Advertise on podcast: Bookkeeping Made Simple

Just because your bookkeeping software has categorized every transaction doesn't mean your books are accurate. In this episode of Books & Backbone, Donna Harris of Bookkeeping Made Simple explains the difference between automated transaction categorization and a genuine bookkeeping cleanup. Learn why bank reconciliations, balance sheet reviews, and accounting judgment still matter—even when you're using QuickBooks Online automation. Donna also discusses common mistakes involving loan payments, transfers, receivables, payables, and owner transactions. You'll leave with three practical questions to help determine whether your financial statements are reliable enough to support business decisions. Part of our October series: Don't Let 2026 Follow You Into 2027. Need help getting your books back on track? Schedule a complimentary 20-minute Financial Clarity Call at https://mysimplebookkeeping.com/contact. Website: https://mysimplebookkeeping.comOffice: 801-692-0032 Donna's new personal finance book, From Broke to Bankable, releases October 20. Hosted by Donna Harris, MBA, MAcc, founder of Bookkeeping Made Simple LLC.

What does it really take to catch up months—or years—of neglected bookkeeping? In this episode, Donna Harris, owner of Bookkeeping Made Simple, walks through the professional catch-up bookkeeping process, from identifying the starting point and gathering records to reconciling accounts, investigating discrepancies, and correcting errors. Learn why entering transactions isn't the same as producing accurate books, what causes cleanup projects to become complicated, and what business owners should expect from a legitimate bookkeeping engagement. If your QuickBooks records are behind or your financial reports don't seem right, this episode explains why getting caught up is only half the job. Getting the numbers right is what matters. Visit https://mysimplebookkeeping.com to schedule a Financial Clarity Call. Books & Backbone delivers practical financial guidance for small business owners who want clarity, control, and confidence in their numbers.

Getting nine months behind on bookkeeping doesn't simply mean you have nine months of transactions to enter. Each unreconciled month can carry problems into the next. Donna Harris, MBA, MAcc, explains what legitimate catch-up bookkeeping actually involves: establishing a reliable starting point, reconciling accounts period by period, investigating discrepancies, correcting balance-sheet errors, and rebuilding financial statements you can actually trust. Because January doesn't fix December's books—and categorization isn't the same thing as cleanup. Need help getting your books caught up? Book a Financial Clarity Call: mysimplebookkeeping.com/contactBookkeeping Made Simple: mysimplebookkeeping.comOffice: 801-692-0032 Books & Backbone is hosted by Donna Harris, MBA, MAcc, founder of Bookkeeping Made Simple. From Broke to Bankable releases October 20.

What actually happens when a business goes nine months without reconciling its books? Usually, nothing dramatic—at first. Transactions continue downloading, QuickBooks keeps producing reports, and the P&L may look perfectly reasonable. Meanwhile, duplicate transactions, missing activity, incorrect balances, unapplied payments, loan discrepancies, and other problems can quietly accumulate underneath those reports. In this episode, Donna Harris explains what unreconciled books really look like, why a P&L isn't proof that the accounting behind it is correct, and why waiting until January turns a manageable bookkeeping problem into a much larger cleanup project. October still gives business owners something January doesn't: time to fix it.

What bookkeeping problems have quietly followed your business into Q4? In this episode, Donna Harris walks through a practical review business owners can use to spot missing reconciliations, unresolved discrepancies, questionable balance-sheet accounts, old receivables, inaccurate loan balances, and other issues before year-end. The goal isn't to turn business owners into accountants. It's to know which questions to ask—and recognize when the numbers need attention. October gives you something January can't give you: time to find the problems while you can still do something about them this year. Ready for more financial clarity in your business?Book a Financial Clarity Call with Donna and the Bookkeeping Made Simple team. Bookkeeping Made SimpleWebsite: MySimpleBookkeeping.comBook a Financial Clarity Call: https://one.smrtlv.net/widget/booking/GxMD0Yo2wiZUSeJqIomU Books & Backbone with Donna Harris, MBA, MAccStronger businesses. Brighter futures.

Whatever is wrong with your books on December 31 doesn't disappear when the calendar turns to January. In this episode, Donna Harris explains why October is the time to identify unreconciled accounts, questionable balances, old receivables, loan discrepancies, and other bookkeeping problems that may have accumulated quietly during the year. She also explains the difference between simply categorizing transactions and maintaining books you can actually trust—and gives business owners a practical way to review their financial picture as Q4 begins. January isn't a bookkeeping reset button. October gives you time to find the problems, correct them, and make year-end decisions using reliable information. Ready for more financial clarity in your business?Book a Financial Clarity Call with Donna and the Bookkeeping Made Simple team. Bookkeeping Made SimpleWebsite: MySimpleBookkeeping.comBook a Financial Clarity Call: https://one.smrtlv.net/widget/booking/GxMD0Yo2wiZUSeJqIomU Books & Backbone with Donna Harris, MBA, MAccStronger businesses. Brighter futures.

Q4 is almost here. But finishing the year intentionally isn’t about scrambling in December to hit arbitrary goals—it’s about knowing where your business actually stands and deciding what you want the final quarter to accomplish. In this episode of Books & Backbone, Donna Harris talks about what an intentional year-end really looks like: reviewing your numbers, identifying what still needs attention, making deliberate decisions about cash, expenses, taxes, debt, and growth, and using the remaining months of the year instead of simply letting them happen. The goal isn’t to make every number perfect by December 31. It’s to finish the year knowing what happened, why it happened, and what you want to carry forward into the next one. Ready for more financial clarity in your business?Book a Financial Clarity Call with Donna and the Bookkeeping Made Simple team. Bookkeeping Made SimpleWebsite: MySimpleBookkeeping.comBook a Financial Clarity Call: https://one.smrtlv.net/widget/booking/GxMD0Yo2wiZUSeJqIomU Books & Backbone with Donna Harris, MBA, MAccStronger businesses. Brighter futures.

Don't start your 2027 plan with an arbitrary growth percentage. Start with what 2026 actually taught you. Donna Harris explains how to use revenue, margins, cash flow, staffing, capacity and owner goals to build a forward-looking plan grounded in real financial information. The books may record the past—but their real value is helping you decide what to do next.

The September estimated-tax payment is behind us. Now it's time to look at Q4. Donna Harris explains why estimated payments shouldn't simply run on autopilot, how changes in profit and income can make an earlier estimate obsolete, and why tax reserves should be treated as unavailable operating cash. Taxes are easier to manage when the money is reserved while it's earned—not searched for after it's spent.

100% bonus depreciation can make year-end equipment purchases attractive—but a deduction doesn't make an unnecessary purchase smart. Donna Harris explains bonus depreciation, Section 179, the importance of placing property in service, and the financial questions an owner should answer before spending money solely because December 31 is approaching. Buy what makes the business stronger. Then use the tax rules intelligently.

Q4 brings equipment purchases, estimated taxes, distributions, hiring decisions and year-end tax strategies. But the right decision for one business can be exactly wrong for another. Donna Harris explains why good Q4 planning starts with reliable financial information—and why cash in the bank isn't necessarily cash available to spend. Clean books aren't the objective. They're what allow an owner to make decisions from reality.

Can you file a tax return from unreliable books? Certainly. But can you establish that the business numbers on that return accurately reflect what happened? That's a different question. In this episode of Books & Backbone, Donna Harris explains why a P&L isn't automatically reliable simply because accounting software produced it, why revenue is more complicated than deposits hitting a bank account, and why the balance sheet often reveals problems the P&L doesn't. Reconciliation establishes reliability. Accounting review determines whether the treatment makes sense. Tax preparation applies the tax rules. But good bookkeeping isn't something businesses do for tax season. It's the financial infrastructure of the business—and it has a job twelve months a year.

A bookkeeping cleanup isn't just categorizing transactions and making QuickBooks look tidy. In this episode of Books & Backbone, Donna Harris explains what a legitimate cleanup actually establishes: whether the transactions are complete, whether bank, credit-card and loan balances agree with independent records, whether receivables represent money customers actually owe, and whether the financial statements describe the economic reality of the business. The goal isn't reconciliation for reconciliation's sake. Reconciliation creates reliability. Reliable financial statements create useful information. And useful information gives business owners something they can actually make decisions from. Clean books should also be defensible: if someone asks why a number is there, there should be an answer. Donna Harris, MBA, MAccCEO, Bookkeeping Made Simple LLCmysimplebookkeeping.com | 801-692-0032

If your books are behind, it is not too late. September and October are the cleanup window — the last real opportunity to identify what's wrong, do the work to fix it, and enter year-end with financial information you can actually use. In this solo episode of Books & Backbone, Donna Harris walks through what a legitimate cleanup actually involves, how long it takes, and what you have on the other side of it. Not a scare piece. An opportunity piece. The window is open, the work is doable, and what you get from doing it — reliable financials, real Q4 decisions, a clean 2027 starting point — is worth considerably more than the dread makes it feel. Donna Harris, MBA, MAccCEO, Bookkeeping Made Simple LLCmysimplebookkeeping.com | 801-692-0032

Q4 revenue often looks strong. And then you look at the gross margin — and it's lower than it's been all year. Strong revenue masking margin compression is one of the most common and least visible financial patterns in small business Q4s. In this solo episode of Books & Backbone, Donna Harris explains the four specific dynamics that compress gross margins in Q4 even when revenue is growing — seasonal discounting, higher delivery costs, revenue mix shifts, and inventory write-downs — and exactly how to find out whether it's happening in your business before December closes the year. She also covers the 2027 implication: how Q4 margins become a benchmark that shapes next year's plan, and why understanding the drivers of margin compression before year-end is more valuable than discovering it in the annual review. Revenue is what came in. Margin is what you kept. Know the difference before Q4 closes. Donna Harris, MBA, MAccCEO, Bookkeeping Made Simple LLCmysimplebookkeeping.com | 801-692-0032