The situation
A US-based marketing and advertising agency came to us six months behind on their books. Transactions had piled up uncategorised, several months of bank feeds were disconnected, and a previous bookkeeper had left balances that didn't match the statements.
Tax deadlines were approaching, and the founders had no reliable view of whether the agency was actually profitable.
The challenge
- ✓ 6 months of uncategorised transactions across bank and credit card accounts.
- ✓ Duplicate and missing entries from a broken bank feed.
- ✓ AR aging that didn't match reality — invoices marked paid that weren't.
- ✓ No month-end close process in place at all.
Our approach
We started with a structured cleanup plan and a fixed timeline. First, we reconnected and rebuilt the bank feeds, then worked month by month — categorising transactions, removing duplicates, and reconciling every account back to its statement.
We corrected the AR ledger by matching payments to invoices properly, and documented every material adjustment so the CPA could file with confidence.
The result
- ✓ Fully reconciled, tax-ready books delivered in 3 weeks.
- ✓ Clean P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow for the full catch-up period.
- ✓ A monthly close process now running on a fixed schedule.
- ✓ The founders finally know their real margins per client — and dropped two unprofitable accounts.
In their words
The agency has stayed with us for ongoing monthly bookkeeping. As their founder put it: the books went from a source of anxiety to a tool they actually use in every planning meeting.
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