Whether they left well or badly, the exposure is the same: one person held the access, the context, and the undocumented conventions, and now nobody does.
Do these in order. The order matters more than the speed.
1. Access, today
Before anything else, make sure you can get into your own systems.
The accounting file — are you the primary admin, or were they? If the subscription was in their name, the file may be attached to an account you cannot reach. This is the single most common way a departure turns into a genuine crisis, and it is worth checking within the hour.
Then bank and card portals, the payroll provider, the payment processor, any state tax accounts, and the email address vendor and agency notices go to. Remove their access. Rotate anything shared.
Do this even on the friendliest exit. It is not an accusation; it is basic control, and it is much easier while goodwill still exists.
2. Find out where things actually stand
Resist the urge to keep processing transactions. You do not yet know what you are building on.
Four questions:
- What is the last fully reconciled month, on every account? Not the last month with activity — the last one genuinely reconciled.
- What is sitting uncategorized? A large or old balance in the holding account tells you how far behind the real work is.
- Which filings are due, and which were made? Sales tax, payroll deposits, anything periodic. Check the state portals directly rather than trusting the file.
- Does the balance sheet tie to outside documents? Cash to bank, loans to lender statements.
That is a two-hour exercise and it converts a vague anxiety into a defined scope.
3. Cover the deadlines that do not wait
Payroll tax deposits and sales tax filings have due dates that are indifferent to your staffing situation. Late deposits accrue penalties quickly and are among the least forgiving obligations a small business has.
If a deadline is close and the books are not ready, filing an estimate on time is generally a better position than filing accurately but late — but confirm that with your CPA or tax professional, because it varies by state and by the type of filing.
4. Reconstruct the undocumented conventions
Every set of books carries decisions that live in one person's head. Which account a recurring vendor goes to. How owner draws are handled. Which customers are on unusual terms. What the odd-looking monthly journal entry is for.
The fastest way to recover these is the file itself: look at how the same transaction was treated over the last six months and follow the established pattern. Consistency with a prior convention is usually more valuable than switching to a theoretically better one mid-year, because comparability is what makes the annual figures readable.
5. Then decide about the future
Only now is it worth thinking about replacement. And the honest answer is often not like-for-like — a departure is a natural moment to reconsider whether you need a person, a firm, or a different split of the work entirely.
Two things to build in whatever you choose. Ownership of every account should sit with the business, not the individual. And the monthly deliverable should be explicit — reconciled by the 15th, statements by the 20th — so a gap is visible within weeks rather than discovered at year end.
If it turns out to be worse than expected
Sometimes step 2 reveals that the last clean month was fourteen months ago. That is not unusual, particularly when someone left because they were overwhelmed.
The work then is a proper cleanup — period by period, oldest first, so each month closes on a correct opening balance. We quote that at a fixed price after looking, precisely because the scope varies so much and nobody should be buying open-ended hours in a situation they did not choose.
Behind on Your Books?
We handle your bookkeeping end-to-end — categorization, reconciliation, month-end close, and clean financial statements, so your books stay current and CPA-ready.