Sample findings report
A sample free books review, findings and all.
This is the shape of what a review sends back, built on an invented file so nothing private is shown: each finding with its severity, the evidence in the file, its effect on scope and the next step, then the written scope those findings produce.
Quick answer
The free books review returns a written list of findings, each ranked High, Medium or Low, with the evidence seen in your file, what it adds to the work and the next step, then one fixed fee for that scope. If a finding needs records you don't have, the scope says so rather than guessing.
From file to decision
How findings become a scope, and a scope becomes your call.
Every review runs the same three stages. The findings describe the file, the scope turns them into work with one fee, and the decision stays with you.
Reading the report
What High, Medium and Low mean in a findings report.
High: the numbers can't be relied on until it's fixed
Cash that doesn't tie to the bank, costs counted twice, income overstated. A lender, a CPA or the owner would reach a wrong conclusion from the reports as they stand.
Medium: cash ties, but a report someone reads is misstated
Payroll lumped into one line, owner money mixed into sales, imports duplicated. The bank balance may be right while the profit and loss statement or balance sheet tells the wrong story.
Low: housekeeping that doesn't change the totals
Uncategorized items waiting on a question, near-duplicate accounts in the chart. Worth doing while the file is open; this is housekeeping, not the work that sets a scope.
The sample report
Eight findings from an invented two-account file.
Laid out the way a real report is: severity first, then the evidence that supports each finding, the scope it adds and what's needed from you.
Illustrative example — not client data. Assumptions stated.
- A service business with one owner and three employees, and no inventory.
- Two accounts: one business checking account and one business credit card.
- QuickBooks Online on a cash basis, with payroll run through an outside payroll provider.
- Nine months affected: the last completed reconciliation is nine months old, from when the previous bookkeeper stopped.
- Statements exist for every month in scope.
- Every name, amount and count below is invented for this page.
| Severity | Finding | Evidence seen in the file | Scope impact | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | Checking not reconciled for nine months | The month-nine statement ends at $18,420; the QuickBooks register shows $21,905, a $3,485 difference the file doesn't explain. | All nine months reconciled to the bank statements, with the $3,485 traced item by item. | Send the nine checking statements as PDFs from the bank. |
| High | Card payments counted as expenses | Payments from checking to the credit card are categorized to Supplies Expense, and the card's purchases are expensed as well, so those costs appear twice. | Payments reclassified to the card's liability account; the card reconciled for all nine months. | Send the nine card statements and flag any personal charges. |
| High | Customer payments stuck in Undeposited Funds | Undeposited Funds holds $12,760 of customer payments that were not grouped into deposits, while the same deposits were added from the bank feed as new income. | Each payment matched to its bank deposit; the duplicate income entries removed. | Export the payment processor's payout report for the nine months. |
| Medium | Owner money recorded as sales | Two transfers from the owner's personal account, $5,000 and $2,500, are categorized as Sales. | Both reclassified to owner contributions; income falls by the same amount. | Confirm which deposits came from personal funds. |
| Medium | Payroll posted as one net figure | Each payroll withdrawal is a single expense line, with no gross wages, employer taxes or payroll liabilities recorded. | Each payroll rebuilt from the provider's reports, splitting wages, taxes and liabilities. | Download the payroll register for each pay date in scope. |
| Medium | Duplicate imports after a feed reconnect | In month six the bank feed was reconnected and 41 transactions came in a second time. | Duplicates removed once each is matched to the statement. | Nothing needed from you. |
| Low | Transactions parked in an uncategorized account | 37 transactions sit in Ask My Accountant, the largest of them $640. | Categorized; a short question list comes back to you. | Answer the question list. |
| Low | Near-duplicate expense accounts | "Meals", "Meals and Entertainment" and "Meals 2" all hold the same kind of cost. | Merged into one account; totals don't change. | Approve the merged chart of accounts. |
- In scope: both accounts reconciled to their statements for all nine months; card payments reclassified; Undeposited Funds cleared and duplicate income removed; payroll rebuilt from the provider's reports; duplicate imports removed; open items categorized; the chart of accounts merged; a written list of anything left open.
- Outside it: income tax returns and tax advice, which stay with your CPA; months before the nine in scope; amending anything already filed.
- Engagement type: a bookkeeping cleanup, because months have to be corrected against statements, not just tidied inside the software. Had whole months never been entered, it would be a catch-up instead.
- Where the fixed fee sits: in the lower-middle of the published cleanup range, $1,800–$6,000. The three High findings carry the bulk of the work; the two Low findings barely move it.
- If the file had shown only the last three findings, with both accounts already reconciled, the work would stay inside the software and be scoped as a QuickBooks file cleanup, within $850–$2,500.
- Timing: typically two to eight weeks; the number of months in scope and the speed your statements come in decide where in that window it finishes.
- The fee itself: one fixed fee for everything listed as in scope, set in writing. It changes only if the scope changes, and a change is agreed in writing before the extra work starts.
After the report
Three ways to use the findings, and all three are yours.
Accept the written scope
Sign it and the work begins. Nothing is owed before that, and the fee is the one on the page. How an engagement runs.
Handle part of it yourself
If you would rather clear the question list or merge the accounts in-house, ask for the scope to be rewritten without those items. The fee is set again, in writing, for what remains.
Take the findings elsewhere
The evidence column tells any bookkeeper or CPA where to look, so the report is useful whoever does the work.
What the report is not. It isn't an audit, a tax opinion or a promise that nothing else is wrong: a review looks at enough of the file to scope the work, and the scope says what it covers. Tax questions a finding raises go to your CPA, who determines the answer; we structure the books so it can be tracked. Published ranges for each kind of engagement are on the pricing page.
FAQ · Updated October 2026
Questions about the review and its report.
Your file, not an invented one
Get the same report on your own books.
Findings by severity, the evidence for each, and a written fixed-fee scope you can accept, trim or take elsewhere. The review costs nothing.