Short answer: For most small businesses, a cleanup runs a few weeks rather than a few days. The single biggest variable is not how far behind you are — it is how quickly you can get us access to the records.
Four things set the pace.
The first is access. Bank and credit-card statements, payroll reports, and your QuickBooks login are what the work runs on. Businesses that can hand all of that over in the first few days finish dramatically faster than businesses that send it in pieces over a month. This is the part you control, and it matters more than anything else on this list.
The second is the number of accounts and transactions. Two bank accounts and a card is a different job from six accounts, a merchant processor, and an inventory feed. Volume drives hours directly.
The third is how much was previously done wrong, as opposed to not done at all. A file that was never touched is often cleaner to work with than one where a year of transactions was categorized incorrectly and reconciled anyway, because the second one has to be unwound before it can be rebuilt.
The fourth is how fast you can answer questions. There will be transactions only you can identify — a transfer, a personal expense, a deposit that is not revenue. We batch these so you are answering a list once rather than fielding messages all week, but the job pauses until they come back.
If you have a hard deadline — a tax filing, a loan application, a partner buyout — tell us on the first call. We schedule around real deadlines and will tell you honestly on that call whether yours is reachable.
Related: How far behind on my books is too far behind? · What do I need to give a new bookkeeper to get started? · Cleanup & Catch-Up