Clean Up This BookThe pass an accountant makes on a book somebody else kept, in the order they make it. Every task reads the books as they stand right now, so one with nothing to fix says so instead of sending you looking.
28 of 32 tasks fully built, 3 partly, 1 still to come.
Account balances
Check balances against last year's close
Not built yet
Compare each account to the balance the prior accountant signed off, and see what has been posted into a closed period since.
Opening balances can be set and derived, but nothing compares today's balances to the ones as they stood at the last close.
Reclassify transactions
Move a batch of transactions to a different account or class, or both, or either on its own, in one pass.
Void or delete transactions in bulk
Void invoices, bills, payments, checks, expenses and journal entries (or delete invoices and bills) many at a time, after a review page that lists exactly what will change and what will be skipped.
Rebuild the ledger
Re-post every bank and imported transaction into the ledger from scratch. Use it only when the ledger looks out of step with your bank data. Manual journal entries, invoices and bills are kept.
Working trial balance
Beginning balance, activity, adjusting entries and ending balance side by side, per account: the close workpaper. The plain trial balance lives at /accounting/trial-balance.
Review the lists
Chart of accounts
Every account, its type, and what it holds, and below, what has changed in the list since a date you pick.
Products & services
Everything you sell, with price, cost and stock. Changes to the list show in the history below.
Check what each product or service posts to
The income, expense and inventory account behind every product and service: the single most common source of a book that foots but reads wrong.
Fixed assets
What you own, its basis, method, useful life and depreciation schedule.
Customers
Every customer, their balance and their contact details. Renames show in the history below.
Vendors
Every vendor, what you owe, and their W-9 status. Renames show in the history below.
Other name types
Not in scope
QuickBooks keeps a fourth party list beside customers, vendors and employees, and this task moves names out of it.
We don't have one. A payee is a customer or a vendor, chosen by the direction of the money, so there is nothing stranded to re-file.
Money owed to you
Apply loose customer payments and credits
Cash you've received that isn't matched to an invoice: the usual reason a customer looks like they owe you and have a credit at once.
nothing loose
Clear out Undeposited Funds
Payments held for deposit that were never swept into a bank line. A balance that only grows is the classic sign of double-counted income.
empty
A/R aging
Who owes you and how overdue, current through 90+ days.
$10,244.00 open
Write off uncollectable invoices
Pick the invoices that will never be paid, name the expense account, and write them all off in one pass, one auditable document each.
Money you owe
Apply loose vendor payments and credits
Money paid out, or vendor credits received, not matched to a bill.
nothing loose
Check who gets a 1099
Partly built
Contractor totals for the year, and who still hasn't returned a W-9.
Contractor STATUS is decided on the vendor; the review is 'is this vendor flagged'. Which BOX their payments report in comes from the account: set '1099 box' on an expense account in the Chart of Accounts, or leave it to follow the tax line.
Unpaid bills
Every bill still outstanding, by vendor and age.
$9,758.00 open
Sales tax
Collected vs filed, per state
What each state's orders collected against what was actually remitted, and which way the gap runs.
Find sales tax recorded wrong
Partly built
Transactions that moved sales tax without going through the tax lines.
The reconciliation compares state totals. It doesn't hunt individual entries that hit Sales Tax Payable by hand.
Adjust Sales Tax Payable
Post a rounding, penalty or discount adjustment against the liability, named with its state, filing period and reason, not an anonymous JE.
Manage and pay sales tax
Registrations, filings, what's due where, and recording a remittance. Whether sales tax appears at all is a switch in Settings.
Inventory
Review inventory setup
Which products track stock, and the three accounts each one posts to.
Troubleshoot inventory
Products whose movement history no longer explains the quantity on hand, the signature of something that changed stock without posting.
all explained
Tie inventory value to the balance sheet
Stock value as of a date against the Inventory Asset accounts in the GL. The valuation report ties itself out and shows the difference.
ties to the GL
Adjust quantity or value on hand
Count adjustments and revaluations, each posting the offsetting entry.
Bank reconciliation
Reconcile accounts
Tick a statement off against the books and finish with a report.
Find reconciliation discrepancies
A finished reconciliation that no longer foots, because something in it was edited, voided or deleted afterwards.
Each past reconciliation is re-checked and flagged when it stops footing, and “What changed” lists every transaction edited, voided or deleted since it was signed off, with who and when, from the audit trail. Per-transaction cents attribution isn't possible: nothing stores a line's amount AS RECONCILED, so the answer is a short suspect list rather than a single culprit.
Missing checks
Gaps and duplicates in each bank account's check numbers.
no gaps
Closing up
Set the closing date
Partly built
Lock the books through a date so a finished period stops moving.
The date is enforced. There is no separate closing-date PASSWORD; anyone who can open the book can lift the lock.
never closed
Review settings
Entity type, fiscal year, and which parts of the product are switched on.
Send the year to the accountant
The year-end CSV package for your CPA: our answer to the tax-software export, without being tied to one vendor's format. (The whole re-openable book is a Book File, in the gear menu.)
Condense old periods
Not in scope
QuickBooks summarises old transactions into journal entries to shrink the file.
Deliberately not offered. The audit trail is a hash chain, and condensing would delete the rows it links, and the file size it solves for isn't a problem here.
No tasks match “”.
| When | What | Kind | Detail | Who |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-27 | create | item | #4 · Commissioned Photography | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | item | #3 · Postcard Set of 10 | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | item | #2 · Framed Print, 16x20 | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | item | #1 · Fine Art Print, 12x18 | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | customer | #5 · Alder & Finch Co. | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | customer | #4 · Juniper & Pine Boutique | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | customer | #3 · Harbor Light Hotel | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | customer | #2 · Fernhill Frame Shop | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | customer | #1 · Westbrook Gallery | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | vendor | #5 · Meta Ads | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | vendor | #4 · Studio Rent Holdings | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | vendor | #3 · Flat Mailer Supply | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | vendor | #2 · Frameworks Supply Co. | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | vendor | #1 · Giclée Print Partners | root |
| 2026-09-27 | create | account | #39 · Checking | root |
Every one of these is on the tamper-evident audit trail with the rest of your history.
| When | What | Kind | Detail | Who |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-27 | create | backup | 2026-09-27T163907 - auto - scheduled.db · documents archived | root |
| 2026-09-27 | apply | assistant | Categorize AMZN MKTP US*XK4 as Office Supplies · assistant action #1 · categorize_transaction | root |
Members invited or removed, roles changed, connectors linked or disconnected, whole-book exports, backups and restores, on the same tamper-evident audit trail. Individual report downloads are not listed: they are read-only slices, and logging every one would bury these.
Payroll isn't part of this product, so QuickBooks' five payroll cleanup tasks aren't here. Payroll run elsewhere still lands in the books as bills and expenses like any other cost.