For the books that do not fit a monthly close
Special situations
Finbryn handles the bookkeeping situations a normal monthly close does not cover: years of GST and BAS backlog, missing records, a dormant Pty Ltd, a wind-down, or several related entities needing one consolidated view. Our team does the work, reviewed by a senior principal, inside Xero or QuickBooks Online, in a file you keep.
Bank reconciliation summary
Illustrative client · August 2026
AUD
| Account | Difference | Status | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating account··4821 | 184,220.16 | 184,220.16 | 0.00 | Reconciled |
| Reserve account··0937 | 60,000.00 | 60,000.00 | 0.00 | Reconciled |
| Company card··1006 | (12,418.52) | (12,418.52) | 0.00 | Reconciled |
| Card processor clearing | 8,905.40 | 8,905.40 | 0.00 | Reconciled |
| Payroll clearing | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Reconciled |
Last weekly runFri, 28 Aug, every account agreed to its statement.
Two open itemsTwo card receipts requested from you, marked on the card account until they arrive.
Illustrative. An example of the document, not a client's figures.
When the books do not fit inside a normal month
Special situations are the requests that do not slot into a routine monthly close: a chart of accounts two financial years behind on reconciliation, a Pty Ltd that has not traded in years but is still registered, a group of related entities that need one set of numbers instead of five, or a business winding up altogether. Finbryn treats each of these as its own scoped project rather than squeezing it into a standard onboarding flow.
The work behind multi-year catch-up, records reconstruction, dormant company bookkeeping and a wind-down shares the same standard as everything else Finbryn touches: transactions traced back to bank, card or payment-processor statements, adjustments written down rather than made silently, and a Xero or QuickBooks Online file the business owns outright, not a set of PDFs. A catch-up or reconstruction project is quoted per backlog period rather than as one flat fee, since the volume of statements and the state of prior lodgements vary widely from one business to the next.
A fair amount of this touches the Tax Practitioners Board's rules directly. TPB guidance lets a registered tax or BAS practitioner have preparation work carried out by a third party, provided the agent keeps supervision and control and has your written permission to send information to that party. We prepare BAS, IAS or income tax figures only after your TPB-registered agent has signed a written supervision agreement with us; until then we keep the books and your agent prepares and lodges directly.
Franchise groups and businesses running several related entities, a familiar structure across Australian retail and hospitality, get one consolidated profit and loss and balance sheet instead of a spreadsheet stitched together the night before a directors' meeting. See pricing for how a special-situations engagement is quoted, or how it works for what an early conversation about one of these projects actually covers.
All services
Special situations: every service
- Multi-year catch-upBringing several years of unreconciled or missing books current in one structured engagement, scoped and timed before the work starts.
- Records reconstructionRebuilding a business's financial history from bank statements, receipts and other source documents when the original books are incomplete, lost or unreliable.
- Dormant company bookkeepingBookkeeping and reporting for an entity that is registered but not actively trading, so required filings can still be prepared and stay current until it reactivates or winds down.
- Wind-down exit packA structured close-out of the books and records when a business is winding down or dissolving, so the final return, the final state filings and the exit itself all rest on numbers that reconcile.
- Franchise and multi-entity consolidationBookkeeping across multiple franchise units or related entities, each location's books kept separately and then rolled up into one consolidated view.
Questions
Frequently asked questions: Special situations
Do you handle several years of GST and BAS backlog for an Australian business?
Yes. Multi-year catch-up is a named service here, scoped by the number of backlog periods and how current the GST registration and BAS lodgements are.
What happens to a Pty Ltd that is registered but not trading?
It usually still carries ongoing ATO obligations even with zero activity; we prepare the books and numbers, and your TPB-registered tax practitioner handles the actual lodgement.
Can you consolidate bookkeeping across several franchise locations or related entities?
Yes. Each entity keeps its own books on the same monthly schedule, and we roll them into a consolidated profit and loss and balance sheet.
Do you lodge our BAS or income tax return directly?
No. We prepare the numbers only once a written supervision agreement is signed between us and your TPB-registered agent, who lodges on your behalf. Until that agreement is signed, we keep the books only.
What is not included in special-situations work?
We do not lodge overdue BAS or tax returns ourselves, or negotiate directly with the ATO on your behalf. We prepare the figures a registered agent or your own adviser needs to bring those filings current.
How is a special-situations engagement priced?
Quoted per project once we have seen the scale of the backlog, missing records or number of entities involved, since these engagements vary far more than a standard monthly bookkeeping plan.
How long does a typical catch-up or wind-down engagement take?
A single year of catch-up for a small business often takes two to four weeks; a multi-entity wind-down or several years of backlog takes longer, scoped once the state of the records is known.
What happens to our file once a special-situations project finishes?
It stays in your own Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks Online subscription, current and ready to hand to a registered agent, a new bookkeeper, or a liquidator, depending on the situation.
Next step
Talk to the team that would run your books
A short call covers your setup, your software and what a first month would look like. You get a written scope and price after it.