Behind on Your Bookkeeping? Here's How to Catch Up Before April
You meant to stay on top of it. You really did. But between running your business, managing employees, putting out fires, and everything else life threw at you, bookkeeping kept sliding to the bottom of the list.
Now tax season is coming and your books are a mess.
Take a breath. You're not alone, and you're not too late. Let's talk about how to get caught up before April.
First, Figure Out How Far Behind You Are
Before you can fix the problem, you need to know what you're dealing with.
Pull up your accounting software (or that spreadsheet you've been meaning to update) and ask yourself: When was the last time everything was reconciled and accurate? A few weeks? A few months? All of 2025?
Be honest with yourself here. The answer determines whether this is a weekend project or something bigger.
Gather Everything in One Place
This is the unsexy but necessary part. You need to collect:
Bank statements for every business account
Credit card statements
Receipts (yes, even the crumpled ones in your glove compartment)
Invoices you've sent
Bills you've paid
Payroll records
If it touched money in your business, you need it. Create a folder (physical or digital) and get everything in one spot. You can't fix what you can't see.
Start With Bank Reconciliation
When you're behind, it's tempting to try to fix everything at once. Don't.
Start with reconciling your bank accounts. This is the foundation. Your bank statement is the source of truth, so match your records to what actually happened in your accounts.
Go month by month. Yes, it's tedious. But trying to reconcile six months at once is how things get missed.
Work Through Uncategorized Transactions
Once your accounts are reconciled, you'll probably have a pile of transactions that need to be categorized. This is where most people get overwhelmed.
Here's the trick: work in batches. Set a timer for 30 minutes, categorize what you can, then take a break. Trying to power through hundreds of transactions in one sitting leads to mistakes and burnout.
If you're not sure where something belongs, flag it and move on. You can always come back to the tricky ones later.
Focus on What Your Accountant Actually Needs
You don't need perfect books to file taxes. You need accurate books.
Your accountant needs to know:
How much revenue you brought in
What your expenses were (and what categories they fall into)
Payroll information
Any major purchases or sales of equipment
Documentation to back it all up
Focus your energy on getting these things right. The goal is "complete and accurate," not "perfect."
Know When to Call for Backup
Here's the truth: if you're more than a few months behind, have multiple accounts to reconcile, or your books have errors that have been compounding all year, this might not be a DIY project.
There's no shame in getting help. Bookkeepers who specialize in cleanup work do this every day. What might take you weeks of evenings and weekends could take a professional a fraction of the time.
The cost of cleanup is almost always less than the cost of filing with messy books (hello, IRS scrutiny) or the cost of your own sanity.
The Bottom Line
Catching up on your books before tax season is absolutely doable. Assess where you are, gather your documents, reconcile your accounts, work through the transactions in batches, and focus on what actually matters for filing.
And if your books need more than a weekend project? That's exactly what I do.
I specialize in getting messy financials cleaned up and tax-ready. No judgment, no lectures about how you "should" have stayed on top of it. Just practical help to get you caught up.
