Two years behind is more common than people admit
I review catch-up files every week. The story is usually the same.
A bookkeeper left. QuickBooks sat untouched. Bank logins expired. Then April, or an extension, or a buyer, showed up and someone asked for two years of financials that do not exist.
Owners treat this like a shame problem. It is a records problem. Two years of missing books is reconstructable if the bank still has the statements. It is not a monthly close you can "catch up on Saturday."
If that is where you are, start with book reconstruction for tax deadlines. That page is written for this exact situation. The one-year version is 1 year behind on bookkeeping. The longer stack is 3 years behind on bookkeeping.
Do not hire a closer for a reconstruction job
A current-month bookkeeper and a two-year rebuild are different products.
Monthly delivery assumes the prior period is already tied out. Reconstruction starts from bank and card statements, rebuilds the general ledger, documents every gap, and produces filing-ready statements for each year. Mixing those jobs is how files stay half-done through another filing season.
If you are a CPA firm with clients in this shape, For CPA Firms is the white-label path. If you are the business owner, you do not need a monthly subscription first. You need a scoped rebuild.
IRS filing and extension dates move every year. Waiting for "after busy season" is how year two becomes year three.
What I would gather before anyone opens the file
You do not need a perfect archive. You need source documents.
- Bank and credit-card statements for every account, for every month in the gap
- Loan statements and merchant processor payouts if those exist
- Payroll reports, 1099s, and prior-year returns if you have them
- The old QuickBooks or Xero file, even if it is wrong
Banks can usually produce up to seven years of statements. Anything without a source document goes in a gap report. We never invent a number so the P&L "looks right."
If you want to see the statement set a rebuild produces per year, look at sample deliverables. That pack is a monthly delivery example. Reconstruction uses the same statements for each rebuilt year.
What the $499 diagnostic is actually for
People ask for a rebuild price before anyone has seen the records. That quote would be fiction.
The diagnostic is a read-only review. You get a written findings report with dollar amounts and a fixed quote to finish the work. The $499 credits toward the rebuild if you proceed. Pricing is the short version: diagnostic first, reconstruction quoted per file by years behind and accounts involved. Nothing starts until you approve the number in writing.
That is the opposite of "we will figure it out as we go."
How far back, and who files
As far as source records exist. Closed businesses, dead software, and a box of PDFs are in scope if we can get the underlying statements.
Your tax preparer stays in the filing seat. We rebuild. They review and file. We do not prepare returns and we do not contact the IRS. If a number cannot be supported, it is documented, not estimated away.
A licensed CPA signs off before the file leaves. That is a workflow step, not a slogan.
If you are two years behind right now
Do not wait for a hire that may not arrive. Do not pay someone to "catch up" month by month without a written scope.
Send the records you have. Get the diagnostic. Approve a fixed quote. Hand filing-ready books to your preparer.
Get a reconstruction quote when you are ready, or start on the tax deadline reconstruction page if you want the process in writing first.