Running a restaurant, a rental or a contracting business in Hawaiʻi leaves little time for bookkeeping. It's easy to let reconciliations slide for a month, then three. If any of these sound familiar, your books are probably behind.

The seven signs

  1. Your bank balance and your books don't agree, and you're not sure which one is right.
  2. The credit cards haven't been reconciled in months, so expenses are missing or in the wrong place.
  3. GET returns are filed from bank deposits instead of from your books, because the books aren't current.
  4. You don't know who owes you money, or how long they've owed it.
  5. Bills get paid late, or twice.
  6. Tax time is a scramble of shoeboxes, downloads and extensions.
  7. A lender or investor asks for financial statements and it takes weeks to produce them.

What it costs to wait

Late GET and TAT returns carry penalties and interest. Missing expenses mean paying more income tax than you owe. And without current numbers, decisions about pricing, staffing and cash get made on instinct.

How a catch-up works

  1. Gather the records: bank and credit card statements, sales reports, payroll reports and any returns already filed.
  2. Reconcile month by month until every account agrees with its statements.
  3. Clean up payables and receivables, so you know who you owe and who owes you.
  4. File or amend any missed GET, TAT or payroll returns.
  5. Move to monthly service so the books never fall behind again.

At Kōkua Financial, a catch-up is quoted at a fixed price before we start, based on how many months and accounts are involved. After that, our Small Business Fixed-Fee Package keeps everything current, typically for $350 to $1,500 a month, with CPA review every month.