Bookkeeping cleanup · Conroe, TX
Messy books, rebuilt from source — clean and CPA-ready.
Out-of-balance, behind, or just a mess? A senior operator reconciles every account to source, fixes what's wrong, and hands you books your CPA can work from. Fixed-fee, scoped before any work starts.
Fixed-fee, scoped in writing before any work starts. We rebuild from source and hand your CPA clean books — we don't replace your CPA.
In brief
Bookkeeping cleanup, in plain terms.
What is bookkeeping cleanup?
Bookkeeping cleanup is the process of correcting and rebuilding books that exist but are wrong — miscategorized, unreconciled, duplicated, or out of balance — so every account ties out to source and the financial statements can be trusted. It's distinct from catch-up, which means the books are simply behind.
What does a cleanup include?
A diagnostic of the file, reconciliation of every bank, credit-card, loan, and merchant account to source, recategorization against a correct chart of accounts, removal of duplicates, a rebuilt profit-and-loss statement and balance sheet that tie out, and written documentation of every material fix.
How long does it take?
Most bookkeeping cleanups complete in four to ten weeks, depending on how many months are behind and how many accounts are involved. If you have a tax or loan deadline, the periods you need first are reconciled first.
How much does it cost?
A one-time fixed fee, scoped in writing after a free diagnostic — never hourly. The number depends on months behind, number of accounts, transaction volume, and the state of the file. You get the exact fixed fee before any work begins.
This is the canonical cleanup page. Behind rather than messy? Start with catch-up bookkeeping. A broken QuickBooks file specifically? See QuickBooks cleanup. Want the cost picture first? See cleanup pricing.
What a cleanup actually involves
Not a tidy-up. A rebuild from source.
A real cleanup doesn't just recategorize a few transactions and call it done. We go back to source — the actual bank, credit-card, and loan statements — and rebuild the file so every account reconciles and every report ties out.
That's the difference between books that look clean and books that are clean. Your CPA can tell the difference in about thirty seconds; so can a loan officer. We build for the second kind.
Everything material we change is documented, so you and your accountant can see exactly what was wrong and exactly what we did about it.
Rebuilt from source
We reconcile against the actual bank, credit-card, and loan statements — not just what someone already typed into the file.
Documented, not cosmetic
Every material fix is written down — what was wrong, what changed, and why — so the cleanup is defensible to a CPA, a lender, or an auditor.
Everything ties out
The profit-and-loss statement and balance sheet are rebuilt until they reconcile and make sense — then kept that way with an optional monthly close.
What's included
Everything a cleanup touches — line by line.
A real cleanup is the sum of a lot of small, careful corrections. Here's the granular work, grouped the way we actually do it. Exactly what's in scope is set in writing after your free diagnostic.
Account reconciliation
Bank reconciliation
Every checking and savings account reconciled to the actual statement, month by month.
Credit-card reconciliation
Card accounts reconciled and the spend categorized correctly — a common source of overstated expenses.
Loan & line-of-credit reconciliation
Principal and interest split correctly so liabilities on the balance sheet are real, not guessed.
Merchant-account reconciliation
Stripe, Square, PayPal, and POS deposits tied to sales, with fees booked where they belong.
Undeposited-funds cleanup
The classic inflated balance cleared at the root cause — not zeroed out and papered over.
Transaction review
Transaction recategorization
Miscategorized entries reclassified against a chart of accounts built for how your business runs.
Duplicate removal
Double-counted income and expenses found and cleared — common when bank feeds and manual entries overlap.
Missing-transaction identification
Gaps against the statements flagged and recovered from source where the records exist.
Reporting rebuild
Chart-of-accounts review
Restructured for clarity — duplicate, unused, and miscoded accounts cleaned up or merged.
P&L rebuild
A profit-and-loss statement rebuilt by month, period, and category so the trend is finally trustworthy.
Balance-sheet cleanup
Unknown and stale balances investigated and resolved until the balance sheet actually balances.
Documented fix log
A written record of what was wrong, what changed, and why — handed over with the clean file.
Scope is honest and specific to your file — a one-account single-year cleanup and a multi-year, multi-account rebuild are different jobs. The free diagnostic tells you exactly which lines above apply and what the fixed fee is.
Where a cleanup stops
What a cleanup does not include.
A cleanup gets your books right and CPA-ready. It is not tax work, and it is not audit work — being clear about that is part of doing it honestly.
We are not a CPA firm. After cleanup we can refer you to a qualified CPA and coordinate the handoff, so the clean file goes straight into their hands.
Tax filing & advice
Returns, elections, and tax planning stay with your CPA. We hand them clean books to file from.
Payroll processing & payroll tax
A cleanup reconciles payroll that's already been run; it doesn't process payroll or file payroll-tax returns.
Audit & attestation
We don't perform audits or issue attestation opinions. We do make your records audit-ready.
Legal & financial planning
Legal advice and personal financial planning are outside our scope and belong with the right professional.
Intuit software support
Billing, licensing, and product support for QuickBooks itself come from Intuit — we run the file, not the software desk.
Signs your books need a cleanup
If any of this sounds like your books, you're in the right place.
The patterns Texas owners describe most often when they reach out. Each one is fixable — usually faster than you'd expect.
“My P&L and balance sheet don't make sense.”
Numbers move month to month with no explanation, the balance sheet won't balance, and you don't trust a single report enough to make a decision from it.
Reconciliation Bank won't reconcile“Nothing matches the bank.”
Unreconciled accounts going back months, transactions that don't match the statement, and a reconciliation screen you've stopped opening.
Reconciliation Behind on the books“I'm months — or years — behind.”
Whole periods were never recorded. If the books are behind and the records that exist are also wrong, you usually need a catch-up and a cleanup together.
Catch-up bookkeeping QuickBooks looks wrong“My QuickBooks balances are inflated.”
Negative or ballooning undeposited funds, duplicate deposits, a chart of accounts three people have edited, and reports that no longer make sense.
QuickBooks cleanup Duplicates everywhere“Everything's entered twice.”
Bank feeds and manual entries double-counted, income overstated, expenses scattered across the wrong accounts — the file fights you instead of helping.
Reconciliation CPA needs clean books“My CPA can't work with this.”
Tax season, a loan application, or an audit is coming and your CPA has asked for clean, reconciled books before they can do anything. We get them there.
Free cleanup quoteNot sure if it's a cleanup or a catch-up? We tell you straight in the free diagnostic — and scope the fixed fee before any work starts.
How a cleanup runs at Westgate
Five steps, documented — so you always know where your books stand.
Free diagnostic
A senior operator reviews the file, counts the periods and accounts involved, and scopes the work. You get a fixed fee and a timeline in writing — before anything starts.
Source capture
Bank, credit-card, loan, payroll, and merchant statements gathered through the secure portal. Nothing gets reconciled without the source document behind it.
Reconcile to source
Every account reconciled back to statement. Duplicates cleared, misposted entries corrected, undeposited funds resolved — the root causes, not just the symptoms.
Recategorize & rebuild
Transactions reclassified against a correct chart of accounts, then the profit-and-loss statement and balance sheet rebuilt until they tie out and make sense.
Document & hand off
A written record of every material fix, a senior review before delivery, and CPA-ready books handed back — plus an optional move to a reconciled monthly close so it stays clean.
Cleanup vs catch-up
They sound the same. They're not — and the difference changes the scope.
Searchers use the words interchangeably; the work isn't. Here's the honest distinction, so you ask for the right thing.
Cleanup — the records are wrong
The transactions are in the file, but they're miscategorized, unreconciled, duplicated, or out of balance. The work is correcting and rebuilding what's already there until it ties out to source. That's this page.
Catch-up — the books are behind
Whole periods were never recorded and need to be brought current from scratch. If your books are mostly just behind rather than messy, start with catch-up bookkeeping — we'll fold in a cleanup only if the existing records need it.
Most real engagements need a bit of both. The free diagnostic scopes them together so you get one fixed fee — then a reconciled monthly close keeps the file clean for good.
Who this is for
Cleanups for the way real Texas organizations operate.
Small businesses
$250K–$15M in revenue. Restaurants, contractors, professional services, medical practices, e-commerce, trucking, real estate — owners who let the books slide while running the business and now need them right for a deadline, a loan, or peace of mind.
Nonprofits
Small Texas nonprofits with fund-style tracking — restricted and unrestricted balances, designated giving, board-ready reporting that needs to reconcile before the next meeting or the Form 990 goes to your CPA.
Churches & ministries
Faith-based organizations where designated funds have to be tracked properly and the board has to trust the numbers. Stewardship and accuracy carry equal weight.
David spent six years at a resort hotel — spa, restaurants, and golf course — and five with a church before founding the firm — so a messy hospitality file or a tangle of church designated funds is familiar ground, not a learning curve. More on who we work with →
Why operator-led
A cleanup is judgment work — not data entry.
Software can flag an unreconciled line. It can't decide what's actually wrong and how to rebuild it. That's the part that fixes your books.
| The common option | The Westgate approach |
|---|---|
| Software that auto-categorizes and hopes | A senior operator who reconciles to source and rebuilds the file by hand where it matters. |
| Offshore data entry in a distant time zone | US-based, Texas-anchored operators you can actually reach with a question. |
| Hourly billing that grows with the mess | One fixed fee, scoped in writing before work starts — the messier it is, the more that certainty matters. |
| A "clean" file that still won't tie out | Statements that reconcile and documentation that holds up to your CPA, a lender, or an audit. |
Leaving a bookkeeper who left you this mess? See how we switch you over without losing a month →
Operational standards
Four things every cleanup holds to.
Fixed fee, scoped first
One number, in writing, before any work starts. No hourly meter that rewards a slower cleanup.
Reconciled to source
Every account tied back to the actual statement — the only way a cleanup is real instead of cosmetic.
Secure document handling
Encrypted portal, MFA on every system, least-privilege access. No shared logins, no statements over email.
CPA-ready, documented
A clean file plus a written record of every material fix — defensible to your CPA, a lender, or an audit.
No marketing badges. Just the standards we work to.
A messy file almost never surprises me anymore. Forty years in, the mess always traces back to a handful of accounts that stopped reconciling — find those, rebuild from source, and the rest falls into place.
Twenty years with a national nonprofit. Six years at a resort hotel — spa, restaurants, and golf course. Five years with a church. He has seen these books from the inside.
Bookkeeping cleanup FAQ
Direct answers to what cleanup buyers actually ask.
Cost question still open? The factor mechanics are published — see exactly what determines the price →
Still unsure where you stand? Get a free cleanup quote — we respond within one business day.
Ready when you are
Get a free cleanup quote.
Send us the file and the accounts involved. A senior operator reviews it, tells you honestly what's wrong, and gives you a fixed-fee scope and timeline — no quote on the spot, no pressure, no obligation.