My Business Bookkeeping Is a Mess raises four practical questions.
None of them is a trick. Each one changes what we do first.
Is the bank the boss, or is the file
The bank is the boss of cash. The file is the boss of meaning. A cleanup fails when someone forces the file to a number and leaves the meaning for later. We tie cash, and we also name the lines, because a tied balance full of shrugs is not a close.
What if two companies paid each other
Then both files are in the sort. A transfer recorded on one side only looks like income or like a missing expense. We put the matching entry on the other company and we label it so the next close does not rediscover it as a mystery deposit.
What if I mixed the house and the company for years
Then the profit has been a blend. We pull the household share off, year by year, as far as the statements and your memory can support. We do not invent a split. Where memory runs out, the line stays a question with a note, not a confident number.
Big buys next to tiny deposits
Some files show big inventory buys next to tiny deposits from customers. That pattern shows up when the buys were made for a trade counter, not for a Saturday crowd. The question is whether those buys are still on the shelf, already sold, or personal. The answer changes the year. It is one of the four we ask before anyone talks about a tax figure. A shelf count you can point at is worth more than a round number dropped into the month.
If your question is about a notice, bring the notice to the call. We will say whether it asks for documents we can help gather, or for an exam we hand back.
A fifth question shows up once the four are answered. Who still holds the password. We would rather sit beside a file you open yourself than become the only person who can get in. If the only password lives with someone who has left, the first week is about getting you back in, before any coding starts.
The one that worries you
One question is enough. We will answer it before we add three more.
