What does a QuickBooks diagnostic review actually find?
Most owners have never had anyone independently check the account itself, only the reports it produces. A P&L can look perfectly normal sitting on top of books that would not survive a close look. Here is what actually turns up when someone does look.
Six things we find almost every time
These are not rare or dramatic problems. They are the ordinary, everyday ways a QuickBooks file drifts from reality when nobody is checking it against the actual bank.
A growing Ask My Accountant pile
Transactions get accepted into the feed and parked in Uncategorized or Ask My Accountant because nobody was sure what they were. Months later the pile is large enough that the P&L underneath it cannot be trusted.
Duplicates from the bank feed
A transaction gets added from the feed instead of matched to the one already entered by hand or by an app like A2X. Now it exists twice, income or expense is overstated, and undoing it is harder than avoiding it would have been.
Owner draws booked as income or expense
Money moved to or from the owner personally gets coded as a sale, a loan, or a random expense instead of equity. Taxable income becomes a number that never actually happened.
Sales tax sitting in income
Tax collected from customers gets recorded as revenue instead of a liability owed to the state. It inflates what the business looks like it earned, and it is not the business's money to begin with.
Capitalized wrong
Equipment or startup costs expensed all at once when they should be depreciated over time, or the reverse. Either way the return is wrong and the error follows the depreciation schedule for years.
Accounts that were never reconciled
The QuickBooks balance and the real bank balance have quietly drifted apart, sometimes by a small amount, sometimes not. Every report built on top of an unreconciled account inherits the same gap.
What the report actually contains
Not a summary paragraph. A written findings report that names every issue found, in your actual file, plus a recorded video walkthrough so you can see us point at the specific transactions and hear the reasoning, pause, and rewind. It is yours to keep whether you sign on for anything else or not.
If what we find is small, the report says so and there is nothing else to do. If it is large enough that the fix is really a rebuild, that is a cleanup, and it gets scoped and quoted with the report rather than assumed.
What it costs, and what it is not
The In-Depth Diagnostic Review is $497, one time. It is not a sales call dressed up as a review. We get read-only access, two licensed CPAs go through the actual account, and about a week later you have the report and the video in hand. If you come on board for ongoing bookkeeping, the full $497 is credited toward your first month, so it costs you nothing net. If you do not, it still stands on its own, backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Answers before you ask.
What does a QuickBooks diagnostic review actually check?
It goes past the P&L and balance sheet into the account itself: whether every account actually reconciles to the real bank and card statements, how transactions are categorized, whether anything was capitalized or expensed incorrectly, whether sales tax collected is tracked as a liability instead of sitting in income, and how much has piled up as uncategorized or Ask My Accountant.
How long does a QuickBooks diagnostic take?
About a week from the time we get read-only access. You get a written findings report plus a recorded video walkthrough of what we found and why it matters.
What happens if the diagnostic finds my books need a full cleanup?
The report says so plainly, and the cleanup gets scoped and quoted right there with it. Nothing is assumed and nothing is added without you seeing the number first. The diagnostic stands on its own either way.
Is a diagnostic worth it if I think my books are already fine?
That is exactly who it is for. Most owners who think their books are fine have never had anyone independently check the account itself, only glanced at the reports it produces. A clean-looking P&L can still sit on top of accounts that were never reconciled.
Does the diagnostic fee go toward anything else?
Yes. The full $497 is credited toward your first month if you sign on for ongoing bookkeeping. If you do not, the diagnostic still stands alone and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee on the report itself.
Before you guess what shape your books are in
Have two CPAs go look.
The In-Depth Diagnostic Review goes inside your actual QuickBooks and tells you in writing, plus a recorded walkthrough, exactly what is right, what is wrong, and what it would take to fix. $497, one time, credited toward your first month if you come on board. Report back in about a week.