The Fixer

In the 90's there was a IT catchphrase that was "garbage in, garbage out". And it is still true with systems today. 

My rough rule of thumb? It takes me at least three times as long to fix something than it would’ve taken to just do it right in the first place. Same goes for setup work. A bit of time in the design and setup phase can save hours of headaches later.

Over time, I’ve carved out a bit of a niche in setups and fix-ups—because while they’re necessary, they can also be expensive and time-consuming. So of course, I get asked: “How do you approach a fix-up?”

Cue the slow muttering under my breath… but here’s what I usually do when I dive into your software.

To truly master clean-ups, you need a structured approach. This simple three-step process

1. identify the problem, 
2. determine the cause, 
3. and find the clean-up solution

However if you have come to me and said "Annual Leave looks wrong" you have already helped me out. Ideally I will attack the Annual Leave (even if it leads to other things).

Let's go through a couple of examples.

Case Study: Uncategorized Transactions

A common issue in QuickBooks is a long list of uncategorized expenses. Many bookkeepers assume QuickBooks is at fault, but in reality, the root cause is often user error. Clients may be adding transactions from the bank feed without assigning the correct account category.
In this case, the cleanup solution is twofold:

• Fix the past mistakes by recategorizing the transactions.
• Prevent future issues by either taking over the bookkeeping or training the client or their employees on how to categorize transactions properly.

One of the biggest reasons bookkeepers struggle with diagnostics is not fully understanding the workflow of the program. Bank feeds are great but they are the start of good bookkeeping procedures not the be all and end all. And in some systems the incorrect use of bank feeds will really mess things up.

For Example: A business enters a vendor bill in the accounting software and later pays the bill. But instead of matching the bank feed to the payment, they accidentally add a new expense from the bank feed. Now, they have a bill AND an expense for the same transaction, duplicating the expense.

The Cleanup Solution:

• Identify that there is a duplicate (one bill payment, one expense).
• Find out why—did the client mistakenly add the expense from the bank feed?
• Fix the problem—delete the extra expense and correctly match the transaction to the bill payment.

But this may have implications now on previous Bank reconciliations, reports and maybe even BAS Lodgements and of course this can happen for Income as well.

So as a Bookkeeper operating in this niche here are a few things I ascertain in a review of your file:

1. Are bank feeds up to date?
2. Does the amount in the bank feed agree to a Bank statement.. Any bank statement… true story I have a Xero fix up where the bank feed hasn't matched the bank statement for over 3 years.
3. Are the unpaid invoices relatively new? Either the client needs my debt collection help or some clean ups
4. Are the bills relatively new?
5. Are the Subsidiary Ledgers balancing with the Control Accounts…. Accounting speak here and most modern accounting systems have a lot of in built features that make this less common for example Xero does't allow postings to particular accounts but Payroll is a subsidiary ledger even in Xero so I want your Superannuation Payable account to be accurate and your Wages Payable Account at 0.00.
6. Are your payruns filled for STP?
7. Is your Superannuation up to date?
8. Do the Leave balances look reasonable? MYOB and Xero expect you to set up Long Service Leave so that is a red flag to me of I can't see that balance easily.
9. Does the P & L "make sense" so I have a little review, compared to YTD, last year, last period to see if things are fitting.
10. How good does the Balance Sheet look? As the name suggests it should Balance and again whole the modern programs help us out a bit. I detest the amount sitting in Historical Balancing or some such rubbish - let alone "suspense" or Rounding. I have seen a round on a Balance sheet for over $20k in the past.

If I am happy with all that I will always look at what your process are up to. If you are not using something like QBO's snap to receipt or KM tracker I WILL suggest it. Likewise MYOB's Team feature is adequate to get rid of Onboarding documents. If you are still using Tax declaration Forms we need to talk. Even the ATO doesn't want them. (please see my previous article on the paperless office).

But mostly I never expect my clients to work harder than I would with Bookkeeping. It is not why you got into business. Even I have automations and helpers for bookkeeping.