Priya, the estimated payment comes first and the four months come second
Nineteen days to a quarterly estimated-tax payment, four months of unreconciled bank feed behind it, and one card that has been buying both client software and groceries. That last one is the reason the other two are hard.
“Estimated payment due in about three weeks and I have not reconciled anything since March. The receipts are technically all in my email somewhere. I keep opening the spreadsheet, looking at it for ten minutes, and closing it again. I got a notice last year and I really do not want another one.”
- Priya, on what is coming up
Books readiness
A 4 that is mostly one problem wearing three hats: the mixed card is what makes four months feel like a year.
Why the order of work is already decided for you
Anything with a deadline inside four weeks goes first, and yours is nineteen days out, so the estimated payment leads and the tidy-up follows. Those are two different jobs done to two different standards, and it is worth knowing which is which. The payment is the rough-but-defensible job: reconstruct this quarter from the bank feed, capture the records you can actually find, and get your CPA a profit figure you would be comfortable explaining line by line. The four months behind it is the proper job, done afterwards, at a pace where missing receipts can be chased rather than guessed at. Doing them in the other order is how people miss deadlines while tidying - the books look lovely and the payment is late. The reason your four months reads worse than four months usually does is the shared card: every transaction on it has to be judged one at a time rather than swept through as business, and judging four months of one card by hand is most of the work in front of you.
Now, and from month two
| How your books run now | How they'd run from month two | |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts | One card for client software and groceries, so every line needs a decision | A business account and card that nothing personal touches - an afternoon at the bank, and the single highest-value hour in this whole plan |
| Reconciliation | Four months untouched, and the gap grows quietly every week | Reconciled monthly, so the worst backlog you can ever have is thirty days old |
| Receipts | In your email somewhere, found only when something is missing | Captured against the transaction as they arrive, which is what makes a quarter a review rather than an excavation |
| Taxes & filings | A quarterly scramble that starts with opening the spreadsheet and closing it again | Books closed monthly, so the quarter's profit figure and January's 1099 for your illustrator both come out of a system that is already current - and your CPA decides what to do with the number |
| Your part in it | Ten unproductive minutes at a time, several evenings a month, plus the background worry | Roughly twenty minutes a month answering questions about the handful of transactions only you can explain |
What we would put in front of you
Catch-Up Sprint
from $950One-off, up to 12 months brought current
Four months behind puts you squarely in catch-up territory, so this runs first - though for you it runs in two passes, this quarter for the payment and then the rest. The band moves with the number of months, your monthly transaction count, and the mixed card, which is the one that pushes a quote upward. We would not name a number before seeing the bank feed, and you should be wary of anyone who does.
Steady Books
$325/monthMonthly reconciliation, receipt capture, 1099s filed in January
The right fit for a two-person studio from the month after the Sprint: bank reconciliation, payables and receivables kept current, receipts captured against transactions, the 1099-NEC for your illustrator filed on time, and a year-end package handed to your CPA. You said you keep opening the spreadsheet and closing it again - this is the tier that removes the spreadsheet from your evenings.
Steady Books + Payroll
$495/monthThe above plus payroll for up to 10 people, 941s and W-2s
Not today - you told us there is no payroll yet, and a contractor on a 1099 is not payroll. Worth knowing the number now, because the month you put a first employee on the books, or your CPA moves you to an S-corp salary, is the month this becomes the correct tier. Payroll run apart from the books is a false economy.
Finance Partner
$995/monthManagement reporting, 13-week cash flow, quarterly review
Honestly, not yet. This is for owners asking questions their books cannot currently answer - a first hire, a second studio, a lending conversation. Ask us again when you are weighing a hire and want to see the runway before you make it.
⚠ What we are, and what we are not
We are bookkeepers. We keep the records a return is built from, and we file sales tax and 1099s. We are not CPAs, not enrolled agents, and not licensed financial advisers, so nothing here is advice about what you owe, what is deductible, whether an S-corp election makes sense, or anything to do with retirement plans or investing - for your own situation, that belongs with a CPA or an enrolled agent. And on the notice you mentioned: we will not tell you a penalty can be avoided, reduced, or abated. Take that specific notice to your CPA, or to the agency that sent it, and let us keep to the work of getting you current.
Good questions
Can four months really be caught up in nineteen days?+
This quarter can. That is the point of splitting the jobs: the current quarter gets reconstructed in time for the payment, and the older months get finished properly afterwards, without a deadline standing over them. What we will not do is promise a turnaround for the whole four months before we have looked at your bank feed - the honest answer depends on how many records turn out to be findable.
Do I have to separate the card before you can start?+
No, but it is the first thing we would ask you to do, and it is an afternoon. Every month you keep one card is another month where each line needs judging by hand, which is time you pay for. Separating it does not fix the past four months - it stops the fifth.
What do you need from me to get moving?+
Read-only access to the bank and card feeds, your EIN and entity details, your illustrator's W-9 if you have it, and whatever the email inbox holds - forwarded in bulk is fine, sorted is not required. Then about twenty minutes with you on the transactions only you can explain, which on a shared card is usually the interesting half.
Nineteen days is enough time, if the next move happens this week
The Books Review is twenty-five minutes, free, and we spend it looking at your last three months of bank feed together so you hear what the work actually is rather than what you have been imagining at 11pm. No proposal on the call. If we think the Sprint is smaller than you fear, we will say so - and if it is bigger, you should hear that from us before the deadline, not after it.
Nothing you described is unusual and none of it is unrecoverable - a shared card and a spreadsheet nobody opens is roughly half the businesses that come to us. The deadline sets the order, the card is the fix that stops this recurring, and after that it is thirty days at a time forever. Book the Books Review this week and bring the bank login.