If it is not on a statement, it is not in the books
A bookkeeping cleanup built from bank and card statements can be checked by a preparer. A cleanup built from memory cannot. We rebuild the periods that are behind from those statements, and a licensed CPA reviews the file before you see it.
Owners start at catch-up bookkeeping with a tax deadline. The diagnostic is $499. It credits toward the rebuild you approve in writing.
Why the statement is the record
A deposit hits the bank whether or not anyone categorized it. A card charge hits the card statement whether or not the receipt survived. Those two documents are what a later reader can still verify. An export from last year's file is a claim about those documents. It is not a substitute for them.
Reconstructing books from bank statements walks through that rule in more detail. The short version: if a month has no statement, that month is a gap. Order the statement, or leave the month named as missing. Do not invent the activity so the year looks complete.
IRS recordkeeping guidance is what your preparer is working from when they ask how far back the support goes. Banks typically keep about seven years. That is the practical ceiling for most files, not a promise that every older month can be rebuilt.
What a cleanup is, and what it is not
A cleanup brings a messy or incomplete file current from the statements. If the file is dead, or several years were never kept, the same records rule still applies, and the job is a reconstruction. Both start with the diagnostic. Neither one is a monthly close of a file that is already current.
CPA firms that want this done under their own brand use bookkeeping cleanup for CPA firms. That page is the firm offer. This post is for the owner whose own books are the problem.
What you get back
You get books that tie to the statements you sent, a written reason behind the decisions that are not obvious, and a gap report for anything that could not be supported. Your preparer still files. We do not prepare the return and we do not contact the IRS.
See a sample package if you want the shape of the statements before you send a file. Get a fixed quote when you are ready to send the statements.