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Why the hell should cleanup start from scratch after the diagnostic?
The diagnostic does more than identify problems. In BrokenBooks, the review answers drive the report and cleanup plan.
Bring that plan into scope, pricing, the proposal and payment without rebuilding the engagement in another tool.
As approved cleanup moves into execution, BrokenBooks creates the tasks and posts the related client questions to the portal. Your team can get on with the accounting work instead of manually translating the review into a task list and a series of requests.
The review creates the starting point for execution. Your firm performs and reviews the cleanup.
The evidence shouldn’t disappear when the work begins.
A cleanup engagement can spread across several places.
Diagnostic notes may live in spreadsheets. Client answers may sit in email threads. Approved scope may live in a proposal tool, while cleanup tasks are tracked elsewhere.
As the work moves between those systems, the team may need to re-enter information or reconstruct why a task exists.
The accounting issue becomes separated from the evidence, client response, or decision that explains it.
Execution is more than a task list.
The cleanup workspace combines work ownership, client dependencies, supporting files, task discussion, project visibility, review status, and closeout context so the firm can supervise the engagement without rebuilding the diagnostic in another system.
Keep the finding and its reasoning together.
The built-in diagnostic brings findings, supporting records and unresolved questions together, then generates the report and cleanup plan from the review answers.
Client clarification stays connected to the engagement and the issue that prompted the question.
Carry that plan into the agreed scope and the work it generates, with the basis for the cleanup still available to the team.
The person completing the cleanup should be able to understand both what needs attention and why it needs attention.
Use the diagnostic to define the work.
The generated cleanup plan gives the firm a starting point, not a substitute for professional review.
The bookkeeper still needs to evaluate the evidence, resolve relevant questions, and decide what work belongs in the engagement.
A documented diagnostic helps the firm establish:
- Which findings require corrective work.
- What remains uncertain.
- What depends on client information.
- What should be included in the proposed scope.
The cleanup workflow carries the agreed work and its context into execution so the team can refer back to the basis for the work.
See how diagnostic findings inform cleanup scope and pricing →
Keep client clarification connected to the engagement.
Clients provide information the bookkeeper may need to understand and correct the file.
BrokenBooks creates client questions from the review as approved cleanup moves into execution and posts them to the portal. Responses and supporting information stay with the engagement.
Clients can follow diagnostic milestones, see outstanding requests and access published results. They see the information relevant to them, not the firm’s internal diagnostic reasoning.
The bookkeeping team remains responsible for managing the accounting work and interpreting the information the client provides.
Make the cleanup easier to review.
A useful cleanup workflow needs more context than a list of tasks.
The team needs to understand what work was identified, why it was included, what information is still needed, and what has been completed.
BrokenBooks connects assignments, supporting documents, client requests and review status with the cleanup work and its diagnostic context.
Your firm can review the work with the relevant evidence and outstanding questions available, rather than checking off tasks without their context.
Finish with a clear handoff.
Completing cleanup includes reviewing the corrective work and documenting the state of the file.
A clear handoff should explain what was completed, what remains unresolved, and what the next professional or engagement phase needs to know.
Depending on the engagement, that next step may be:
- Ongoing bookkeeping.
- Monthly close.
- Year-end preparation.
- CPA handoff.
- Final engagement closeout.
Bring supporting information and outstanding items together for the CPA packet, or continue into ongoing bookkeeping with tasks based on configured services and cadence. Monthly close and year-end close stay connected to that relationship. The firm determines readiness and remains responsible for the completed accounting work.
The cleanup workflow is already structured and automated.
The system generates tasks and client questions from the review as approved cleanup moves into execution. Assignments, documents, discussion, review status and closeout keep the resulting work organized.
The professional still performs the accounting work. The software handles the repeatable workflow around that work so the firm does not have to rebuild a project-management system for every cleanup.
What the cleanup workspace includes today.
BrokenBooks already includes findings-linked task creation, a cleanup/rebuild command center, assignments, due dates and priorities, comments, client requests, supporting documents, work review, completion tracking, and cleanup closeout summaries.
The objective is not autonomous cleanup. The accounting professional performs and reviews the work while BrokenBooks keeps responsibility, evidence, client dependencies, and project status visible.
Built for bookkeeping and accounting professionals who perform cleanup work.
Prelaunch. In use at For The Love of Bookkeepers, with client-portal testing underway. Not yet available to other firms. Get occasional BrokenBooks development news, feature updates, and launch announcements by email. No beta-testing obligation.
Built by Candice Thompson, founder of For The Love of Bookkeepers LLC
Built for the people who fix the books. QuickBooks Online diagnostic and cleanup workflow software.
