the intuitive approach and the wrong one. It spends your money on the least useful periods first and leaves the current year, the one that is still accumulating problems, until last.
Scope It Honestly
We open the file, count what is actually missing period by period, and tell you the real size of the job. Some of what looks like a backlog turns out to be already done.
Fix the Current Year
The financial year you are in gets reconciled first, so the bleeding stops and you have usable numbers for the decisions in front of you now.
Work Backwards
Prior periods in order of usefulness: anything needed for an outstanding lodgement or a finance application, then the rest, in a sequence you approve.
Hand to Your Agent
Reconciled periods with a working paper for each, so your registered BAS or tax agent can bring the lodgements current from figures they can rely on.
What We Do to a Neglected File
Rebuild the transaction history
Bank feeds only reach back so far, so we import the missing statements directly and code the entire period rather than working from a partial feed.
Empty the suspense account
Every entry sitting in a holding, unallocated or suspense account gets identified and moved where it belongs, or listed for you if it genuinely cannot be identified.
Reconcile every period properly
Month by month to statement, not one grand reconciliation at the end. Each period is closed and locked before we move to the next.
Correct the GST history
Where GST has been coded wrongly and repeated across quarters, we quantify the effect period by period and set it out clearly for your registered agent.
Reconcile the payroll history
Wages, PAYG and super checked against what was filed and paid across the backlog. This is where catch-up work most often finds something that needs acting on.
A written summary of what we found
One document listing every issue, its effect, what we corrected and what needs a decision from you or your accountant. Yours to keep.
Before You Ask
It is quoted per period after we have looked inside the file, because the range is genuinely wide. A quiet sole trader year is a fraction of the work of a busy year with payroll and three bank accounts. It is always a fixed price for a defined scope, separate from the ongoing monthly fee, and you can stage it across months if cash flow needs that.
A single year of moderate volume is typically two to three weeks once we have the statements and access. The thing that decides the timeline is almost never our capacity. It is how quickly missing bank statements and answers to queries come back. We tell you at the start exactly what we need from you.
Yes, and sooner rather than later. Nothing useful can happen while the number is unknown: not a payment arrangement, not advice, not a plan. Getting the books reconciled turns a fear into a figure. From there your registered agent can talk to the ATO about arrangements, which is far easier to do with accurate lodgements than without them.
No. Falling behind on the books is what happens when someone is busy running a business, and the people it happens to are usually the ones working hardest. We are interested in the file, not in how it got that way. You will not hear a lecture from us at any point.
Get a Fixed Price for the Backlog
A free look inside the file and an honest fixed price for the backlog. Most people find the real number is smaller than the one they had been imagining, and ongoing bookkeeping afterwards starts at $25 a week.