Start by figuring out what kind of errors you’re dealing with. Not all bookkeeping mistakes carry the same weight. A miscategorized office supply expense is annoying but harmless. An unreconciled bank account or missing transactions that affect your tax return is a bigger problem that needs immediate attention.

Pull your bank statements and compare them to what’s in your accounting software. If the bank balance doesn’t match the book balance, that’s your first priority. Unreconciled accounts mean transactions are missing, duplicated, or entered incorrectly. This is the foundation. Nothing else is reliable until the bank reconciliations are clean.

Check your accounts receivable and accounts payable. Are there invoices marked paid that weren’t? Vendor bills entered twice? Customer payments sitting in limbo? These errors affect your cash flow picture and can lead to awkward conversations with vendors or clients who you think owe you money.

Look at how transactions were categorized. Common mistakes include mixing up expense categories, posting personal expenses to the business, or dumping everything into miscellaneous. Category errors don’t change your total profit, but they distort your financial picture and can affect which tax deductions you’re claiming.

Review any journal entries from your previous bookkeeper. Someone who didn’t understand what they were doing might have made adjusting entries that masked problems rather than solving them. Random journal entries with vague descriptions are red flags worth investigating.

Once you understand the scope, decide how far back to go. If errors span multiple years and filed tax returns, you may need to discuss amendments with your CPA. If it’s just the current year, you have more flexibility to fix things before tax time.

For minor category fixes, you can often clean these up yourself if you’re comfortable in your accounting software. Re-categorize transactions, merge duplicate entries, and add notes explaining the corrections. For bank reconciliation issues, missing transactions, or anything affecting past tax returns, consider getting professional help. Catch-up bookkeeping exists specifically for situations like this. Trying to untangle complex problems without experience often creates new errors on top of the old ones.

When you bring in help to clean up, expect some diagnostic time upfront. A good bookkeeper will need to review what’s there before they can fix it. This isn’t wasted time. It’s the only way to understand the full picture and avoid missing issues that surface later.

Moving forward, stay involved enough to catch problems early. Review your bank reconciliation monthly. Ask questions if something doesn’t look right. Many Scottsdale bookkeeping services will walk you through your reports so you understand your numbers well enough to spot when they’re off. You don’t need to do the bookkeeping yourself, but knowing your financials at a basic level protects you from ending up in this situation again.