People want a spreadsheet. Files are not spreadsheets.
"How much to catch up three years?" is the question I get most on reconstruction.
A public per-year band would be a marketing number. Account count, statement completeness, dead software, payroll, and merchant processors change the work. Two companies that are "three years behind" are not the same file.
I will not publish fake bands. Pricing already says this: reconstruction is quoted per file by years behind and accounts involved. The number you approve in writing is the number you pay.
What is published: the $499 diagnostic
The diagnostic is a read-only review. You get a written findings report with dollar amounts and a fixed quote to finish the rebuild. The $499 credits toward that work if you proceed.
That is the opposite of "we will figure it out as we go." It is also why I tell owners to start on book reconstruction for tax deadlines instead of shopping hourly bookkeepers who have not seen the records.
Tax professionals scoping a case should use the strategy call and reconstruction for tax professionals. Same diagnostic option if there is an existing QuickBooks file.
What actually drives the quote
- How many years, and whether they overlap a filing deadline
- How many bank, card, loan, and processor accounts
- Whether statements exist or have to be ordered from the bank
- Whether payroll, inventory, or job costing is in the file
- Whether anyone already "cleaned it up" with estimates
IRS guidance on how long to keep records is the floor. If the statements are gone and the bank cannot reproduce them, those months are gap-report items, not invented income.
If you want to see the deliverable shape before you pay for a diagnostic, sample deliverables is a monthly pack. A rebuild includes those statements for each year. I also wrote catch-up vs monthly so you do not buy the wrong product.
Monthly rates are a different conversation
Ongoing white-label delivery is quoted on your call. Comparison posts sometimes use about $150 per client per month as an illustrative wholesale example. That is not a catch-up price, and it is not a public monthly rate. Confirm the current number at pricing.
CPA firms that want historical reconstruction and then monthly delivery under their brand start at For CPA Firms. The Journal of Accountancy's offshoring guide is still useful reading on why structure and written scope beat a cheap hourly guess.
Ask for findings, then a fixed number
Do not sign an open-ended catch-up. Do not accept a verbal range. Get the diagnostic, read the findings, approve the rebuild in writing.
Get a reconstruction quote when you are ready to send records.