For the people who have to make the books right.
Ledger Clinic is a working reference for bookkeepers and CPAs. Most close delays are not hard accounting, they are messy data: an Opening Balance Equity nobody cleared, a clearing account no one owns, duplicated bank-feed entries, a migration whose opening position never tied out. This is where those jobs are written down.
What this covers
Cleanup
Taking on books that are behind or wrong: what to look at first, and why the balance sheet tells you more than the P&L.
Month-end close
A close that finishes on time because the work was staged, not because someone stayed late.
Reconciliation
Accounts that tie out, and what to do with the balance that will not.
Chart of accounts
Designing a chart that answers the questions the owner actually asks.
Fixed assets
Registers that agree to the ledger, and depreciation that lands where it should.
Migrations
Moving a set of books without losing the audit trail, the opening position, or a fortnight to spreadsheet cleanup.
Data damage
Telling data damage apart from a posting mistake, and knowing when it stops being bookkeeping.
QuickBooks Online
What the common QuickBooks Online faults do to your books, and how to spot them in the numbers.
Practice workflow
Why a process that works at five clients stops working at fifty, and what to change before it does.
Latest
- Amending a Xero Chart of Accounts: Add, Edit, Archive, Delete
A bookkeeper's sequence for amending a Xero chart of accounts: when to add a code, when to edit, when to archive, and how to keep history intact.
- Effortless Bank Reconciliation Comes From Weekly Habits, Not Hacks
Effortless bank reconciliation comes from weekly habits, not tricks: clean input, small batches, real timing differences, and evidence kept for the close.
- How to Reconcile a Law Firm Trust Account Each Month
The monthly trust account reconciliation explained: match the bank statement, the trust control account, and each client ledger, and know what breaks it.
- Compliance-Ready Books: Preparing the Ledger for Every Filing
How to shape your chart of accounts, detail and month-end evidence so sales tax, payroll and information returns can be filed straight from the ledger.
- Free Bookkeeping Courses: Picking Ones That Build Real Skill
How a working bookkeeper should choose free bookkeeping courses: what to look for, what free training cannot teach, and how to practice the close.
- How to Learn Bookkeeping: Five Routes That Build Lasting Skill
Five practical ways to learn bookkeeping, from a fundamentals course to a real set of books under review, with the sequence that makes each route stick.
- Onboarding a New Bookkeeping Client: Opening Balances to First Close
How to take on a small business's books cleanly: gathering records, proving opening balances, first reconciliations, and closing your first month.
- How to Reconcile a Bank Account: A Bookkeeper's Method
A bookkeeper's method for bank reconciliation: the two balances, timing differences, errors, stale checks, and the evidence to keep for the close.