Cleanups & Fixes
The problem library: negative balances that shouldn't be, undeposited funds pile-ups, duplicate transactions, retained earnings that moved, books that haven't been touched in a year. Each with a diagnosis and a fix.
Start here
6 piecesNo background assumed — the pieces that build the foundation.
Brief · Intro · 3 min
Personal expenses in the business books: the sweep to draws
When personal spending runs through business accounts, the fix is a batch sweep to owner's draws — plus the harder part: the conversation that stops it recurring.
Brief · Intro · 3 min
Loan proceeds booked as income: the reclass and the tax stakes
A loan deposit categorized as revenue overstates income dollar for dollar — and can overstate the tax bill. The reclass entry, the payment-side check, and how to catch it before filing.
Brief · Intro · 2 min
Draining the 'Ask My Accountant' bucket: a batching method for uncategorized transactions
Suspense and uncategorized accounts fill with deferred decisions. A batch method — sort by payee, decide once per payee, escalate the true unknowns — empties months of backlog in hours.
Brief · Intro · 3 min
Duplicate transactions: when the bank feed and manual entry both count
How duplicates get into the books — a feed import plus a hand-keyed entry for the same event — how to find every pair, and the safe order for removing them.
Brief · Intro · 3 min
The Undeposited Funds pileup: payments recorded but never deposited
Why the Undeposited Funds account balloons — payments received in the software but never grouped into deposits — and how to match the pile out against real bank deposits.
Brief · Intro · 2 min
Book cash is negative: finding the missing deposits and doubled expenses
A negative cash balance in the books almost always means duplicated expenses or unrecorded deposits, not a real overdraft. Here is the hunt, in order.
The working layer
12 piecesThe day-to-day rules, mechanics, and habits.
Guide · Working · 7 min
Switching bookkeeping software without importing the mess
What to bring to a new ledger (balances and open items), what to leave behind (transaction history stays archived), how to post opening balances, and a cutover checklist with one month of parallel running.
Guide · Working · 7 min
Diagnosing balance sheet problems: reading the report for wrongness
How to spot the twelve most common balance sheet errors — negative liabilities, frozen assets, loans that don't match statements, equity that jumped — and the first test to run on each.
Guide · Working · 7 min
The books cleanup playbook: rescuing a ledger nobody has touched in months
A phase-by-phase sequence for cleaning up neglected books: start with bank reconciliations, triage in one hour, decide rebuild versus repair, and keep the business running while you dig out.
Brief · Working · 3 min
The forced reconciliation: finding the plug and unwinding it
A reconciliation that wouldn't balance got 'fixed' with an adjustment entry, and now the books agree with the bank for the wrong reasons. Here is how to find forced adjustments and unwind them properly.
Brief · Working · 3 min
Negative inventory: selling what the system thinks you don't have
Negative quantities on hand come from timing — sales recorded before receipts — and from assemblies built without components. Why the costing goes wrong and how to true the counts.
Brief · Working · 3 min
Sales tax liability doesn't match the filings
When the sales tax payable account drifts from what you actually file and remit: rate changes, refunds, rounding, and manual adjustments gone wrong — and the period-by-period tie-out that fixes it.
Brief · Working · 3 min
Old unpaid invoices: collect, write off, or fix the record
Every stale invoice in the AR aging is one of three things: still collectable, genuinely bad, or a bookkeeping error. Triage them in that order — and only true bad debt gets the write-off entry.
Brief · Working · 3 min
Payroll liability accounts that don't match the filings
When payroll tax liability accounts drift from the quarterly returns — negative balances, mystery credits — rebuild the accounts from the filed Forms 941, quarter by quarter.
Brief · Working · 3 min
Opening Balance Equity: the account that should be zero
Opening Balance Equity is a setup scratchpad, not a real equity account. Why balances land there — new accounts, bank feed connections, inventory setup — and where each piece actually belongs.
Brief · Working · 3 min
Ancient uncleared transactions: investigate, void, or adjust — in that order
Old checks and deposits that never cleared the bank clog every reconciliation. The triage: investigate what each item really is, void what will never clear, and adjust only as a last resort.
Brief · Working · 3 min
Negative accounts payable: vendor balances below zero
Vendors showing credit balances mean unapplied vendor credits, double payments, or bills paid outside the system. How to read the AP aging's negative rows and clear each cause.
Brief · Working · 2 min
Negative accounts receivable: customer balances below zero
Customers showing credit balances usually mean unapplied payments or double-invoicing corrected the wrong way. How to read the AR aging's negative rows and clear them.
Pro details
2 piecesThe edge cases and judgment calls.
Brief · Pro · 3 min
Books run on journal entries: why the reports lie and how to unwind it
When sales, payments, and payroll are posted as manual journal entries instead of source transactions, subledgers stop matching the ledger and every customer-level report is wrong. Here is the diagnosis and the unwind strategy.
Brief · Pro · 3 min
Retained earnings changed: someone edited a closed year
When prior-year net income no longer matches the filed return, a closed-period transaction was added, edited, or deleted. Finding the change, unwinding it, and the closing-date habit that stops recurrence.