What Bookkeeping CostsCatch-up pricing, when the books are behind
The catch-up is its own number. The work is bringing a file to a month that ties, counted from the open months and the missing statements, apart from the monthly fee.
Scope the open file
How a backlog gets scoped
Count the months that are open. Count the accounts that do not tie. Note the statements that cannot be obtained, because a missing statement is a different problem from a statement nobody has opened. Note whether the file is cash or accrual, and whether a later return will have to read it.
Starting fresh and ignoring the open months feels cheaper and leaves the old file alive. A return, a lender, or a buyer can still ask for those months. The scope says so before anyone picks a path.
An hourly wage for a clerk and the hourly fee for catching a file up are different numbers. The handbook wage is on the fees page, stated as a wage. Multiplying that wage by a guessed count of hours still leaves the catch-up price unwritten.
What we will not invent
No catch-up price is printed here, because a price without the file would be a guess. Send the file, or describe the months and the missing statements. The number comes after that look.
People decide to start over on the books in the week a notice lands, or when the year is about to close. Starting over feels lighter than opening the old months. The old file stays alive for a return, a lender, or a buyer. Starting over is a decision the scope should name before anyone picks a path.
Scope the catch-up from the file
Send the file, or describe the months and the missing statements.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.