Short answer: Your books aren’t lost, but they are at risk. In the first 48 hours, take back every login, save copies of your key reports, and make sure payroll and tax deposits are covered. Then find the last month that was truly reconciled and rebuild from there. Next time, don’t let one person hold it all.
By Rex Biggs II, CPA, founder of Rektio Accounting. Rektio is a bookkeeping and controller team in Fishers, Indiana. We do monthly books for founder-led companies with $1M-$15M in revenue across the US.
Why does it hurt so much when a bookkeeper quits?
Short answer: In most small companies, one person is the whole finance department. When they leave, everything they knew leaves with them.
I hear the same story from owners all the time. The bookkeeper gave two weeks’ notice. Or no notice at all. Now nobody knows the login for the second bank account. Payroll runs Friday. Your banker wants a P&L for the line of credit. And you aren’t sure the last three months are right.
That’s not really a people problem. It’s a setup problem. A $1M to $15M company often has one bookkeeper doing it all. They enter the bills, run payroll, reconcile the bank and close the month. Nobody checks the work. Nothing is written down. So when that one person walks out, the whole thing stops.
The good news? This is fixable. Let’s go step by step.
What should I do in the first 48 hours?
Short answer: Lock down access, save your data, and protect payroll and tax deadlines. Don’t try to fix the books yet.
- Take back every login. That means QuickBooks Online, every bank and credit card, payroll, bill pay and payment processors. Make yourself the primary admin. Remove the old bookkeeper’s user. Change any shared passwords.
- Save copies of key reports. From QuickBooks Online, export the P&L, balance sheet, general ledger, and AR and AP aging. Save them with today’s date in the file name.
- Check payroll first. When is the next run? Who submits it? Are payroll tax deposits current? Payroll is the one thing that can’t wait.
- List what’s due. Sales tax, loan reports, 1099s in January and any other filings. Put every date on a calendar.
- Gather the paper. Bank and card statements, loan statements, receipts and any notes or checklists the bookkeeper left behind.
Don’t start recategorizing old transactions in a panic. You can make a mess worse by changing months you don’t understand yet.
How do I know which months I can trust?
Short answer: Find the last month where every bank and credit card account was reconciled to the real statement, and nothing changed after. Start fresh from there.
In QuickBooks Online, open the reconciliation reports for each account. Note the last date each one was reconciled. Then check the ending balance against the actual bank statement. If they match, and nobody has changed that month since, that month is your starting line.
Watch for these warning signs:
- Big balances sitting in “uncategorized” or “ask my accountant”
- Undeposited funds that keep growing month after month
- A balance sheet account that hasn’t moved in months
- Reconciliations that were forced to match with an adjustment
Each of these tells you where the books went off track. If you’re several months behind, we wrote a step-by-step guide on catching up: Books behind? Start with the statements you have not opened.
Should I hire another bookkeeper or outsource?
Short answer: Most owners need more than one person can give, but not 40 hours of any one role. Pick the setup that gives you backup and a second set of eyes.
Here’s the truth. When the bookkeeper quits, most owners post the same job ad again. And they get the same setup again: one person, no backup and no review.
A company your size needs a bit of three jobs:
- A bookkeeper for the day-to-day: bills, sales and bank feeds.
- A controller for the check: reconciliations, the monthly close and reports for your bank.
- Some CFO thinking for the road ahead: cash, hiring and pricing.
You don’t need 40 hours of any one of those. But one hire can’t cover all three well. Here’s how the choices compare.
| Hire another in-house bookkeeper | Freelance bookkeeper | Outsourced team (like Rektio) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | One person | One person | A team of 2-3 people |
| Who checks the work | You, or nobody | Usually nobody | A U.S.-based account manager reviews it before you see it |
| If they leave or get sick | Work stops | Work stops | The team keeps going |
| Controller-level monthly close | Depends on the hire | Rare | Every month |
| Written process | Only if you build it | Rarely | The same checklist every month |
| Your time to replace them | Weeks to hire and train | Weeks to find someone | No rehiring for you |
There’s no single right answer for everyone. If you have a strong in-house person, keep them, and add review and backup around them. Just don’t rebuild the same single point of failure.
How do I keep this from happening again?
Short answer: Set things up so no single person holds your numbers. Own the logins, write the process down and have someone review the work every month.
- You own the logins. Every account is in the company’s name, with the finance person added as a user.
- Write a monthly checklist. What gets done, by when and by whom.
- Get a second set of eyes. Someone other than the preparer should review the reconciliations and the close.
- Pick a close date. The month closes by the same day, every month. Late reports are a warning sign.
- Hold a monthly review with yourself in it. Spend fifteen minutes on the P&L, balance sheet and cash. If you never look, nobody will notice when things slip.
These five habits cost almost nothing. And they turn a crisis into a hiccup the next time someone leaves.
What does Rektio do when an owner calls after a bookkeeper quits?
Short answer: We take over the monthly books with a team of two or three people. We build catch-up into onboarding, then close every month from there.
This is one of the most common calls we get. Here’s how it works:
- First call. We look at where things stand and tell you straight if we’re a fit.
- Catch-up. If the books are behind, we almost always build catch-up into the onboarding fee or handle it as a special onboarding project. We don’t do stand-alone cleanups. The point is to start the monthly work from numbers you can trust.
- Every month. A team of two or three people does your bookkeeping and controller-level close in QuickBooks Online. A U.S.-based account manager reviews the work before you see it.
- Reports you can read. A P&L, balance sheet and cash summary, and we walk you through them.
Pricing starts at $1,500 a month, scoped to your business. It’s month-to-month with 30 days’ notice. Fractional CFO work and business tax filings are add-ons for monthly clients. Call or text (463) 215-0968, or book a call.
FAQ
What should I do first when my bookkeeper quits?
Take back admin access to QuickBooks Online, the bank, payroll and card accounts. Remove the old user and change shared passwords. Then save key reports and check the next payroll date. Fix the books after that.
What if my old bookkeeper was the QuickBooks admin?
Ask them to make you the primary admin before they leave. If they won’t or can’t, contact Intuit support about getting access. From now on, keep the subscription and the primary admin role in the company’s name.
How long does it take to catch up the books after a bookkeeper leaves?
It depends on how many months are behind and how many accounts you have. A month or two goes fast. A full year with several bank and card accounts takes longer. Start from the last month you can trust and work forward.
Is it cheaper to hire a new bookkeeper or outsource?
Compare the full cost: salary, payroll taxes, benefits, software and your time to hire and train. Then compare what you get: one person with no backup, or a team with review. Rektio starts at $1,500 a month, scoped to your business.
Does Rektio do one-time cleanups?
No. We only take ongoing monthly clients. If your books are behind, we build catch-up into onboarding or handle it as a special onboarding project. Then we keep the books every month.
Is Rektio a CPA firm?
No. Rektio Accounting is a bookkeeping and controller team. Our founder is Rex Biggs II, CPA, but Rektio is not a licensed CPA firm.
