How it runs for retail stores
A LedgerBPO catch-up team works the backlog month by month in QuickBooks Online or Xero and agrees a clean cut-off with your CPA before ongoing bookkeeping starts.
What is catch-up bookkeeping?
Catch-up bookkeeping is a one-time project that records and reconciles months or years of transactions that were never entered. The goal is a set of books where every bank, card and loan balance agrees with the statement and every period can be reported on. It ends when the backlog is current and reconciled, usually followed by ongoing monthly bookkeeping.
What we handle for retail stores
- Daily sales rebuilt from POS exports by tender, tax rate and store
- Processor payouts and cash deposits matched for every back month
- Supplier invoices accrued to receiving dates so margin lands in the right period
- Sales-tax liability reconciled per period and amended-return workings prepared
- Opening inventory and count history used to book shrink to the correct year
The KPI that matters here
Each back month reconciled and signed off before the next month is started.
Retail compliance notes
Sales tax collection and remittance
Sales tax collected at the register belongs to the state and, in many places, to a city or county too, each with its own rate and filing frequency. We reconcile the tax collected in your POS to the liability in the ledger every month and prepare the workings for each jurisdiction. Your registered preparer or your Avalara or TaxJar subscription files the return; we prepare, we do not file.
Economic nexus for online sales
Since the Wayfair decision in 2018, a store selling online can owe sales tax in states where it has no premises once it passes that state's threshold, commonly $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions. We track sales by ship-to state from Shopify or your marketplace reports and flag when a threshold is near so you and your advisor can register in time.
Inventory shrinkage and counts
Shrink from theft, damage, miscounts and vendor errors reduces gross margin and, if unrecorded, overstates both inventory on the balance sheet and profit. We book count adjustments when you supply cycle or full counts, separate known write-offs such as damaged goods from unexplained variance, and report shrink as a percentage of sales each period.
Gift cards and unclaimed property
Gift-card sales are recorded as a liability and released to revenue on redemption, with breakage recognized only under the method your CPA sets. Several states treat unredeemed balances as unclaimed property after a dormancy period. We keep a card-level liability schedule so the annual unclaimed-property review is a report, not a reconstruction.
Retail software we work in
- Shopify
- Square
- QuickBooks Online
- Xero
- Avalara
- TaxJar
- Dext
- Lightspeed
- Clover
- All 50 platforms
More for retail stores
Other services for retail
Catch-up bookkeeping in other industries
Frequently asked questions
How long does retail catch-up bookkeeping take?
It depends on the months outstanding, store count and how complete the POS and processor history is. Retail months take longer than service months because daily sales and inventory must be rebuilt, and market benchmarks for catch-up work run $200 to $500 per back month (John Galt Finance). We quote after reviewing access to POS, bank and processor records.
Can you rebuild sales tax by period if the returns were filed from bank deposits?
Yes, POS tax reports and processor records let us reconstruct taxable, exempt and out-of-state sales by period and compare them to what was remitted. Differences are documented in a schedule for your preparer, who decides on amended returns. We prepare the workings; we do not file or give tax advice.
What if I do not have inventory counts for the back periods?
We book purchases to inventory or cost of goods using the method your CPA sets, and use the most recent count to true up the year. Margin in individual back months is then an estimate, and we say so in the notes. Going forward, the outsourced bookkeeping service for retail stores books counts as you supply them.
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