How far behind is too far behind?

There isn't a point where it stops being fixable. We have taken on books that were four years untouched. What changes with time is the cost and the penalty exposure, not whether it can be done.

Should I file if I can't pay what I owe?

Almost always yes. The failure-to-file penalty runs at 5% of the tax due per month and the failure-to-pay penalty runs at 0.5% per month. Filing stops the one that costs ten times more, even if you can't clear the balance. Payment arrangements exist; a cheaper penalty clock does not.

What does catch-up bookkeeping cost?

We quote it after looking, not before. The drivers are how many months you're behind, transaction volume, how many bank and card accounts feed in, whether payroll and inventory are involved, and how much of the source documentation still exists. Quoting that blind is how people end up with a number that changes later.

How long does it take?

Weeks rather than months for most engagements, and the limiting factor is usually document retrieval rather than the bookkeeping itself. If bank statements have to be requested from an institution, that sets the pace.

What if I've lost the receipts and statements?

Bank and card statements can be pulled from the institution, and they carry most of what's needed. Missing receipts matter for substantiating specific deductions, not for producing a set of books. We work out what's genuinely reconstructable and tell you plainly what isn't.

Do I need catch-up or cleanup?

Catch-up fills in what was never recorded. Cleanup corrects what is recorded but wrong: miscategorised expenses, a chart of accounts full of duplicates, reconciliations that never balanced. Many businesses need both. Which one you need decides the timeline and the cost.

Catch-up & cleanup · DFW & virtual nationwide

Catch-up bookkeeping, for when you're behind and need to file.

Months or years of transactions nobody recorded, a return you can't file until somebody does, and a penalty running the whole time. We do the books and we file the return, in the same firm, so getting current is one engagement instead of two.

Tell us how far behind you are Call 347-787-0596

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✓ Doing this since 2013
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Should you file if you can't pay?

Yes, and it is not a close call. Filing stops a penalty that runs ten times faster than the one for not paying.

This is the single most expensive misunderstanding we see in businesses that have fallen behind. It comes from a reasonable instinct: don't file until you can pay the bill. The IRS prices those two failures very differently, and the gap is not small.

Failure-to-file versus failure-to-pay penalty rates
Penalty	Rate	Ceiling
Failure to file	5% of the tax due, per month or part month	Caps at 25%, roughly five months in
Failure to pay	0.5% of the tax due, per month	Keeps accruing after the filing penalty has maxed out
More than 60 days late	A minimum penalty applies regardless of the balance: $525 for returns due after 31 December 2025, or 100% of the unpaid tax if that is less

When both apply in the same month the filing penalty is reduced by the payment penalty, so they don't simply stack. The shape of it still holds. The expensive clock is the one you stop by filing. You stop it whether or not you can pay a cent of the balance.

The reason for that ten-to-one gap is worth knowing, because it tells you what the IRS is actually asking for. Without a return they cannot work out what you owe at all. Money can be chased later; the paperwork is what the whole system runs on. So the penalty is priced to get the filing, not the payment. Which is exactly why filing without paying is not the reckless option it feels like.

You can size your own exposure in about a minute. Take the tax you would owe for the unfiled year. Multiply it by 5% for each month or part month the return is late, and stop counting at 25%. That is the failure-to-file penalty, and it is the part that filing ends. Owe $30,000 and be a year late and you are looking at $7,500 on top, most of which was avoidable by sending in a return you could not pay.

Pass-through entities have their own version, and it is worse in a specific way. Late partnership and S-corporation returns are penalised under IRC §6698 and §6699 per owner, per month, for up to twelve months. That one is charged on the entity return whether or not any tax was due at all. A two-owner S-corp that is a year late has a real penalty on a return that might have owed nothing.

Rates above are the current federal figures published by the IRS. The per-owner amounts under §6698 and §6699 are adjusted for inflation each year. So we quote the current figure against your specific years, rather than print a number here that goes stale.

Why an EA and not just a bookkeeper

Most catch-up work is sold by bookkeepers, and most of them are good at it. The limitation shows up at the end. Reconstructed books are not the point of the exercise. The filed return is. Say the books land back with you in good order, and the return still has to go somewhere else. You have solved the cheaper half of the problem and paid for a handover.

The decisions that matter during a catch-up are tax decisions wearing bookkeeping clothes: which year a cost belongs in, whether something is a repair or a capital improvement, whether an owner draw was really payroll, whether a year is worth amending once the books are right. Someone who doesn't file returns will make those calls conservatively or not at all, because they aren't the one signing.

There is also the part that only matters when it matters. If penalties have already been assessed, first-time abatement and reasonable-cause relief are worth asking for. That is a representation job, not a bookkeeping one.

What it costs, and what actually drives it

We quote catch-up after looking at it, not before. The reason is not evasiveness. The range is genuinely wide, and a number given blind is a number that changes later. What we can tell you is exactly what moves it, so you can guess where you sit before you call:

·How far behind you are. The largest single driver, and it is not linear. A second year costs less than the first, because by then we know your business.
·Transaction volume. A service business with 50 transactions a month is a different job from an e-commerce seller with 500.
·How many accounts feed in. One checking account and one card is simple. Four banks, three cards, PayPal and Stripe is not.
·Payroll and inventory. Either one adds real work. Both together change the shape of the engagement.
·What documentation survives. Statements can be pulled from the bank. Time spent chasing what can't be recovered is the part nobody budgets for.
·Whether personal and business money got mixed. Common, fixable, and it adds a pass over everything.

For reference, ongoing monthly bookkeeping starts at $400/month once you're current. You'll have a fixed figure for the catch-up before you commit to anything.

Nobody here is going to make you feel bad about a shoebox

The most common reason books stay bad for years isn't cost and isn't difficulty. It's that the owner is embarrassed to show anyone. Every month that passes makes the showing worse, so it keeps not happening. The job that would have taken a week in year one is a project by year three.

Whatever state yours are in, you are not the worst we have seen this year, and you almost certainly aren't the worst we've seen this month. We have started from a carrier bag of receipts and a bank login more than once. It is a known category of work, not a confession.

When this is not the right call

Three situations, and the first one means you should stop reading and pick up the phone to somebody else today.

·You have had contact from IRS Criminal Investigation, or you know the returns were wrong rather than late. That is a criminal defence matter and it needs a tax attorney before it needs a bookkeeper. Privilege is the reason, and we cannot give it to you.
·Your books are current and you just want them cheaper. This is not that service. There are national providers at a fraction of our rate and for a single-account business they may well be the right answer.
·You need audited financial statements. Auditing is CPA-only attest work. We prepare financial statements, and we will bring in the CPAs we work with when somebody outside your business needs assurance on the numbers.

Common questions

How far behind is too far behind?: There isn't a point where it stops being fixable. We have taken on books that were four years untouched. What changes with time is the cost and the penalty exposure, not whether it can be done.
Should I file if I can't pay what I owe?: Almost always yes. The failure-to-file penalty runs at 5% of the tax due per month and the failure-to-pay penalty runs at 0.5% per month. Filing stops the one that costs ten times more, even if you can't clear the balance. Payment arrangements exist; a cheaper penalty clock does not.
What does catch-up bookkeeping cost?: We quote it after looking, not before. The drivers are how many months you're behind, transaction volume, how many bank and card accounts feed in, whether payroll and inventory are involved, and how much of the source documentation still exists. Quoting that blind is how people end up with a number that changes later.
How long does it take?: Weeks rather than months for most engagements, and the limiting factor is usually document retrieval rather than the bookkeeping itself. If bank statements have to be requested from an institution, that sets the pace.
What if I've lost the receipts and statements?: Bank and card statements can be pulled from the institution, and they carry most of what's needed. Missing receipts matter for substantiating specific deductions, not for producing a set of books. We work out what's genuinely reconstructable and tell you plainly what isn't.
Do I need catch-up or cleanup?: Catch-up fills in what was never recorded. Cleanup corrects what is recorded but wrong: miscategorised expenses, a chart of accounts full of duplicates, reconciliations that never balanced. Many businesses need both. Which one you need decides the timeline and the cost.

Tell us how far behind you are. We'll tell you what it takes.

Tell us the last year you filed and roughly how many accounts are involved. That is enough for us to come back with a scope and a fixed figure. No charge for the look. If the answer is that you need less than you think, we will say so. And if penalties are already running, the sooner someone looks, the smaller that number gets.

Tell us the last year you filed

Or reach us directly: 347-787-0596 · hello@rwbtax.us