Catching Up on Nine Months of Neglected Bookkeeping
Nine months behind is about eleven hours. Not a lost weekend, not a month of evenings. Eleven hours, once.
It feels like more because it has been growing in your head since March, and a thing you have been dreading for six months is never the size you imagine.
Here is the actual size, and the order that makes it shortest.
The Money Mastery System categorization screen partway through a catch-up. Example data.
The short version
Nine months behind is about eleven hours for a one person service business.
Set up your categories first, then start with the most recent month and work backwards.
Sort from what the bank shows you, and chase receipts at the end.
Keep the current week going separately, so you are not behind again when you finish.
The hours, by how far behind you are
Months behind | Roughly | What that looks like |
|---|---|---|
3 months | 4 hours | One evening, or a slow afternoon |
6 months | 7 to 8 hours | Two sittings |
9 months | 11 hours | Three sittings, or one determined Saturday |
12 months | 14 hours | Four sittings, and worth booking in |
Based on a one person service business with 60 to 80 transactions a month, about an hour a month once your categories exist, plus roughly two hours of setup at the start. Heavy retail or a lot of receipts runs higher. Fewer, larger invoices runs lower.
The order that makes it shortest
This matters more than the hours.
Set up your categories first, once, before you sort anything. Most people use about twenty. Deciding them while sorting is what turns eleven hours into twenty.
Start with the most recent month, not the oldest. You remember it, so it is fastest, and it stops the pile growing while you work.
Then go backwards, a month at a time.
Do the current week separately, weekly, starting now. If you only catch up, you will be behind again by the time you finish.
Reconcile at the end of each month you complete, not at the very end. An error found in March is a minute. The same error found in December is an afternoon.
Starting at January is the single most common mistake and it is why people give up in February.
What not to do
Do not try to find every receipt before you start. Sort what the bank shows you, mark what needs a receipt, and chase those at the end. Receipt hunting first is how a catch-up becomes a project.
Do not aim for perfect. An 85% correct year you can read beats a perfect year you never finished.
Do not do it the week before the deadline. Everything above assumes you are not also panicking.
A month closed out, with the categories filled in. Example data.
Why it is faster than the last time you tried
Because most of the eleven hours is recognition, not reconstruction, and recognition is quick.
And because the second month is faster than the first. Clarity remembers how you sorted something and suggests it next time, so the same coffee shop, the same supplier and the same subscription stop being decisions after you make them once. By month four you are mostly confirming.
Nine months in three sittings
Here is how the eleven hours divide if you take them in three goes.
Sitting | What you do | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
First | Set up your categories, then sort the three most recent months | 5 hours |
Second | The middle three months | 3 hours |
Third | The oldest three months, then the receipts you marked | 3 hours |
Put all three in your calendar before you begin the first. A catch-up with a second date already booked gets finished. One that depends on finding a free afternoon usually does not.
End every sitting on a closed month, not halfway through one. Stopping at a clean edge means the next sitting starts with sorting, not with working out where you were.
Start free, today
You do not need the paid membership to begin. La Soglia, the free membership of the Money Mastery System, holds what you own and what you owe in one place with no bank connection and no card, and it is where the picture starts. The categorization that turns eleven hours into something closer to seven is the paid membership.
The Money Mastery Collective comes with the free membership, and a catch-up is much easier when somebody asks how it went.
Bring it to the Collective
Say in the discussion feed that you are starting and how far behind you are. It is open on the free membership, and being asked about it in two weeks is the most effective piece of bookkeeping software ever invented.
Questions we hear
Do I need to catch up before I can file?
Yes, to file accurately. This is the work that has to happen either way, so the only real question is when.
What if I have no records for part of it?
Bank and card statements are records. Start there, and note what is missing rather than stopping.
Should I pay somebody to do it?
Work out your real hourly rate first, from our post on your true hourly rate. If it is $30 and a bookkeeper is $45, doing it yourself is the better use of eleven hours. If it is $90, it is not.
How long does it take to catch up on a year of bookkeeping?
About fourteen hours for a one person service business with 60 to 80 transactions a month, usually over four sittings.
Which month should I start with?
The most recent one. You remember it best, so it goes fastest. Then work backwards a month at a time.
Related guides: How to do your own bookkeeping, step by step · Home based business bookkeeping: a one-page checklist · Where does my money go? A simple money tracker.
Start free with La Soglia
La Soglia is the free membership of the Money Mastery System. It gives you the Net Worth Tracker, where everything you own and everything you owe sits in one place, and the Money Mastery Collective. There is no card to enter and no bank connection.
Keep in touch
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A note on what this is
This article is educational. The Money Mastery System is an educational tool, not financial software, and nothing here is legal, tax, investment or financial advice. The hour estimates are worked from the transaction volumes stated, not a promise about your books. For guidance on your own circumstances, please speak with a qualified professional who knows them.
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