Catch-up books before tax season

Northline Services had nine messy months and a filing deadline on the calendar. The backlog was not mysterious — it was avoided. Corpeva became the catch-up lane: bank feed, review queue, then a calm export for their licensed bookkeeper.

• Problem: categories rebuilt from memory every spring, with three competing “final” folders.
• Constraint: no time for a full rewrite of prior years in one weekend.
• Approach: clean the current engagement year first, document gaps, hand off honestly.

1. Connected the operating account and ignored the temptation to fix 2022 first.
2. Batched Needs review by month — oldest open month in the asked period first.
3. Labeled owner draws correctly so expenses stopped looking heroic.
4. Wrote a gap note for two cash weeks that never hit the feed.
5. Used Membership export once the queue was clear for the period their pro requested.

Catch-up is a sequence, not a weekend personality makeover.

What their bookkeeper received

One package. One cover note. Known oddities listed. No competing folders. Corpeva did not file anything — Northline’s licensed pro did. The win was speed and trust, not a new tax theory.

• Period dates written once at the top of the note.
• Bank nickname matching what appears in Books.
• A short list of rows still uncertain — better than silent Misc.

If you are behind, start where the bank still talks to you. Clean forward. Document the holes. Your pro can work with honesty. They cannot work with another midnight spreadsheet born from panic.