QuickBooks Cleanup & Setup in Billings, MT
Messy books, uncategorized transactions, an unreconciled bank account, negative inventory, or a file that has never really matched reality — we fix it. QuickBooks cleanup and setup done once, done right.
Who this is for
- Businesses whose QuickBooks file has never been reconciled properly
- Owners moving from QuickBooks Desktop to Online
- New businesses setting up QuickBooks Online for the first time
- Anyone whose prior bookkeeper left the file in a state a CPA cannot use
- Businesses preparing for a loan, sale, audit, or investor conversation
What's included
File diagnostic
A written report of exactly what is wrong, what needs to be fixed, and the fastest path to a clean file.
Chart of accounts redesign
A clean, industry-appropriate chart of accounts you can actually run reports against.
Historical reconciliation
Every bank, credit card, and loan account reconciled month by month back to a defensible starting point.
Balance sheet cleanup
Retained earnings, opening balance equity, undeposited funds, and old A/R and A/P cleaned up.
Desktop-to-Online migration
Full migration from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online with data verified after import.
Owner training
1–2 hours of live training so you know how to use the file day-to-day (or hand it off to us for monthly bookkeeping).
How to tell if your QuickBooks file needs cleanup
Common warning signs: your bank accounts have not been reconciled in months (or ever); Opening Balance Equity has a balance; Undeposited Funds is growing every month; your P&L includes categories like 'Ask My Accountant' or 'Uncategorized Expense'; your balance sheet does not balance to reality; your CPA charges thousands each year just to make the return work.
Any one of these means your file is not being maintained. All of them together means you are making business decisions from a report that is not true — and paying more tax than you should because deductions are getting missed.
Our cleanup process
We start with a paid diagnostic — usually a few hours — that produces a written report of what is wrong and a fixed-fee quote for the cleanup. No open-ended hourly meter. The cleanup itself is scoped to a specific end date and a specific set of accounts.
During cleanup we reconcile every account month-by-month back to a defensible starting point, clean up the balance sheet, rebuild the chart of accounts, and produce trial-balance-verified financials for the cleanup period. At the end you get a file that ties, reports that make sense, and a plan for staying clean.
Most cleanups take two to six weeks. Larger or older files take longer.
Desktop to Online migration
Intuit is pushing everyone off QuickBooks Desktop. If you have not migrated yet, plan to soon — the sooner the better while your file is still supported. Migration is not just a button click: your chart of accounts needs review, third-party integrations need reconnecting, some Desktop features do not exist in Online, and the imported data needs verification. We handle the whole process and produce a side-by-side reconciliation so you can trust the result.
New QuickBooks Online setup
If you are starting fresh, we set up QBO the right way the first time: correct entity settings, an industry-appropriate chart of accounts, sales tax configured, bank feeds connected, apps integrated (Gusto, Bill.com, Stripe, Square, Shopify, or whatever your business uses), and receipt capture ready to go on your phone.
Related services
Bookkeeping Services
Clean, current books — every month, without you lifting a finger. Marlow Accounting provides monthly bookkeeping for small businesses across Billings and Montana, delivered by a dedicated team on a fixed monthly price.
Learn morePayroll Services
Payroll is where small mistakes turn into big penalties. Marlow Accounting runs full-service payroll for Montana small businesses — direct deposit, tax filings, year-end forms — integrated with your bookkeeping so nothing falls through the cracks.
Learn moreTax Planning
Filing a tax return is not tax planning. Tax planning is what happens between January and December — the strategy that decides how much you owe when the return is prepared. Marlow Accounting builds proactive tax plans for Montana business owners, then executes them across the year.
Learn moreReady to talk quickbooks cleanup & setup?
Call us or schedule an appointment — we'll answer your questions and quote your work up front.