Yes, fixing incorrectly done bookkeeping is a standard part of what bookkeepers handle. It’s one of the more common projects we take on because so many business owners either did their books themselves for a while or worked with someone who didn’t do a thorough job.

The cleanup process involves several steps. First, we review every transaction to see what’s there and identify where things went wrong. Miscategorized transactions are the most common issue. Expenses coded to the wrong accounts, owner draws recorded as business expenses, or income recorded in ways that don’t match your actual revenue streams. These errors might seem small individually but they add up and distort your financial picture.

Duplicate entries happen more often than you’d expect. The same transaction gets entered manually and also imported from a bank feed. Invoices get recorded twice. A payment shows up on both a credit card and a bank statement import. These duplicates throw off your numbers and need to be found and removed.

Re-reconciliation is usually necessary. When transactions are miscategorized or duplicates exist, the account reconciliations that were done before might show as balanced but aren’t actually correct. Part of catch-up bookkeeping is going back through and reconciling accounts properly so the books match your bank and credit card statements accurately.

The causes vary but the pattern is familiar. Business owners who handled their own books while getting started often categorized things inconsistently or used whatever category seemed close enough at the time. Previous bookkeepers sometimes cut corners or didn’t understand your particular business well enough to set things up correctly.

Why bother fixing it? Messy books cause real problems. Your accountant has to spend extra time at tax season sorting through errors, which costs you money. You can’t trust your profit and loss numbers to make business decisions. And if you ever need financing or want to sell the business, inaccurate financials are a serious obstacle.

The fix is typically project-based. We assess how far back the problems go and how much work is involved, then quote accordingly. A year of DIY books that need cleaning is a different scope than three years of a previous bookkeeper’s mistakes. Once the cleanup is done, maintaining accurate books through regular small business bookkeeping on Long Island is straightforward.

If you’re not sure how bad the situation is, that’s fine. The first step is always figuring out what’s wrong before we start fixing it. Most business owners know something is off but can’t pinpoint exactly what. We can diagnose the problems and give you a clear picture of what needs to happen.