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QuickBooks Cleanup Services

QUICKBOOKS CLEANUP & REPAIR SERVICES

Your QuickBooks is telling you lies. The P&L doesn't match reality. Transactions are uncategorized. Duplicates everywhere. Your CPA charges extra because they have to fix the books before filing. One recent Pittsburgh client had $4,200 in duplicate expenses hiding in their file. Another had 2,847 uncategorized transactions. We fix all of it. Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor based in Cranberry Township, PA, serving businesses across Pittsburgh, Butler County, and the North Hills.

$500 to $5,000+ flat fee

Deliverables

WHAT YOU GET

Uncategorized transaction cleanup with proper account coding
Duplicate transaction identification and removal
Full bank and credit card reconciliation for the entire cleanup period
Chart of accounts rebuild (most messy files have 200+ accounts when 30 will do)
Misclassified transaction review to uncover hidden tax deductions
Broken bank feed reconnection and repair
Corrected P&L, Balance Sheet, and cash flow statements for the full cleanup window
QuickBooks rules and automation setup to keep your books clean going forward
PA sales tax account reconciliation if you collect sales tax
1099 vendor tracking cleanup ahead of tax season
Handoff summary with every fix documented so your CPA has a clean audit trail

The Process

HOW IT WORKS

01

Free Assessment

Send us read-only access to your QuickBooks file. We review the current state of your books and tell you exactly what needs to be fixed. No cost, no commitment. You'll get an honest scope of work and a flat-fee quote within 48 hours. Most assessments turn up between 3 and 8 specific issues we can point to before you ever pay a dollar.

02

Cleanup Plan

Based on the assessment, we build a prioritized cleanup plan. You'll see exactly what we're fixing, how long it will take, and what it will cost before we start. No hourly billing. No surprise invoices. You approve the plan in writing before we touch anything in your QuickBooks file.

03

Execute the Cleanup

We work through every month, every account, every transaction. Categorize what's uncategorized. Delete the duplicates. Rebuild the chart of accounts. Reconcile everything against your bank statements. Handle PA sales tax remittances and Allegheny County local tax entries if they apply. Minimal involvement from you. We handle the heavy lifting and send weekly progress notes so you know where we are.

04

Review and Handoff

Once the cleanup is complete, we walk you through the clean books on a screenshare call. You'll get a summary of every fix we made, corrected financial statements for the full cleanup period, and a QuickBooks file you can actually trust. Your CPA gets a handoff document that explains every adjustment. No more scrambling at tax time.

Ready to hand off your books?

One call. We'll figure out exactly what you need and what it costs.

Let's Talk About Your Books →

The Impact

WHY IT MATTERS

Here's what QuickBooks cleanup actually looks like when it's done right. A roofing contractor in the Pittsburgh metro came to us 14 months behind on their books. The QuickBooks file had 2,847 uncategorized transactions. We found $4,200 in duplicate entries that were inflating expenses. The chart of accounts had ballooned to 187 accounts when the business needed 34. We rebuilt the entire chart of accounts, reconciled every account for all 14 months, and properly categorized every transaction. The result? Over $12,000 in deductions that were hiding in misclassified accounts. Six-week turnaround. The contractor's CPA estimated more than $3,000 in tax savings that year alone. Different industry, same story. A Shopify store owner in Cranberry Township had three years of merged personal and business transactions in one QuickBooks file. Sales tax hadn't been reconciled since the store launched. Inventory costs were running through the wrong accounts. Over 600 Shopify payouts were sitting uncategorized. We separated the personal from the business, rebuilt the sales tax liability account against actual PA sales tax filings, and reworked inventory costing using real Shopify reports. Clean books in eight weeks. The owner discovered over $8,000 in legitimate business expenses that had been coded as personal draws. That's not tax magic. That's just accurate bookkeeping. Cleanup in Pennsylvania carries specifics that a generic national service won't catch. If you collect PA sales tax, your QuickBooks sales tax liability account needs to reconcile to what you've actually filed with the PA Department of Revenue. Most messy files have a sales tax account that hasn't been touched in months. In Allegheny County, Pittsburgh's local services tax and the 2% local income tax for some school districts show up as payroll deductions that are frequently misclassified. We've seen Pittsburgh businesses with 18 months of local tax remittances coded as generic payroll expense, which throws off both the P&L and the tax return. Our cleanup includes a full pass on PA-specific tax accounts. On the platform question: we work with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. Most cleanups include a recommendation around Desktop-to-Online migration. Intuit announced that QuickBooks Desktop 2022 support ended May 31, 2024, and Desktop 2023 support is scheduled to end in 2026. If you're still on Desktop, cleanup is often the right moment to move to Online, because we're already going through every transaction anyway. We'll give you an honest read on whether migration makes sense. If Desktop still fits your setup, and for some multi-company or industry-specific files it does, we clean up in place. Every cleanup is done by or under the review of a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. That's not a marketing badge. It means we've tested through Intuit's certification program and have direct access to Intuit's ProAdvisor support channel when a file has a stubborn reconciliation error that standard support can't solve. For Pittsburgh businesses, it also means you can verify the credential on Intuit's own ProAdvisor directory. Not every bookkeeper holds it. Most clients move to our monthly bookkeeping service after cleanup is finished. Falling behind once usually means the DIY system isn't working. Monthly bookkeeping with us starts at $399 and keeps the file clean without you touching it. One-time cleanup as a standalone is absolutely fine too. Either way, we set up QuickBooks rules and automation to keep things organized going forward, and we document every fix we made so you have a clear record if your CPA asks questions at tax time. You'll actually be able to trust your P&L. You'll make decisions based on real numbers instead of guesses. And when tax season comes, your CPA won't charge you an extra $1,500 to fix the books before they can file.

Best Fit

IS THIS RIGHT FOR YOU?

You're 3 or more months behind on bookkeeping
Your CPA told you the books need to be cleaned up before they can file
You tried doing it yourself and it got away from you
A previous bookkeeper left your QuickBooks file in bad shape
Your P&L doesn't match what you know is happening in the business
You have a shoebox of receipts and no idea where to start
You're planning to sell your business and need clean financials for due diligence
You're applying for an SBA loan or line of credit and the bank wants accurate statements
You've been running personal and business transactions through the same QuickBooks file

Common Questions

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

It depends on how far behind you are and how messy the file is. A few months of cleanup typically takes 1 to 2 weeks. A full year might take 3 to 4 weeks. Multi-year cleanups can take 6 weeks or more. Heavy transaction volume adds time. We'll give you a realistic timeline during the free assessment so you know exactly what to expect.

Pricing is a flat fee based on scope. 1 to 3 months messy runs $500 to $900. Full-year cleanup runs $900 to $1,800. Multi-year cleanups with heavy transaction volume run $1,800 to $5,000+. You'll get a fixed quote after the free assessment. No hourly billing. No surprise invoices. You know the total cost before we start.

Yes, in stages. Intuit ended support for QuickBooks Desktop 2022 on May 31, 2024. Desktop 2023 support ends in 2026. Intuit is pushing most customers toward QuickBooks Online. If you're on Desktop, cleanup is often the right moment to migrate, because we're already touching every transaction. That said, some businesses (multi-company files, industry-specific editions, certain inventory setups) are better off staying on Desktop for now. We'll give you a straight answer during the assessment.

Cleanup fixes what's wrong in your QuickBooks file. Duplicates, misclassifications, broken reconciliation, chart of accounts problems. Catch-up bookkeeping enters transactions that never got recorded in the first place. Some files need both. When they do, we bundle the work into one flat fee so you're not paying twice for the same transaction review. See our catch-up bookkeeping page for more detail on that service.

Yes. We use QuickBooks Online's built-in user permissions. You grant us accountant-level access through Intuit's secure system. We never ask for your login credentials. Your data stays in QuickBooks, protected by Intuit's security infrastructure. We can work with read-only access for the initial assessment.

Both. We primarily work with QuickBooks Online, which is what we recommend for most businesses going forward. If you're on QuickBooks Desktop, we can clean up in place or migrate you to Online as part of the cleanup. The migration path usually makes sense because it gives you better bank connections, automated rules, and remote access to your books.

Not strictly, but it matters for complex cleanups. A ProAdvisor has tested through Intuit's certification and has direct access to Intuit's ProAdvisor support channel for stubborn issues that standard QuickBooks support can't resolve. Peacock Bookkeeping Services holds the credential. You can verify any bookkeeper's ProAdvisor status on Intuit's public directory before hiring.

We still fix it. Long-term messy files are common. Often a previous bookkeeper left, the owner tried DIY, and the chart of accounts just grew and grew. Multi-year cleanups take longer (typically 6 to 10 weeks) and cost more ($3,500+), but the process is the same. We start with the current year and work backward, prioritizing whatever impacts the most recent tax return first.

You grant us read-only access to your QuickBooks file. Within 48 hours, we send back a written scope that lists what's wrong (duplicates, unreconciled accounts, misclassified transactions, chart of accounts issues, broken bank feeds), how long the cleanup will take, and a flat-fee quote. If you decide to move forward, we start. If you don't, we remove our access. No cost either way.

Yes, but with a recommendation. QuickBooks for Mac is a smaller product with fewer features and more limited third-party integrations. If you're on Mac, cleanup often includes a conversation about migrating to QuickBooks Online, which runs on any browser and has a much larger ecosystem. We'll lay out the options during the assessment.

You can. After cleanup, we set up rules and automations in QuickBooks to make ongoing bookkeeping easier. Some clients prefer to handle it themselves from there. Most end up moving to our monthly bookkeeping service because they'd rather spend their time running the business. No pressure either way.

Cleanup is concentrated work. A single cleanup project can involve reviewing thousands of transactions that a monthly service would have handled 50 at a time over the course of a year. You're paying for the retroactive work, not the ongoing rate. After cleanup, most clients move to monthly bookkeeping at $399 per month, which is the lower ongoing rate.

Yes. Peacock is based in Cranberry Township, PA and our primary client base is greater Pittsburgh (Allegheny County, Butler County, Washington County, Beaver County, and the surrounding areas). QuickBooks cleanup is remote-friendly, so we work with businesses across Pennsylvania and occasionally in Ohio and West Virginia. If you need someone local for in-person meetings, Pittsburgh metro is where we can drive.

Yes. If you're a Pittsburgh-area business (Allegheny County, Butler County, Westmoreland County, Beaver County) see our dedicated QuickBooks Cleanup Pittsburgh page at /services/quickbooks-cleanup-pittsburgh. It covers PA sales tax reconciliation, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County local tax classifications, in-person handoff options at our Cranberry Township office, and real worked examples from Pittsburgh-area clients (plumbing contractor in Moon Township, restaurant in Lawrenceville, Shopify seller in Wexford).

GET YOUR FREE QUICKBOOKS ASSESSMENT

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