My Business Bookkeeping Is a Mess brings the same few questions.

Can the file be saved

Usually yes. A mess is unclassified activity, not a ruined company. We save the file by naming what is there. A brand new file is the rare case, and only when the old one cannot be trusted enough to repair. On the first call you will hear whether the old file can be repaired or whether it has to be set aside.

Do you need every receipt on day one

No. We start with what the bank and the cards already show. Receipts matter when a line could be two different things. The missing ones become a list, not a reason to stall the whole year.

When can a monthly close start

After a month matches the bank. Starting a rhythm on top of an open year just adds a neat recent month to a messy history. We would rather finish the open months, or agree that a cutoff month is the new start and the older ones stay a project.

What if the login left with someone else

Then the first week is about getting you back into your own file. We would rather watch you open it than become the only people who can. Coding starts after you can see the screen yourself. A password we hold for you is one you can revoke the day the sort ends.

What the sort does not finish

It does not put a signed opinion on the year. Sending wages is a click that stays on a provider screen, and we do not make it. It does not guess a split when you cannot remember whether a cost was the house or the company. Those three stay visible as questions. Everything else gets a name.

Three charges in one afternoon

A short ride across town is easy to take without thinking. A card charge for that ride, a client lunch, and a household grocery can land in the same afternoon export. The short answer is that we separate them. The long answer is on the catch-all page. Three charges in one export are three decisions, and the export will not make them for you.

The longer questions and the bucket itself.