Foundation: Cleanup & Setup

Sometimes you have to fix what’s there before you build on it.

A fixed-fee project to clean up historical books, rebuild your chart of accounts, and get your accounting infrastructure ready for ongoing work. Scoped before we start, priced before we begin, finished on schedule.

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Foundation: cleanup and setup — clean records, organized financials
30–90 days
The typical timeline for a Foundation project.
Defined scope, fixed fee, clear timeline. Foundation is a defined project, not an open-ended engagement. You know the expected completion date before work begins.
What Foundation is

A defined project to prepare your books and systems for ongoing work.

Foundation projects are usually identified during the Financial Clarity Assessment. When the Assessment shows that your books, chart of accounts, systems, or reporting structure need correction before ongoing services can support real decision-making, Foundation is the starting point.

Typical Foundation work includes:

  • Cleaning up historical transactions and reconciliations
  • Rebuilding or restructuring the chart of accounts
  • Correcting account mappings and system setup
  • Cleaning up classes, locations, entities, or reporting dimensions
  • Reconciling balance sheet accounts back to a defensible starting point
  • Resolving integration issues between apps and the general ledger
  • Aligning the books with tax returns, management reporting, or lender needs
  • Preparing the books for ongoing accounting and advisory, Controller support, or CFO guidance
When Foundation comes first

Ongoing work does not start on broken books.

Most Foundation projects surface during the Financial Clarity Assessment. The signals usually look like this:

SIGNAL 01

Reconciliations are behind

Bank, credit card, loan, or balance sheet reconciliations have not been done consistently, or have been done incorrectly, for multiple months.

SIGNAL 02

Chart of accounts is wrong for the business

Your COA was built for a different stage, a different business model, or a generic template. It is making your reporting less useful than it should be.

SIGNAL 03

System configuration is off

Apps are integrated but feeding the wrong data. Classes and locations are inconsistent. Reporting dimensions do not match how the business actually runs.

SIGNAL 04

Entity structure needs cleanup

Multiple entities sharing transactions, intercompany entries that were never reconciled, owner draws mixed with business expenses.

SIGNAL 05

Historical data is incomplete

Financials exist but the underlying detail does not support them, or the trial balance does not tie to the tax returns.

SIGNAL 06

Transition from another firm

You are moving off a previous accountant and the books did not come over clean. Someone needs to reconcile what you inherited.

System migrations and conversions

Moving from one accounting platform to another.

Foundation engagements may include a migration from a legacy or desktop accounting platform to a cloud-based system, or between platforms as the business outgrows its original setup. We handle the conversion, validate the transferred data, and restructure the chart of accounts and reporting environment as required.

System migrations pair naturally with Foundation cleanup work or can be scoped as a standalone project. Scope and timeline depend on the size and complexity of your historical data, and we confirm the fee in writing before the work begins.

What a Foundation project looks like

Most Foundation projects run between 30 and 90 days and land in one of three typical size bands:

Targeted Cleanup

Focused scope, one to three months of cleanup
Starting at $2,000
Depending on complexity
one-time, fixed fee

Reconciliations, categorization, and books readied for ongoing work. Scope is narrow and the issues are well-understood before we start.

Most Common

Structured Rebuild

Chart of accounts rebuild, system setup, and multi-month cleanup
Starting at $4,000
Depending on complexity
one-time, fixed fee

Historical cleanup paired with chart of accounts restructuring, system reconfiguration, and integration cleanup. Built to deliver books that are accurate, structured correctly, and aligned with how the business actually operates. Reporting configuration included as defined in the project scope.

Complex Remediation

Multi-entity, multi-year, or investor and audit-prep work
Starting at $8,500
Depending on complexity
scoped per engagement

Intercompany reconciliation, multi-year remediation, or cleanup that needs to hold up for a lender, auditor, or PE conversation. Reporting configuration included as defined in the project scope.

Actual pricing is confirmed in writing after your Financial Clarity Assessment, based on scope, transaction volume, and the state of your current records.

What disorganized books actually cost

Messy books aren't just an accounting problem. They're a business problem.

When your books are behind or set up incorrectly, the consequences run further than most owners realize. Foundation doesn’t just clean up the books — it removes the hidden cost of operating on a broken financial base.

What disorganized books cost you
✕ CPA time spent correcting historical data instead of planning ahead
✕ Decisions made on numbers you can't fully trust
✕ Financing delays or denials due to messy records
✕ Tax deductions missed because records don't support them
✕ Repeated cleanup costs every time a new accountant or advisor reviews the records
✕ Limited visibility into profitability, cash flow, and operating performance
What happens after Foundation

Once the base is stable, ongoing work can begin.

Most Foundation clients move into an ongoing accounting and advisory engagement once cleanup is done. We confirm the right starting point — Fundamental, Strategic, or Transformative — before you transition into the engagement, so you begin at the right level for your business today.

See Monthly Accounting & Advisory →

Ready to start from a clean foundation?

Start with a free Discovery Call. If the Financial Clarity Assessment is the right next step, we’ll confirm that on the call.

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