What is catch-up bookkeeping?
Catch-up bookkeeping brings books that stopped being kept back to the current month, reconciling every bank, card and loan account on the way. Clean-up is the close relative: the books exist but are wrong, so entries get corrected before anything new is added on top.
Backlogs rarely start with neglect: a busy spring market, a tenant turnover, a bookkeeper who left in March. The fix is always to find what is open, then close it oldest month first, so each month rests on a balance already proven.
What does Coquitlam Bookkeeping include in catch-up bookkeeping?
- A backlog review: which months are open, which accounts exist, and which statements and receipts can still be pulled
- A written scope and a fixed project fee, agreed before any work starts
- Month-by-month reconciliation of every bank, credit card, line of credit and mortgage account
- Corrections to miscoded, duplicated and personal entries, logged so your CPA can see each change
- Overdue GST and PST returns and payroll reports prepared from the reconciled figures, then a clean start in monthly bookkeeping
Which software do you use to rebuild the books?
We rebuild in QuickBooks Online or Xero, whichever you already pay for, or set one up. Old records can arrive in any shape: downloaded statements, a desktop QuickBooks file, a former bookkeeper's spreadsheet, a phone full of receipt photos.
Dext reads receipts in bulk. Where receipts are gone, the bank and card statements become the record. Each rental condo gets its own class or tracking category, so every unit reads on its own.
Should you catch up yourself, hire a bookkeeper, or leave it for the CPA?
Do it yourself only when one or two months are open and every record is in hand; beyond that, a bookkeeper is usually the cheaper route, and leaving it for the CPA tends to mean bookkeeping done at year-end, under deadline, at accountant rates.
| Do it yourself | Bring in a bookkeeper | Leave it for the CPA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Makes sense when | One or two months open, records complete | Three months to a few years open, or books that don't match the bank | Rarely; a CPA will usually want reconciled books first |
| Your time | Evenings and weekends | A few hours gathering statements and answering questions | A scramble close to the filing deadline |
| What you end up with | Current books, if nothing was missed | Reconciled books, a log of corrections, filings in order | Year-end statements, with estimates wherever records were thin |
| How it is paid | Your own hours | One fixed project fee, quoted upfront | Extra CPA time on top of the year-end engagement |
What is not included in catch-up bookkeeping?
We keep books; we don't act for you with the CRA. So:
- No negotiating penalties or interest, and no applications to the CRA's Voluntary Disclosures Program. Whether that route fits is a call for a CPA or tax lawyer.
- No personal or corporate income tax returns. We prepare the reconciled books those returns are built from.
- No forensic accounting. If the records point to missing money, we pause and suggest a CPA who does that work.
What does catch-up bookkeeping cost in Coquitlam?
Catch-up is quoted as one fixed project fee once we have reviewed the backlog. It turns on the months open, the accounts, entities and properties involved, and how complete the records are. You get it in writing first, and it moves only if the scope does.
After the last month is closed, most clients move onto a monthly tier:
| Tier | Monthly transactions | Monthly fee (CAD) | Typical shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steady | 0 to 50 | $500 to $750 | Monthly bookkeeping for single-entity businesses with straightforward transaction volume. |
| Considered | 50 to 150 | $800 to $1,200 | Monthly bookkeeping with payroll, AP, and quarterly review calls for businesses with more moving parts. |
| Bespoke | 150 or more | $1,250 to $2,000 | Holding companies, multi-entity structures, and fractional controller engagements. |
A single rental condo held personally usually sits in Steady, at $500 to $750 per month CAD. An operating company plus a rental HoldCo usually belongs in Bespoke. All fees are plus applicable taxes.
Behind on the books for a rental or presale portfolio?
A property backlog is very fixable: rent, strata fees, mortgage payments and property tax repeat monthly, and the bank statements already show them. The work is in what doesn't repeat.
For a rental condo in a City Centre or Burquitlam tower along the Evergreen Line, we rebuild:
- Rent received per unit, matched to each lease, plus any damage deposits held
- Strata fees, special levies, property tax and insurance
- Mortgage payments split into interest and principal from the lender's statements
- Repairs and suite turnovers, flagged where they might be capital so your CPA can decide
- Property manager statements, if a manager collects the rent for you
If you own the condos personally, you have to file a statement of rental income and expenses, and the CRA encourages Form T776, Statement of Real Estate Rentals. Caught-up books supply the per-property figures.
Presales need records even before anyone moves in:
- Each deposit, dated and matched to the contract of purchase and sale and any amendments
- Assignment agreements, the assignment fee, and who paid what on completion
- The statement of adjustments at completion
How those deals are taxed is for your CPA, including whether GST applies to an assignment and whether the BC home flipping tax, which reaches presale contracts as well as finished homes, comes into it. We supply the clean records.
Plenty of Tri-Cities owners run an operating company and keep rental condos in a HoldCo. When both ledgers lapse, money crosses between them untracked: the OpCo pays a strata bill, the HoldCo covers a payroll gap. We rebuild both side by side and reconcile the intercompany balance until it agrees in each.
Once you are current, keep the source documents. The CRA generally requires records to be kept for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.
Further reading
For the monthly routine that stops the books slipping again, start with The Coquitlam owner-operator's guide to bookkeeping.
- Rental property bookkeeping for Coquitlam condo owners: monthly records per unit, strata fees, and T776 figures.
- Presales and assignments: the records BC investors need to keep: the paper trail from first deposit to completion.
- A year-end checklist for Tri-Cities owner-operators: what to have ready once the backlog is closed.
A good fit if
- You are three months to a few years behind and want a fixed price before work begins
- Your bank and card statements are available, even if the receipts are patchy
- You hold rentals or presales, personally or through a HoldCo, and the books never kept pace with the portfolio
Probably not the right fit if
- A CRA audit is under way, or you need someone to deal with the CRA on your behalf
- You want rough estimates to file something by Friday rather than reconciled books
- The bank can no longer supply statements for the months in question