For the books that do not fit a monthly close
Special situations
Finbryn handles the bookkeeping situations a routine monthly close skips: years of unreconciled statements across member states, a company gone dormant, a wind-down, or a group needing one consolidated view. The preparation work is reviewed by a senior principal, with every local filing routed to a credentialed local partner.
Bank reconciliation summary
Illustrative client · August 2026
EUR
| 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.
Backlogs and shutdowns rarely stay inside one border
For a business trading across the EU, a special situation often means unreconciled statements piling up in more than one currency, a bookkeeping backlog from a company set up in Ireland while trading into Germany and France, or a group entity that has sat dormant since a founder shelved the plan. None of that fits a standard monthly-close onboarding, so Finbryn scopes each engagement on its own before work starts, whether the entity reports under IFRS for SMEs, a national GAAP, or a mix of both across a group.
That same standard of care applies to multi-year catch-up and records reconstruction as much as to a routine month: old bank exports and payroll files carry the same personal data a current file does, and get the same protection, set out in our privacy policy.
Some of these situations end at a filing a credentialed local partner has to make, not Finbryn. A dormant entity still owes a local statutory filing in most member states even at zero activity, and a wind-down ends with a local statutory accounts certification, most often an expert-comptable in France or a Steuerberater in Germany, depending on where the entity sits. Finbryn prepares the numbers; the local partner signs.
A group with entities in several member states gets one more thing routine bookkeeping does not offer: a consolidated view that eliminates intercompany balances and OSS-registered VAT flows between entities, without forcing every country's books onto one chart of accounts before each entity's own statutory accounts fall due.
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
Does a dormant EU entity still need to file anything?
Usually yes. Most member states still expect an annual statutory filing even at zero activity, and Finbryn prepares the numbers for whichever local partner certifies and files them.
Who actually files our VAT or statutory accounts once catch-up work is done?
A credentialed local partner, such as an expert-comptable in France or a Steuerberater in Germany, or your own local registration. Finbryn's role is preparation, not filing.
Is a historic catch-up or reconstruction file protected the same way as a normal month?
Yes. The same safeguards described in our privacy policy apply to older files and current ones alike.
Can you consolidate entities registered in different EU member states?
Yes. We build one consolidated profit and loss and balance sheet across entities while each one keeps its own local-GAAP or IFRS-for-SMEs books and its own statutory filing.
What is not included in special-situations work?
Filing overdue VAT or OSS returns, and certifying statutory accounts once the books are caught up, stay with a credentialed local partner. We rebuild and reconcile the underlying numbers; the filing and sign-off steps happen after we hand that data across to them.
What software do you work inside for catch-up and wind-down projects?
Whatever ledger you already run, typically Xero, QuickBooks Online or Sage, plus whatever bank and processor exports exist for the period being reconstructed. We rarely move a special-situations client onto new software in the middle of a project already under way.
How does handover work once a special-situations project closes out?
A recorded handover memo covers what was reconstructed, what could not be recovered and any assumption made along the way, so whoever takes the file forward, including a credentialed local partner filing the catch-up return, has the full picture from day one.
How is pricing structured for catch-up or wind-down work?
Pricing is scoped by how many periods and entities need rebuilding, quoted as a fixed project fee once the scale of the gap is known, rather than an open-ended hourly rate. The figure is confirmed in your engagement letter before work starts on the file.
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.