Casebook
Five engagements, told plainly.
We don't usually put these on paper, but clients ask often enough for examples that we finally wrote a few down. Each one follows the same simple shape: what the client came in with, what the member did, what shook out at the end.
How to read the casebook
The co-op doesn't keep formal case files — most members work out of their own QuickBooks login, their own notebook, and a file box in a home office. What follows is Marlene's reconstructions from the quarterly coordinator logs, checked by the member involved before we posted it.
HVAC contractor, Bergen County — December 2023
The situation
A family-run heating and cooling contractor (24 employees, two service trucks, one ownership family that does not speak to itself) had their controller slip on ice and break his ankle the week before year-end. Year-end close, 1099 prep, and auditor walk-through were all stacked on top of each other. The owner's daughter was trying to cover and doing a heroic job, but she'd never seen a WIP schedule and the outside auditors were scheduled for January 9th.
What Anita did
- Rebuilt the December bank reconciliation from downloaded statements; three deposits had been recorded twice.
- Ran the 1099-NEC process for 41 subcontractors. Three addresses had to be chased down.
- Cleaned the AR aging — wrote off two obvious stale balances with owner sign-off, kicked four items to collections.
- Built a simple WIP tie-out the auditors could follow without asking questions.
- Left a one-page close checklist taped inside the controller's desk drawer.
How it landed
Auditors arrived on schedule; first-pass questions fit on half a page. Controller was back on desk duty by late January. The owner's daughter now handles the monthly close herself and calls Anita once a quarter with questions.
Arts nonprofit, Essex County — January–March 2024
The situation
A small arts organization — eight staff, one gallery, a summer residency program — had a bookkeeper who left in December. The board was staring down a Form 990 filing, an upcoming foundation audit (program audit, not financial), and two restricted grants that hadn't been properly tracked since the prior fiscal year closed.
What Ray did
- Rebuilt class tracking in QBO so each restricted grant had a clean cost center.
- Untangled twelve months of contributions that had been posted to a single catch-all income account.
- Prepared the 990 workpaper package for the organization's outside CPA — trial balance, functional expense allocation, related-party schedule, board list.
- Sat through one board finance committee meeting to walk through the cleanup. Declined the offered board seat, politely.
How it landed
990 filed on time. Foundation audit came back with one minor finding about documentation retention, nothing material. The organization hired a part-time bookkeeper the following quarter using the close checklist Ray left behind.
Two-location dental practice, Morris County — spring 2024
The situation
A three-partner dental practice preparing for a buy-out of one retiring partner discovered during due diligence that their books had, frankly, drifted. Doctor production reports from Dentrix never tied to revenue in QuickBooks. Partner draws had been posted as expenses for at least two quarters. The practice broker suggested — strongly — that the books get cleaned before any valuation went on paper.
What Eleanor and Dan did
- Reconstructed the tie-out between Dentrix production, collections, and QuickBooks revenue — month by month, fourteen months back.
- Reclassified partner draws out of operating expenses and into the equity accounts where they belonged.
- Split insurance AR into current vs. over-90, flagged the stale ones for the office manager to work.
- Built a monthly partner-level P&L the three doctors could actually read without a translator.
How it landed
Valuation went ahead with clean books. Retiring partner's buy-out closed on schedule. Eleanor stayed on as a monthly check-in through the end of the year; Dan rotated off after the cleanup was done.
Independent restaurant, Passaic County — summer 2024
The situation
A neighborhood Italian spot — forty seats, been there since the Reagan administration — switched POS systems and discovered that their daily sales import had been double-counting tips into revenue for about five months. The owner's son, who handles the books between shifts, noticed when sales tax due seemed too high for the take.
What Sofia did
- Traced the double-count back to the POS integration mapping and corrected it at the source.
- Filed amended ST-50 returns for the affected quarters; worked with the owner's CPA on the state notices.
- Rebuilt tip reporting so declared tips, credit tips, and the tip allocation worksheet all tied out weekly.
- Set up a Monday morning five-minute dashboard the owner's son actually uses.
How it landed
State sales tax refund processed on schedule. No penalties, one mildly annoyed letter. Sofia is now the monthly check-in for two other restaurants on the same block by word of mouth.
Small law office, Bergen County — ongoing
The situation
A five-attorney family-law practice needed a full-charge bookkeeper to cover their long-time employee's maternity leave. The trust accounting piece — IOLTA reconciliation, three-way reconciliations every month — was non-negotiable and had to be absolutely clean for the state bar's requirements.
What Anita did
- Ran the three-way IOLTA reconciliation every month, on schedule, with sign-off from the managing partner.
- Handled billing export from Clio to QBO, AR follow-up, and the firm's biweekly payroll.
- Trained the returning bookkeeper for a full week on the three-way reconciliation and handed over a written procedure.
How it landed
Coverage ran clean through the entire leave. Returning bookkeeper came back to a tidy set of books, a current AR aging, and a procedure file she'd been meaning to write for four years. Anita rotated off; the firm keeps her on a list for next time.
That's the shape of it. If one of these sounds like the situation you're in, and somebody you trust already knows one of our members, the introduction is the way in.