Catch-Up Bookkeeping in West Jordan, UT: Do It Yourself or Hire Help?

How far behind is too far to fix yourself?

The honest answer has less to do with months and more to do with mess. Three months behind on one checking account, with the statements saved, is a job most owners can finish themselves over a couple of evenings. Three months behind across two bank accounts, a business card and a personal card that paid for supplies is a different job, because every transaction has to be sorted before it can be recorded.

Use the table below to place yourself. It is a rule of thumb for small service businesses and trades, built around the work involved, and your own situation may sit between two rows.

The mixed-spending row is the one people underestimate. Each personal charge has to be found and moved out of the business books before the month can be trusted, and that sorting usually takes longer than the recording does.

What does catching up actually involve?

It is the same monthly routine, done several times in a row, oldest month first so each month's ending balance becomes the next month's starting point.

1. Download the bank and card statements for every month that is missing.
2. Set up or tidy the categories so income and costs land in the right place.
3. Record every transaction for the oldest missing month.
4. Match the books to each statement's ending balance before calling the month done.
5. Write down the questions only you can answer, such as what a transfer or a cash withdrawal was for.
6. Move on to the next month and repeat until the books reach the current one.

The matching step is the part that gets skipped. Bookkeeping software can pull in transactions and suggest categories, but a month is only caught up when the books agree with the bank's own ending balance, account by account.

When does doing it yourself work?

It works when the gap is short, the accounts are few and you have the time without stealing it from paying work. Block out the evenings, do one month per sitting, and keep a running list of questions instead of stopping on each one. If the first month takes far longer than you expected, that is useful information about the rest of the job.

When is hiring a bookkeeper the better call?

Hire help when a deadline is coming, when spending is mixed, or when the months behind keep growing because there is never a quiet week to start. A bookkeeper works through the backlog in order and saves the questions for you in one batch, so you answer them once rather than being interrupted every day. See catch-up bookkeeping for how that work is set out.

What records should you keep, and for how long?

Keep the statements and receipts you catch up from. The IRS says on its How long should I keep records page that records supporting an item on your tax return should be kept until that return's period of limitations runs out, which in many cases means 3 years from the date you filed. Some situations call for longer, so check the page or ask your tax professional about your own returns.

The IRS recordkeeping page also points out that purchases, sales and other transactions generate the supporting documents your books are built from. A catch-up is a good moment to put those documents in one folder per month.

A West Jordan detail worth adding to the books

If your business holds a West Jordan license, the city says on its business licensing page that renewal invoices are emailed 45 days before the license expires. That email is easy to lose in a busy month, and the renewal is a business expense like any other, so record it when you pay it. Owners elsewhere in Salt Lake County have their own city's renewal rules, and the West Jordan bookkeeping page covers the local licensing steps.

Where Inkdrop Bookkeeping fits

Inkdrop Bookkeeping is Cara Strong's bookkeeping business in West Jordan. Owners across Salt Lake County can work with it by phone and email. Inkdrop handles catch-up work and the monthly books that follow it, and Cara is your contact from the first call. If the books also need sorting before they can be caught up, bookkeeping cleanup comes first. Tax work is not part of what Inkdrop offers, so tax questions stay with your tax professional.