What will my catch-up cost?
Enter how many months behind your books are. See what bookkeeping firms publish for catch-up work, then how to do the first sort yourself.
- No login required
- No data stored
- Real-time results
- Sources linked
If you hire it out
$1,800 to $3,600
6 months × $300 to $600 per month behind. That's Etisson's published 2026 range for medium books.
Middle of the range: $2,700
The midpoint of that range, not an average of real quotes.
One firm's own price: $1,920
SDO CPA lists $320 per month of history behind, or $299 when the books are clean enough.
Hand work: about 9 to 18 hours
From Etisson's illustrative grid for up to 100 transactions a month: entry and a basic reconcile, before review.
Why two quotes for the same books can differ
Firms price by the month behind, but the hours inside each month depend on who does them. In October 2026, a bookkeeping firm on r/Bookkeeping described a part-timer who billed 40+ hours to catch up one simple client with about 450 transactions.
Most of those hours go to two jobs: turning statements into rows, and putting each row in a category. That's the part you can do first.
Before you hand it off
Let LedgerLens do the first sort
LedgerLens turns the statements you download into sorted rows. It isn't a bookkeeper and doesn't do the catch-up for you. It does the first sort, and you or your bookkeeper review the exceptions.
Upload the statements
PDF, CSV, Excel, OFX, QFX or QBO files, up to 100 at a time. No bank login.
Get the transactions out
Bank-statement PDFs become dated debit and credit rows, with a reconciliation check recorded for each run. A credit-card statement that doesn't balance goes to review instead of importing.
Sort with rules
Rows are matched against your rules, categories and past choices as they're saved. Write a rule once, preview what it catches, then run it on everything you've uploaded. Make the same fix again and again, and LedgerLens offers to turn it into a rule.
Review what's left
Uncategorized rows and documents that need a decision wait in review queues. Check that no statement month is missing, then download to Excel for your bookkeeper.
Which plan fits a catch-up
- Starter (free): upload, extraction, rules and the review queues. Enough to see how big the job really is.
- Pro: for clearing a backlog. Work through suggestions in the Bulk review queue with keyboard shortcuts, accept or dismiss them in bulk, categorize hundreds of rows in one pass, get suggested categories for rows your rules can't place, download to Excel, and upload the most documents.
- Bookkeeping firm? The Business plan is made for professional bookkeepers and small accounting firms.
Start with the statements you already have
Upload a few months, see the rows, and decide what's left to hand off. Firms price a catch-up by the month you're behind. LedgerLens is priced by the month you use it.
Uploading, sorting and reviewing are free on Starter. Pro is $19 a month or $190 a year.
- No credit card required
- Nothing to connect
- Upload statements directly
FAQ
Common questions
What is catch-up bookkeeping?
Bringing books that have fallen behind up to date: getting every statement in, putting each transaction in the right category, and reconciling each month so the totals match the bank. It's often done before taxes are due.
Why is catch-up priced per month behind?
Each month behind is roughly the same work: a set of statements to enter, sort and reconcile. So many firms quote a rate per month and multiply by the months. Messier books get a higher rate, because each problem has to be found and fixed before the new work holds together.
Does LedgerLens replace a bookkeeper?
No. LedgerLens isn't a bookkeeper or an accounting firm, and it doesn't do the catch-up for you. It reads your statements, pulls out the transactions and sorts them with your rules. You or your bookkeeper still review the exceptions, reconcile and close the books. The person you hire starts from sorted rows instead of a stack of statements.
Do I need to connect my bank account?
No. You download statements from your bank and upload them. LedgerLens never asks for your bank login.
Where do these numbers come from?
The per-month ranges and the hours grid come from Etisson's 2026 catch-up pricing guide. The single-firm price is SDO CPA's own published rate. Both are linked under Sources with the date we checked them. They are published ranges, not a quote for your books.
Sources
Rates checked October 30, 2026. Each figure is shown as the firm published it.
- Etisson, "Catch-Up Bookkeeping Pricing" (April 30, 2026). Per-month ranges by complexity and the illustrative hours grid. Accessed October 30, 2026.
- SDO CPA, "How Much Does Catch-Up Bookkeeping Cost in 2026?" (September 24, 2026). SDO CPA's own rate: $320 per month of history behind, or $299 when the books are clean enough. Accessed October 30, 2026.
- r/Bookkeeping, "Employee spent 40+ hours on a very simple catch-up totaling about 450 transactions" (October 29, 2026). Accessed October 30, 2026.
Prepared by the LedgerLens team from the published guides above. LedgerLens (ledgerlens.com) is a bank-statement review web app from Edukas Solutions LLC, a California company.
Estimates use published ranges from the firms listed under Sources. They are not a quote and not tax or accounting advice. LedgerLens is not a bookkeeping or accounting service. What you enter stays in your browser.