Books Snapshot · Method v1.1.0

How the score is computed.

Every figure is computed from your QuickBooks file by a fixed rule. No model, no judgement, no randomness. The same books on the same day always produce the same score.

Seven dimensions, weighted by consequence

Your headline score is the weighted mean of seven dimensions. The weights are fixed and published — they do not move to flatter a file or to sell an engagement.

Timeliness
How close your books are to today.
20%
Reconciliation
Whether the books agree with the bank.
20%
Categorization
Whether transactions are actually classified.
15%
Receivables & Payables
Whether money owed is being collected, asked for and paid.
15%
Ledger Integrity
Whether the ledger internally makes sense.
15%
Documentation
Whether the paper behind the numbers is on file.
10%
Setup & Hygiene
How the file itself is put together.
5%

The 37 checks

Each check names the QuickBooks report it reads, so you can open the same report and see the same number. Totals only — no customer or vendor detail is read or stored.

CheckDimensionWhere it comes from
Days since the last recorded transactionTimelinessNewest Invoice, Purchase, Bill, Payment, Deposit and Journal Entry by date
Closing date on the fileTimelinessCompany Preferences → Accounting → Books Close Date
Days since the last reconciled transactionReconciliationTransaction List report, filtered to Reconciled (derived — QuickBooks exposes no reconciliation endpoint)
Uncleared transactionsReconciliationTransaction List report, filtered to Uncleared, trailing 400 days
Money sitting in Uncategorized accountsCategorizationChart of Accounts — Uncategorized Income, Uncategorized Expense, Uncategorized Asset
Ask My Accountant balanceCategorizationChart of Accounts — Ask My Accountant
Receivables over 90 daysReceivables & PayablesAged Receivables summary report (totals only — no customer detail is read or stored)
Payables over 60 daysReceivables & PayablesAged Payables summary report (totals only — no vendor detail is read or stored)
Balance sheet balancesLedger IntegrityBalance Sheet report — Total Assets against Total Liabilities and Equity
Opening Balance EquityLedger IntegrityChart of Accounts — Opening Balance Equity
Undeposited FundsLedger IntegrityChart of Accounts — Undeposited Funds
Negative asset balancesLedger IntegrityChart of Accounts — Bank, Other Current Asset and Fixed Asset accounts
Bank and credit card accounts presentSetup & HygieneChart of Accounts — accounts of type Bank and Credit Card
Duplicate accounts in the chartSetup & HygieneChart of Accounts — active accounts of the same type with near-identical names
Chart of accounts sizeSetup & HygieneChart of Accounts — count of active accounts
Purchases and bills of $75 or more with no attachment (12 months)DocumentationPurchase and Bill for the trailing year against the Attachable index — the IRS substantiation floor is $75
Months with a bank or card statement on file (12 months)DocumentationAttachable — files named like a statement, by month attached (derived: QuickBooks has no statement object and nothing attaches to an account)
Journal entries with no memo and no attachment (12 months)DocumentationJournalEntry for the trailing year — PrivateNote and the Attachable index
1099 vendors without a W-9 on file, and $600+ vendors not flaggedDocumentationVendor (Vendor1099 flag) with spend from Bill and Purchase, against the Attachable index
Bank and card accounts not reconciled in 90 days, or neverReconciliationTransaction List report, Reconciled rows by account (derived)
Uncleared items older than 90 daysReconciliationTransaction List report, Uncleared rows older than 90 days (derived)
Reconciliation Discrepancies balanceReconciliationChart of Accounts — Reconciliation Discrepancies
Liability accounts with a negative balanceLedger IntegrityChart of Accounts — Credit Card, Other Current Liability, Long Term Liability, Accounts Payable
Payroll liabilities carrying a balanceLedger IntegrityChart of Accounts — payroll liability accounts (by sub-type and name)
Sales tax payable balanceLedger IntegrityChart of Accounts — sales tax liability accounts; Preferences → sales tax
Customer deposits / unearned revenue heldLedger IntegrityChart of Accounts — unearned revenue, deferred revenue, customer deposit and retainer accounts
Loan balances unchanged for six monthsLedger IntegrityBalance Sheet today against six months ago — loan, note, line-of-credit and SBA accounts
Owner or personal spend running through expensesLedger IntegrityChart of Accounts — Expense accounts named owner, personal, draw, distribution or shareholder
Payments sitting in Undeposited Funds for more than 14 daysLedger IntegrityPayment and SalesReceipt deposited to Undeposited Funds with no linked Deposit
Transactions dated in the futureSetup & HygieneInvoice, Purchase, Bill, Payment, Deposit and Journal Entry dated after today
Active accounts with no activity in 24 monthsSetup & HygieneChart of Accounts against the Transaction List for the trailing two years
Likely duplicate vendors and customersSetup & HygieneVendor and Customer lists — active names that match after normalization (counts only; no names are stored)
Vendors with an open bill and a direct payment in the last 90 daysSetup & HygieneBill (open balance) and Purchase by vendor — the double-count pattern
Single purchases of $2,500 or more posted to expense accountsSetup & HygienePurchase and Bill lines of $2,500 or more in Expense accounts (excluding recurring-cost accounts) — the de minimis safe harbor line
Customers with a credit balanceReceivables & PayablesCustomer list — active customers with a negative balance (counts and totals only)
Open invoices never emailed from QuickBooksReceivables & PayablesInvoice with an open balance and EmailStatus NotSet / NeedToSend
Vendors holding your money (credit balances)Receivables & PayablesVendor list — active vendors with a negative balance (counts and totals only)

Six things we will not pretend to know

A snapshot reads QuickBooks. Whatever never reached QuickBooks is invisible to it — so your report names each gap and what it would take to close it.

Transaction Backlog Depth

We can see the last transaction recorded in QuickBooks. We cannot see the ones that were never recorded — those exist only on your bank statements and in your inbox.

What it would take: Bank and credit card statements for the period.

Off-File Accounts

We can only read the accounts that exist in QuickBooks. A business credit card, a PayPal or Venmo, or a side bank account that was never connected is invisible — and its absence looks exactly like clean books.

What it would take: A complete list of every account the business actually uses.

Documentation Backlog

We count the receipts and statements attached in QuickBooks. The receipts, vendor invoices and statements that were never entered are, by definition, not there to be counted.

What it would take: Access to wherever the paperwork is accumulating.

Payroll Record Integrity

Unless payroll runs inside QuickBooks Online Payroll, the detail lives with your payroll provider. Wage and tax calculation accuracy cannot be verified from the ledger alone.

What it would take: Payroll registers and quarterly filings.

Tax Compliance Status

QuickBooks knows your sales tax settings. It does not know whether your income tax returns were filed, whether payroll deposits were made on time, or whether your 1099s went out.

What it would take: Filing confirmations and notices.

Loan & Debt Terms

The ledger shows your loan balances. It does not show interest rates, covenants, personal guarantees, or the balloon payment eighteen months out — those live in documents QuickBooks has never seen.

What it would take: Loan agreements and amortization schedules.

How it combines

Within a dimension the largest deduction applies in full, the second at 60%, the third at 36%, and so on — two symptoms of one underlying problem are not counted twice. The headline is the weighted mean of the dimensions that could be read; anything we could not read is excluded and named.

Prefer it machine-readable? The same method, as JSON: /api/pom/methodology.

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Not affiliated with or endorsed by Intuit Inc. QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online are trademarks of Intuit Inc. This assessment is a diagnostic of your QuickBooks file. It is not an audit, a review, or a compilation, and it expresses no assurance on your financial statements.