If you’re behind on your books and feeling overwhelmed about where to start, here’s the good news. You don’t need everything perfectly organized before a bookkeeper can begin. You need a few key things, and the rest fills in the gaps.

Bank statements are the single most important thing. Every business bank account, for the full period that needs to be caught up. If you’re behind two years, that means 24 months of statements. These are available through your bank’s online portal and can usually be downloaded as PDFs or CSV files. Bank statements are the backbone of catch-up work because every dollar in and out of your business flows through them.

Credit card statements come next. Every business credit card, same time period. A lot of expenses run through credit cards, and without those statements your books will have significant holes. If you’ve been using a personal card for business purchases, pull those statements too and flag which transactions were business-related.

Beyond those two essentials, gather whatever you have from this list. Don’t stress if some of it is missing.

Prior year tax returns show your bookkeeper how things were filed before, what entity type you’re operating as, and what depreciation schedules or carryforwards exist. If your CPA filed your last return, they’ll have a copy. Any 1099s you received or issued during the catch-up period are helpful for verifying income and contractor payments.

Loan documents and statements matter if you have business loans, vehicle loans, or lines of credit. The bookkeeper needs to know the original loan amount, payment breakdowns between principal and interest, and current balances. Without this, loan payments get categorized incorrectly and your balance sheet won’t be right.

Payroll records are important if you have employees. This includes pay stubs, payroll tax filings (941s and 940s), and W-2s. If you use a payroll service like Gusto or ADP, your bookkeeper can pull reports directly from there.

Sales tax filings, if applicable to your business, help reconcile revenue and confirm what’s already been reported to the state.

Invoices and receipts round things out. If you’ve been invoicing customers through any system, that data helps verify income. Receipts for large purchases help with proper categorization and asset tracking. If you don’t have receipts for smaller expenses, that’s okay. The bank and credit card statements still capture the transactions.

If you have access to QuickBooks or any accounting software you’ve been using (even partially), share that login too. Sometimes there’s usable data in there that saves time, even if it’s messy or incomplete.

The reality is that most people reaching out for catch-up bookkeeping don’t have everything neatly filed away. That’s part of why they’re behind. A good bookkeeper will work with what you have and ask questions as they go. Start by gathering bank and credit card statements for the full period and go from there. As a QuickBooks ProAdvisor in Jacksonville, Shawn has worked with clients who show up with a shoebox and clients who show up with a shared drive. Either way, the books get done.