The single most important check is bank reconciliation. Every bank account and credit card should reconcile to the penny against your statements at the end of each month. If your QuickBooks balance matches your bank balance after accounting for outstanding checks and deposits in transit, that account is reconciled. If it doesn’t match, something is wrong. Either a transaction is missing, duplicated, or recorded for the wrong amount.

After reconciliation, look at your balance sheet. This is where most bookkeeping errors hide. Check for negative bank balances that shouldn’t exist, accounts receivable that includes invoices customers paid months ago, or liability accounts with unexplained amounts. Every number on the balance sheet should represent something real. If you see a line item and can’t explain what it is, that’s a problem worth investigating.

Open your profit and loss report and scan through the expense categories. Do the amounts make sense for what your business actually spent? If your office supplies show $8,000 for the quarter and you know you barely bought anything, transactions are probably miscategorized. Look at your revenue too. Compare total income on your P&L to what you see in your bank deposits. They won’t match exactly because of timing, but they should be in the same ballpark.

Check for common red flags that indicate messy books. Uncategorized or “Ask My Accountant” transactions are a sign that someone kicked the can down the road. Duplicate transactions inflate both your income and expenses and throw off everything. Transfers between accounts recorded as income or expenses will make your revenue or spending look higher than it actually is.

If you use accounts receivable or accounts payable, pull up the aging reports. Are there invoices marked as open that customers already paid? Are there bills showing as unpaid that you know you settled? These reports should reflect reality. If they don’t, payments were recorded incorrectly or not matched to the right invoices.

One practical test is to pick any five transactions at random from your books and trace them back to the source document. Find the bank statement entry, the receipt, or the invoice. If all five check out, that’s a good sign. If even one doesn’t match, there may be broader issues worth digging into.

The truth is that most business owners are great at running their business but don’t have the time or background to audit their own books regularly. That’s completely normal. Having a QuickBooks ProAdvisor in Jacksonville review your financials means someone with trained eyes is catching errors before they compound into bigger problems.

If you’ve gone months or years without verifying any of this, your books might need more than a quick review. Catch-up bookkeeping can bring everything current and clean so you’re starting from a reliable foundation. Once the books are accurate, staying on top of monthly reconciliations and reviews keeps them that way going forward.