How a catch-up cleanup works.
Three steps: a flat-fee quote inside 48 hours, a contractor team that closes the backlog against your existing chart of accounts, and a clean QuickBooks / Xero / Wave file delivered with a written memo your CPA opens. Same shape on every engagement — the numbers are different, the recovery is not.
The three steps
Intake, repair, hand-back.
Each step below ends with what you send and what Knotledger delivers — so there is no ambiguity about who owes what, and no hourly clock running in the background.
Intake + sample statement + fixed-price quote.
Send a short intake — your business, current software, the rough shape of the shoebox — then upload one bank statement and the file you run today. We come back inside 48 hours with a written scope, a flat-fee quote, and the documents we will ask for at onboarding. Flat fee, no hourly clock.
You send
- A short intake form (about two minutes).
- One bank or credit-card statement so we can size the catch.
- Your current software and any platform logins we will need.
Knotledger delivers
- A written scope that names the tier and the months in question.
- A flat-fee quote — the number you build on the pricing calculator.
- A short list of documents we will need before onboarding.
The contractor team reconciles, categorizes, and repairs.
A dedicated team storms the backlog against your existing chart of accounts, repairs prior-period errors without rewriting history, classifies owner draws and personal-card leakage, and reconciles every bank feed to the statement. The QuickBooks / Xero / Wave file stays open during the work so nothing is gone by the time we hand back.
You send
- Bank, credit-card, payment-processor, and platform exports.
- A short Q&A on any vendor or owner classification we cannot infer.
- A 30-minute kickoff with the lead contractor (optional).
Knotledger delivers
- A clean trial balance reconciled to the cent — no manual journals to keep paying.
- A prior-period repair log naming every restatement and the reason for it.
- A turnaround window of 7–10 business days for most Catch-up tier; longer for Deep.
Clean file delivered with a CPA-ready memo.
The file is handed back to your own licence (we never migrate you off QuickBooks, Xero, or Wave) together with a one-to-two page written memo of what was caught up, what was written up (undocumented items, lost receipts, owner draws retitled), and what your CPA needs to know before opening the file. Your accountant opens it already knowing the story.
You send
- Sign-off on the clean trial balance and the prior-period repair log.
- Any final clarifications on owner draws and personal-card items.
- A short walk-through with your CPA if they want one.
Knotledger delivers
- A clean QuickBooks / Xero / Wave file in your own licence — no migration, no lock-in.
- A CPA-ready memo: what was caught up, what was written up, what was restated.
- A thirty-minute handoff call for your CPA before tax season, on us.
Sample outcome
What “caught up” looks like at the end of the engagement.
These numbers are mocked — your file will look different. The shape of the recovery is what does not change: a backlog closed to zero, a bank feed reconciled to the statement, a trial balance that closes to the cent, and the owner-side noise reclassified where it belongs.
Before
A QuickBooks file with months of uncleared transactions, a bank feed nobody has touched, and an owner using the office-supplies account for personal spend.
- Backlog
- 8 months uncleared
- Categorization
- 0 categories matched
- Bank feed
- Not reconciled since June
- Trial balance
- Out of balance by $4,260
- Owner activity
- Owner draws on office supplies
After
A clean file your CPA opens willingly — a balanced trial balance, a reconciled bank feed, and an owner side reclassified to its own ledger.
- Backlog
- 8 months caught up
- Categorization
- 3,400 transactions categorized
- Bank feed
- Reconciled to the current statement
- Trial balance
- Balanced to the cent
- Owner activity
- Owner draws reclassified
Mocked snapshot — your numbers will look different but the shape of the recovery does not change.
Ready when you are
Send the intake, get a written scope inside 48 hours.
Six short fields, a flat-fee quote, and a written scope with no sales call required. Knotledger cleans the file; your CPA opens it on day one.