Bookkeepers Near AustinWhat the first read of a file covers
A free look at the QuickBooks Online file you already keep, with a written plan before anything moves.
Ask for the read
What the read is looking for
The first read walks the file you already keep, account by account. We look for the bank accounts and card accounts that tie to a statement, the months left open, and the balances on the balance sheet that have sat so long nobody remembers what they are. Those three findings decide whether the next step is one cleanup, a monthly rhythm, or a note that says you can keep doing this yourself.
You stay in the file the whole time. We work from a read only login or a full user login that you can revoke. The first read never asks you to hand over a bank password. A QuickBooks login you can take back is the whole key. If a line needs your memory, we ask about that line and leave the rest alone. A transfer you made to yourself and a purchase at the supply house can look identical in a feed, and only you know which was which.
What you get back
You get a short written plan. It names the periods that have to be tied before a normal month is possible, what the monthly work would include after that, and what it costs. The decision sits with you. The read is free whether you hire the practice or you do not. We would rather you sit with the page for a week than answer on the call.
If you say yes, the same person who wrote the plan is the person who does the work and the person who answers when you write. The month, once the open periods are finished, closes on a date. The note that follows is short enough to read between jobs. It says what moved, what looks different, and what needs you.
The return stays with that same practice when you want it there. Books that closed all year make the return a reading. Books that were assembled in March make the return a rescue. The first read is how we tell those two apart before anyone promises a date.
What the written plan names
The free read names the accounts that feed the file, the months that were never locked, and the balances whose story is gone. Those three findings are the scope. A price sits in the same writing, and you can stop after you read it. Nobody asks for a yes while that page is still in front of you.
Money the owner put in, a move between the company's own accounts, and a refund from a vendor can each land in the feed looking like a sale. The read flags that kind of line in the week it shows up, because a sales tax return later is a hard place to undo the name. The payroll company you already use keeps payday. The journal is checked against the accounts the close expects. Payday itself stays on that company's side of the work.
When the file is already fit for a normal month, the note says so and no proposal follows. When several years have to be rebuilt from statements, the note says how deep, and the monthly rhythm waits until that depth is the one you accept. The person who writes the note is the person who would lock the month, so the brief stays with someone who will see the file again.