How to Clean Up Your Messy Books: Bookkeeping Tips from Accounting Pros

​Research shows that today’s bookkeepers and accountants are making mistakes as their workloads have increased due to economic volatility and newly enacted regulations. The data also shows that the more capacity constrained accounting professionals are, the more likely they are to make data errors on manual work and miss issues when conducting regular reviews on accounting records.

And while this certainly does not mean accounting professionals across the board are doing poor work, even the best accountants are feeling the pressure. As their time continues to be squeezed and their responsibilities expanded, good accountants are finding that they need to work even harder to maintain the top-notch work that they are doing. The result is an environment more conducive to burnout and errors regardless of the integrity and work ethic that they bring to the role.
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If your books are messy due to overworked bookkeeping and accounting staff or turnover in those roles, you need to be able to figure out what needs to be fixed, understand how to fix it, and take a proactive approach to avoid future accounting issues!

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​Recognize the Problem
While errors may be the most obvious sign of a problem, they are not the only indication that there is a problem at your organization! There are also environmental clues as well to keep an eye out for, including:

• Missed work and turnover among accounting staff.
• Late work resulting in missed deadlines.
• Compliance and regulatory issues.
• Reduced team morale and complaints to HR and management.

If you notice any of these occurring, your bookkeeping and accounting staff are likely overwhelmed and feeling burnt out. When you suspect that the quality of your in-house staff’s work is being compromised due to burnout, it’s time to start looking at your financial records to identify where unintentional errors may be occurring.

Audit Your Books
Systematically go through your books to look for issues. Audit your books for any of the common signs of accounting record issues, including

• General ledger errors or omissions.
• Petty cash discrepancies and/or unauthorized withdrawals of funds.
• Unusual business expenses.
• Underreported retained earnings.
• Incurred bank fees and penalties.
• Customer and/or vendor invoice inconsistencies.
• Unfavorable payment terms from suppliers.
• Current asset overestimation.
• Improper fixed asset depreciation.
• Unchanging or unreasonable inventory levels.
• Negative cash or credit account balances.
• Unrecorded interest on cash and credit accounts.

Once you know where the problems are, you’ll better understand how to fix them.

Clean Up Bookkeeping Issues
And yet, simply knowing where the problems are doesn’t magically mean that you’ll be able to fix them. If your existing staff is trustworthy and experienced enough to do good work, and yet they are so overworked that they are making mistakes, you will likely need to bring someone in from the outside to lend the time needed to fix your accounting problems effectively.

A part-time accountant (which goes by many names, including “fractional accountant,” “outsourced accountant,” “consulting accountant,” or “accounting consultant”) will have the objectivity needed to find the source of errors and the experience needed to correct them. The roadmap to cleaning up messy books that they will use includes activities like:

• Clarifying inventory numbers.
• Matching retained earnings with tax returns.
• Reconciling cash and credit accounts.
• Capitalizing fixed assets.
• Accounting for intangible assets.

As they audit your books, they will determine how far back you need to go to make corrections and use their breadth of experience to get your books in order once again. 

Maintain Clean Books
Once your books have been cleaned up, it’s time to put in the effort to keep them that way!

One of the best ways to reduce future errors is to implement the kind of automation that reduces the workload for your existing accounting staff. In fact, current data reveals that strategic technology usage in accounting can decrease errors by as much as 75% moving forward. By removing the “busywork” associated with the role, employers can not only lighten accountants’ workload, but also remove the kind of manual data entry that is most prone to human error.

 Additionally, creating an accounting policies and procedures manual is a great way to ensure that your books stay clean as staff turns over and business operations change. It might not be glamorous, but an accounting manual gives your accounting team the foundation it needs to onboard new employees, upskill existing staff, and align various teams within the organization to ensure ongoing bookkeeping accuracy.  
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When you need accurate outsourced accounting services, give us a call! We have a team of US-based accountants and bookkeepers ready to help your company get its books in order and provide any other accounting and bookkeeping services you need. We have been providing small and mid-sized companies as well as nonprofit organizations with top-rated accounting services since 2006. Find out why so many organizations trust us with their books – contact us today to find out more!