Bookkeeping health check

Each of the 15 questions has answers worth 0 to 4 points, and the first answer listed is the best one. The questions sit in 6 areas, and each area carries a weight. An area's score is the points earned divided by the points possible. The overall score is the weighted average of the area scores, scaled to 100 and rounded.

9 questions are marked critical. A 0-point answer, or a skipped answer, on any of them holds the result at "Cleanup needed", however high the total. The page then shows the score held just under the next band up and says how many critical items hold it.

• Are bank and credit card accounts reconciled each month, and do past reconciliations still hold?
• What's sitting in Uncategorized, Ask My Accountant or other suspense accounts?
• Does the balance sheet show a balance in Opening Balance Equity (Historical Adjustment in Xero) or accounts nobody recognizes?
• Have you seen sales or expenses recorded twice, for example an invoice payment plus the same bank deposit booked as income?
• Are personal and business transactions kept apart?
• Do your receivables and payables reports show only invoices and bills that are really still open?
• Do payroll liability and sales tax payable balances match your payroll provider's reports and the returns you've filed?
• Do loan and credit line balances match the lender's latest statement?
• Do last year's books agree with the tax return that was filed?

Skipped questions score 0 and produce no findings. The result says how many were skipped.

General information for planning, not accounting, tax or legal advice for your situation. The result reflects only the answers given and is not a review, compilation or audit of your books.

This version of the questions is dated October 8, 2026. Sources were last checked October 7, 2026; the full list is below. Your answers stay in your browser unless you ask for the PDF scorecard. Only the tool, the score, the band and how many questions you answered are counted.

These 9 questions are critical. Each one shows what gets flagged for its lowest answer, why it matters and what to do about it.

Are bank and credit card accounts reconciled each month, and do past reconciliations still hold?

Flagged: Some or all accounts have never been reconciled. Unreconciled accounts can hide duplicate, missing or personal transactions, so profit, cash and the balance sheet rest on unverified data. What to do: Pick a clean starting point, usually the first day of the current tax year, reconcile every account forward from there to the latest statement, and treat earlier periods as a separate cleanup.

What's sitting in Uncategorized, Ask My Accountant or other suspense accounts?

Flagged: Large, old balances sit in suspense or uncategorized accounts. That money could be income, expenses, loan payments or owner transfers, so profit and the balance sheet are both off by an unknown amount. What to do: Export the detail for each suspense account, research items from the largest down using bank statements and invoices, reclassify each one, and get every balance to zero.

Does the balance sheet show a balance in Opening Balance Equity (Historical Adjustment in Xero) or accounts nobody recognizes?

Flagged: Opening Balance Equity is large or still moving. New activity there means balances are still being forced in, so equity and at least one other balance sheet account are wrong. What to do: Stop new entries to the account, trace each posting to its source, correct the underlying asset or liability accounts, and tie equity to the last filed tax return.

Have you seen sales or expenses recorded twice, for example an invoice payment plus the same bank deposit booked as income?

Flagged: Income or expenses appear to be double counted. When invoice payments and bank deposits are both recorded as sales, profit and taxes are overstated, and the reverse happens with bills. What to do: Compare deposits with recorded sales month by month, find the months with a gap, match each deposit to its invoice payment, and delete the duplicate income entries.

Are personal and business transactions kept apart?

Flagged: Business and personal money are mixed and not sorted. Every transaction has to be sorted by hand, which is slow and error-prone, and the books can't show the business's real cash or profit. What to do: Open a business checking account and card, move business income and spending to them this month, and code each personal item in the old accounts as an owner draw.

Do your receivables and payables reports show only invoices and bills that are really still open?

Flagged: Payments aren't applied to invoices or bills. Income or expenses get counted twice, once on the invoice or bill and again from the bank, and the agings stop meaning anything. What to do: For the current year, match every customer and vendor payment to its invoice or bill, remove the duplicate income and expense lines, and use receive-payment and pay-bill from now on.

Do payroll liability and sales tax payable balances match your payroll provider's reports and the returns you've filed?

Flagged: Payroll or sales tax liability balances are unexplained. A balance that never clears can mean a missed tax deposit, a payment coded to the wrong account, or collected sales tax counted as income. What to do: Pull the provider's tax deposit reports and this year's sales tax returns, match each payment to its liability, and correct miscoded entries before the next filing is due.

Do loan and credit line balances match the lender's latest statement?

Flagged: Whole loan payments are booked as expenses. Repaying principal isn't an expense, so profit is understated and the balance sheet still shows the original loan amount. What to do: Using lender statements, move the principal part of each payment this year to the loan account, keep interest and fees in expense, and split future payments the same way.

Do last year's books agree with the tax return that was filed?

Flagged: Prior-year books were changed after the return was filed. The books no longer support the return that was filed, and the changes carry into this year's opening balances. What to do: Use the audit log to find changes dated in the filed year, reverse any not agreed with your preparer, set a closing date, and confirm year-end balances match the return.