Ridge & Ledger
Books Cleanup Roadmap
- Business
- Sample Ontario Service Company Inc.
- Status
- Fictional example
- Review period
- 12 fictional months
Needs attention
Record-health summary
The sample records contain usable bank feeds and sales exports, but the bookkeeping file is not ready for reliable monthly reporting. Reconciliation, source-document, HST-record, and coding gaps should be resolved in a controlled sequence.
- Average monthly activity: 284 transactions across five connected or exported systems
- Review period: 12 fictional months
- Primary constraint: inconsistent month-end close process
Priority 1
Reconciliation gaps
Two bank or card accounts do not reconcile to the sample statements. The oldest difference begins four months before the review date, so later monthly balances should not be treated as confirmed until that opening difference is resolved.
- Collect the missing monthly statements
- Trace the opening difference before correcting later periods
- Document the final reconciliation date for each account
Priority 2
Missing source documents
The sample contains 18 purchases without readable receipts or supplier invoices. These items should remain on an exceptions list until supporting records are provided or the business gives written direction.
- Request source support in one dated exception list
- Avoid guessing the purpose or tax treatment of unsupported purchases
- Keep resolved and unresolved items visibly separate
Professional confirmation
HST record inconsistencies requiring accountant confirmation
Three sample items have duplicated, missing, or unmatched HST records. Ridge & Ledger would identify the record inconsistency and supporting documents, then ask the business's accountant to confirm treatment. This is not a tax determination or filing recommendation.
- One supplier credit is not matched to its original purchase
- One sales adjustment appears in a different reporting period
- One expense lacks enough support to confirm the recorded amount
Priority 3
Customer, supplier, job, project, or sales-channel coding gaps
Sales from two fictional channels use different category rules, and several supplier purchases are not connected to the relevant job or project. A short coding standard should be approved before historical records are changed.
- Choose one sales-channel mapping for future imports
- Define when job or project coding is required
- Apply the approved rule consistently to the review period
Four work stages
Prioritized cleanup sequence
The cleanup should move from evidence to reconciliation, then coding, then final review. This order avoids rebuilding reports on top of unresolved opening balances or unsupported entries.
- Stage 1: collect statements, exports, and missing source records
- Stage 2: resolve reconciliation differences from oldest to newest
- Stage 3: apply approved coding rules and clear exception items
- Stage 4: complete a final records-consistency check and accountant handoff list
Example only
Recommended monthly scope and provisional price
The fictional records support a provisional Growth scope at CAD $1,095 per month after cleanup. A real scope and price depend on the purchaser's records, complexity, access, responsibilities, and written approval after review.
- Monthly transaction recording and account reconciliations
- Source-document exception follow-up
- Sales-channel, supplier, and client-directed project coding
- Final scope remains subject to Roadmap review