One year is the easy one people still postpone
I see a lot of files that started as "we will catch up after busy season."
Then the bookkeeper left. The login expired. The extension got filed. Suddenly the missed year is sitting under a new year that is already messy.
One year behind is still reconstructable. It is also the cheapest moment to stop the slide. Wait, and you are reading 2 years behind on bookkeeping instead of this post.
This is not a monthly close you can squeeze in
A current-month bookkeeper assumes last month already ties out. One missed year does not.
You need bank and card statements for every month, a rebuilt general ledger, documented gaps, and filing-ready statements for that year. That is book reconstruction for tax deadlines, not a weekend in QuickBooks.
IRS filing dates move every year. Hoping the calendar will wait is how year one becomes year two.
What I would pull before anyone opens the file
You do not need a perfect archive. You need source documents.
- Twelve months of bank and credit-card statements for every account
- Loan statements and processor payouts if they exist
- Payroll reports and the prior-year return
- The old software file, even if it is wrong
The IRS expects you to keep records that support the return. Banks can usually produce the statements if you lost the PDFs. Anything without a source document goes in a gap report. We never invent a number so the P&L looks complete.
If you want to see the statement set a rebuild produces per year, look at sample deliverables. That pack is a monthly example. Reconstruction uses the same statements for the year we rebuild.
Quote the year. Do not guess it.
People ask for a catch-up price before anyone has seen the records. That number would be fiction.
Start with the $499 diagnostic: a read-only review, a written findings report with dollar amounts, and a fixed quote to finish the year. The diagnostic credits toward the rebuild. Pricing is the short version.
If you are a CPA firm holding this client, For CPA Firms is how the same rebuild ships under your brand. If you are the owner, you do not need a monthly subscription first. You need one year closed.
Close it before the next deadline
Send the records you have. Approve a written 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.