Two products. One client. Easy to mix up.
I talk to firm owners who say they need "catch-up monthly bookkeeping."
That phrase is how files stay half-done. Catch-up rebuilds years that already happened. Monthly keeps the current period tied out going forward. If you hire one person to do both without a written scope, the current month usually wins and the historical years sit.
I laid out the one-year version in 1 year behind on bookkeeping. This post is the decision rule.
What catch-up actually is
Catch-up is reconstruction.
Bank and card statements for the gap. A rebuilt general ledger. Gap reports for anything without a source document. Filing-ready statements for each year. A licensed CPA signs off before the file leaves. Your preparer files. We do not contact the IRS.
That work lives on book reconstruction for tax deadlines for owners and reconstruction for tax professionals when the firm is running a resolution case.
IRS record retention rules are why the statements still matter years later. The return is only as good as the records behind it.
What monthly actually is
Monthly assumes the prior period is already clean.
Categorized transactions. Reconciliations. A full statement package. Review-ready, under the firm's brand if we are in a white-label engagement. That is the product I described in what CPA firms actually get when they outsource bookkeeping.
You can see a monthly pack at sample deliverables. Reconstruction uses those same statements per rebuilt year. It is not a substitute for closing the historical gap first.
When I tell people to do both, in order
Do catch-up first when any of these are true:
- There is an unfiled year
- A buyer, lender, or preparer asked for financials that do not exist
- The software file is wrong, locked, or gone
- You cannot produce a tied-out trial balance for last year
Then start monthly so the current year does not recreate the mess. How it works is the short version of both paths. Pricing keeps them separate: a $499 diagnostic for the rebuild, a quoted monthly rate for ongoing delivery.
CPA firms that want both under their brand start at For CPA Firms. Accounting Today has covered how firms use outsourcing for capacity without waiting on hiring. Structure still matters. Scope the historical years. Then subscribe the current one.
Do not buy a monthly seat to hide a three-year hole
If the books are years behind, a monthly engagement will not quietly eat the history. It will close this month and leave the unfiled years sitting.
Get a reconstruction quote for the gap, or start a free test client if the current book is already clean and you want to see monthly delivery under your brand.