Experienced QuickBooks Online Cleanup & Catch-Up Bookkeepers Needed

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TYPE OF WORK

Any

SALARY

N/A

HOURS PER WEEK

TBD

DATE UPDATED

Sep 25, 2026

JOB OVERVIEW

Experienced QuickBooks Online Cleanup & Catch-Up Bookkeeper

**Remote | Contract / Part-Time to Start | Opportunity for Full Time Work**

We are a bookkeeping company specializing in helping small businesses with messy, incomplete, and behind books.

We are looking for an experienced **QuickBooks Online bookkeeper who specializes in cleanup, catch-up, and historical bookkeeping reconstruction**.

This is NOT just a monthly bookkeeping position.

Many of our clients come to us because they are months or years behind, haven't filed taxes, haven't reconciled their accounts, barely used QuickBooks, mixed personal and business expenses, or sometimes never properly set up their books at all.

We need someone who can be handed a messy situation and confidently determine:

**What happened, what's missing, what needs to be fixed, and how to fix it.**

What You'll Be Doing

You will work on client projects involving:

- QuickBooks Online cleanup and catch-up
- Historical bookkeeping reconstruction
- Setting up new QBO files when reliable books don't exist
- Reviewing existing QBO files to determine whether they should be repaired or rebuilt
- Bank and credit card reconciliations
- Categorizing and correcting historical transactions
- Reconstructing income and expenses from source records
- Payment processor reconciliation (Square, Stripe, PayPal, etc.)
- Recording processor fees, refunds, deposits, and clearing activity correctly
- Cash sales and undeposited funds
- Business loans and loan repayments
- Owner contributions, draws, and personal/business commingling
- Payroll reconciliation
- Contractor payments
- Fixed assets and equipment purchases
- Identifying potential COGS/inventory issues
- Preparing accurate financial statements for clients and their tax professionals
- Transitioning cleanup clients into ongoing monthly bookkeeping



***A Major Part of This Role: Diagnostics

Before we begin a large cleanup project, we perform a paid diagnostic.

You must be able to review a client's situation and determine:

- What records and account access are needed
- Whether the existing QBO file is reliable
- Whether we should repair the existing file or start fresh
- How far back the cleanup/reconstruction needs to go
- What information or documentation is missing
- Any major accounting issues or red flags
- What work will be required to complete the cleanup
- Estimated hours and timeline
- Recommended ongoing monthly bookkeeping scope

You should be comfortable looking at an unfamiliar and potentially messy situation and developing a clear plan of action — not simply waiting to be told what transactions to categorize.



***Example of the Type of Client You May Encounter

A business owner comes to us who:

- Started the business several years ago
- Has never maintained consistent bookkeeping
- Has multiple years of unfiled tax returns
- Has QBO but barely used it
- Uses Square for sales
- Accepts cash that isn't always deposited
- Has business loans with automatic repayments
- Uses a payroll provider
- Occasionally pays business expenses personally
- Has employees and contractors
- Has several years of bank transactions that need to be reconstructed

Your job would initially be to **diagnose and scope the situation**, determine what records are needed, and provide our team with a recommended cleanup plan and estimated workload.

If approved, you may then complete the cleanup and potentially maintain the client's books monthly.



*** You MUST Have

- Strong QuickBooks Online experience
- Significant hands-on bookkeeping experience
- Experience completing QBO cleanup and catch-up projects
- Experience reconstructing historical books from bank statements and source records
- Strong bank and credit card reconciliation skills
- Understanding of accrual vs. cash-basis bookkeeping
- Understanding of owner contributions/distributions and equity accounts
- Experience with loans and separating principal/interest
- Experience reconciling payment processors such as Square, Stripe, or PayPal
- Experience reviewing payroll activity and reconciling payroll accounts
- Ability to identify when something requires clarification from the client
- Ability to identify issues that should be referred to a CPA/tax professional
- Excellent attention to detail
- Strong written English
- Ability to explain complicated bookkeeping issues clearly and simply
- Ability to estimate the time required for a cleanup project



***Strongly Preferred

- QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor certification
- Experience working with businesses that are multiple years behind
- Experience preparing books to be handed to CPAs/tax preparers
- Experience with service-based small businesses
- Experience with POS systems such as Square
- Experience with payroll platforms
- Experience working independently for a U.S.-based bookkeeping or accounting firm



***This Position Is NOT a Good Fit If:

You primarily have experience with clean monthly books where transactions are already categorized correctly.

We need someone who **truly enjoys untangling messy books and solving problems.**

You should be comfortable encountering situations where the client doesn't know what happened, records are incomplete, QBO isn't reliable, and you have to investigate and determine the correct path forward.



***To Apply

Please apply within Onlinejobs.ph and answer the questions below:

**1. How many years of bookkeeping experience do you have?**

**2. How many QuickBooks cleanup/catch-up projects have you personally completed?**

**3. Tell me about the messiest bookkeeping project you've handled. What was wrong and how did you fix it?**

**4. Have you ever reconstructed books for a business that had little or no usable QuickBooks history? Explain.**

**5. Have you worked with clients who were multiple years behind?**

**6. What payment processors have you reconciled (Square, Stripe, PayPal, etc.)?**

**7. What payroll systems have you worked with?**

**8. Are you a QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor?**

**9. What is your hourly rate?**

**10. Approximately how many hours per week are you currently available? And are you available during US CST time zone or do you prefer your own time zone?**

**11. Do you have any significant experience working in the books of any specific industries?

**12. Would you be comfortable handling correspondence with clients?
- Please tell me which of these you feel comfortable with:

Email/Slack correspondence
Phone-calls with client
Virtually meeting with clients

**Please tell me if you have previous experience with client management/correspondence. This means onboarding, managing document retrieval, etc.


**Scenario Question

A client started a business in 2021 and has never maintained reliable books. They have one business checking account, Square POS, cash sales that aren't always deposited, payroll, two business loans, some business expenses paid personally, and several years of unfiled tax returns. They have QuickBooks, but barely used it.

**Before beginning any cleanup work, walk me through what you would review, what records/access you would request, and how you would determine the scope of the cleanup.**

Please provide a thoughtful answer. There is no need to write an essay — I am primarily interested in understanding how you approach messy bookkeeping situations.

**IMPORTANT:** Please begin your application with the words **"I LOVE MESSY BOOKS"** so I know you've read the entire posting.


We look forward to hearing from you.

SKILL REQUIREMENT
Bookkeeping Accounting Management Online Bookkeeping
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