The accounting work doesn’t stop after the cleanup. Neither should the system.

You do not have to build the system before you can use it.

The diagnostic questions, report structure and cleanup workflow are built in. Your firm follows an established accounting process instead of designing its own checklist, report template and task system before the work can begin.

BrokenBooks handles the repeatable setup around the work. Your team reviews the evidence, checks the results and makes the accounting decisions.

The first client conversation matters just as much as the final handoff.

Before you define cleanup scope, onboard ongoing work, review a file before tax preparation, or complete due diligence, you need to understand what the QuickBooks Online file can—and cannot—tell you.

What has been reviewed? Which findings have supporting evidence? What needs client clarification? What work might be necessary to correct the file?

When that information is scattered across notes, email threads, and the reviewer’s memory, it becomes harder to explain the cleanup, review someone else’s findings, or return to the engagement after an interruption.

The diagnostic turns those answers into findings, a report and a cleanup plan, with the supporting context kept alongside them.

Start with client context already available.

Your firm uses the structured intake and customizes supported wording and instructions. Your client answers the questions.

Those answers stay with the engagement, giving the reviewer a starting point for understanding the client’s circumstances and the file they are about to review.

The bookkeeper can use that context throughout the diagnostic instead of repeatedly collecting information the client has already provided.

Review the file through a consistent diagnostic framework.

BrokenBooks guides the reviewer through a structured assessment of the QuickBooks Online file. Applicable review areas depend on the file and the engagement.

As the bookkeeper answers the diagnostic questions, the review records:

• What was checked.
• What was found.
• What remains unknown.
• What evidence supports the conclusion.
• What requires client clarification.
• What may need to become cleanup scope.

The framework provides a common structure for the review. The bookkeeper evaluates the findings and makes the accounting decisions.

Explore the diagnostic workflow →

Turn the review into a report and cleanup plan.

Your team should not have to write the report from scratch after completing the assessment.

BrokenBooks generates the diagnostic report and cleanup plan from the review answers. Findings, supporting records and unresolved questions stay connected to the assessment.

The firm reviews the results against the evidence before sharing them with the client or recommending work.

The same review context stays available as the engagement moves into scope, pricing and execution.

Keep client questions connected to the review.

Some findings cannot be resolved from the QuickBooks Online file alone. They require information from the client.

As approved cleanup moves into execution, BrokenBooks creates tasks and posts the related client questions to the portal. The bookkeeper does not have to recreate each request separately.

Clients can answer requests, provide supporting information, follow diagnostic milestones and access published results in their portal.

Your team can return to the work with the responses and supporting context together. Internal review notes and diagnostic reasoning remain separate from the client-facing view.

Give your firm a repeatable review process.

Cleanup expertise often sits with the most experienced person on the team. As the firm grows, that can make it difficult to establish a consistent diagnostic process.

Two reviewers may examine the same file and produce different documentation, ask different questions, or identify different potential cleanup work.

BrokenBooks gives the team a shared assessment process and a consistent report structure, with the work that follows built from the review.

Less experienced reviewers still need training and supervision. Experienced reviewers still apply their judgment. A shared process makes the work easier to follow and gives senior reviewers clearer documentation to evaluate.

Build the foundation for a clearer cleanup decision.

A useful diagnostic establishes more than a list of problems.

It helps the firm understand:

• What appears to be wrong.
• What the available evidence supports.
• What remains unresolved.
• What additional information is needed.
• What corrective work may be required.

The generated cleanup plan gives the firm a starting point for reviewing the work, defining scope and applying its pricing.

Your firm decides what to recommend and reviews the proposal before the client accepts it. The software carries the assessment forward; it does not replace that judgment.

What BrokenBooks brings together today.

Handle intake, the diagnostic, generated reports, scope, proposals and payment in the same system as cleanup tasks, client questions, supporting documents and work review.

Continue the relationship with ongoing bookkeeping tasks based on the client’s configured services and cadence, followed by monthly close and year-end close.

Bring supporting information and outstanding items together for CPA preparation. Your firm reviews readiness and manages the handoff.

The product is broader than the diagnostic. The diagnostic is the accounting foundation that gives the rest of the engagement context.

Built for bookkeeping and accounting professionals.

BrokenBooks is designed for professionals who need a clearer, more consistent way to review a QuickBooks Online file at the depth the engagement requires.

Use the Comprehensive Diagnostic or Financial Reliability Review to assess the books for the engagement at hand, with cleanup scope and the next steps grounded in the review.

The built-in diagnostic provides the accounting foundation. Connected firm workflows keep the engagement moving without asking you to rebuild that process in another system.

Built by Candice Thompson.

BrokenBooks was founded by Candice Thompson, founder of For The Love of Bookkeepers LLC.

Candice brings 25 years of accounting experience and hands-on QBO cleanup work to BrokenBooks. She built it to put her diagnostic process into software and connect the work of running a client engagement in one system.

Follow BrokenBooks as it develops.

Prelaunch. In use at For The Love of Bookkeepers, with client-portal testing underway. Not yet available to other firms.

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