Chapter 15
Checking Your Work
In This Chapter
Sweeping through the bank accounts with a stiff broom
Getting debtors and creditors spick and span
Ensuring your tax codes are as clean as a whistle
Mopping up control accounts
Digging for dirt
One of the services I offer as part of my consultancy business is a 12-step bookkeeping health check, where I go through a client’s set of accounts from top to bottom, identifying possible problems.
Clients sometimes wonder how I can sit down in front of a set of seemingly perfect accounts containing many thousands of transactions, and in a few minutes uncover a whole list of mistakes. Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t have any psychic gifts or special powers, just a bag of tricks that I’ve honed over many years.
I’ve guarded these techniques carefully over the years, but in this chapter, I share the whole kit and caboodle with you. Best of all (and unlike other kinds of health checks that I’d rather not think about right now), there’s no physical exercise, diets or grisly confessions involved.
Starting With the Bank Accounts
The first three steps of my 12-step health check involve verifying bank balances. Not only do I check that every account is reconciled, but I also check for stale transactions and strange-looking dates.
Bank accounts are a great starting point when you’re checking accounts; if a bank account balance isn’t correct, then ...
