Backlog Accounting Singapore | Clean Up Your Overdue Books

An e-commerce seller in Toa Payoh contacted me last year. He'd been running his business for 18 months. Made about $600,000 in revenue through Shopee, Lazada, and his own website. But he hadn't recorded a single transaction in his accounting system.

"I know I need to file taxes soon," he said. "Can you help?"

He had a shoebox (actually three shoeboxes) filled with printed marketplace reports, PayPal statements, bank statements, supplier invoices, and shipping receipts. Everything was jumbled together. No organization. No system. Just 18 months of chaos.

This is backlog accounting. When you're months or years behind on your bookkeeping and need to catch up fast.

We spent three weeks reconstructing his accounts from scratch. Matched every bank transaction to its source. Categorized thousands of expenses. Reconciled sales across three platforms. Built financial statements from nothing. He got his books up to date, filed his taxes, and started monthly bookkeeping so he'd never face this mess again.

Backlog accounting is what you need when your books are behind and you need to get current quickly. This page explains what backlog accounting is, why it happens, how we fix it, and what it costs.

What Backlog Accounting Actually Means

Backlog accounting means catching up on unrecorded transactions from past months or years. You have bank statements, invoices, receipts, and other documents. But they're not in your accounting system. Your books are behind. You need to catch up.

Common backlog situations:

3-6 Months Behind: You started the year doing monthly bookkeeping but fell behind. Now it's November and you've only recorded January through June. You need the rest of the year done.

Full Year Behind: You didn't do any bookkeeping all year. Tax filing deadline is approaching. You need 12 months of transactions recorded fast.

Multiple Years Behind: You've been running on bank statements and gut feel for 2-3 years. Now you need proper accounts for a bank loan, investor, or just to understand your business.

Bookkeeper Left: Your bookkeeper quit or got fired. The replacement discovers the books are a mess or months behind. You need cleanup before you can move forward.

A construction company in Jurong hired a bookkeeper who "kept the books" for two years. When she left, they discovered she'd only been doing bank reconciliations. No expense categorization. No proper revenue recording. No accounts receivable tracking. We had to redo two years of accounting from scratch.

Why Backlog Happens

People don't plan to get behind on their books. But it happens. Here's why:

Too Busy Running the Business: You're focused on sales, operations, hiring, growth. Bookkeeping keeps getting pushed to "next week." Six months pass. Now you're way behind.

Bookkeeper Problems: Your bookkeeper quit. Or they're incompetent. Or they got sick. Or you couldn't afford one. Whatever the reason, no one was recording transactions.

Thought You Could Catch Up: You fell one month behind. Then two. You kept thinking "I'll catch up this weekend." But weekends came and went. Now you're a year behind.

Didn't Know You Needed It: Many small business owners don't realize they need monthly bookkeeping until tax time or when applying for a loan. By then, they're way behind.

No judgment here. Running a business is hard. Bookkeeping is boring. I get it. But backlog creates real problems when you need financial statements for tax filing, bank loans, or business decisions.

Accounting Firm Backlog Cleanup Process

Professional accounting firms have systematic processes for backlog cleanup. We've done this hundreds of times. Here's how it works:

Step 1: Gather Everything

We need all your source documents. Bank statements for every account. Credit card statements. Sales invoices. Purchase invoices. Receipts. Marketplace reports. PayPal statements. Everything financial for the backlog period.

Step 2: Assess the Mess

We review what you have. How organized is it? Are documents missing? Can we reconstruct everything from bank statements? This determines timeline and cost.

Step 3: Reconstruct Transactions

We go through every bank transaction and identify what it was. Money in = sales or loan or capital injection? Money out = supplier payment, expense, owner withdrawal? We categorize everything.

Step 4: Reconcile Banks

Every bank account must reconcile to your accounting records. This catches missing transactions and errors. Takes time but ensures accuracy.

Step 5: Handle Special Items

• Fixed assets - equipment, vehicles you bought
• Accounts receivable - customers who owe you money
• Accounts payable - suppliers you owe money to
• Inventory - stock on hand at period end
• Accruals - expenses incurred but not yet paid

Step 6: Prepare Financial Statements

Once everything is recorded and reconciled, we prepare your profit & loss statement and balance sheet. Now you know if you made money or lost money.

A retail shop in Bedok had 8 months of backlog. Owner thought they were profitable because bank balance was growing. After we did backlog cleanup, we discovered they were losing $2,000 per month. The bank balance was growing because they took a $50,000 loan. Without proper books, they didn't realize they were bleeding cash.

Tax Preparation Service After Backlog Cleanup

Most people only discover their backlog when tax filing deadline approaches. You realize you need proper accounts to file Form C-S or Form C with IRAS.

Here's how backlog cleanup connects to tax filing:

Financial Statements Required: IRAS needs your profit & loss and balance sheet. You can't file tax without knowing your profit. Backlog cleanup gives you these statements.

Tax Computation: Once books are clean, we can calculate your taxable income. Some expenses might not be tax deductible. We adjust accordingly.

ECI Filing: If you missed your ECI deadline because you didn't have numbers, cleaning up the backlog lets you file ECI (even if late) and avoid estimated assessment.

One client came to us in October. Tax filing deadline was November 30. They had zero bookkeeping done for the year. We did a rush backlog cleanup in three weeks, prepared their financial statements, computed their tax, and filed by the deadline. Saved them from late filing penalties.

Bookkeeping Service After Backlog Fixed

Backlog cleanup is expensive and stressful. The best thing you can do after cleanup is start regular bookkeeping so you never get behind again.

Here's why monthly bookkeeping prevents backlog:

Never Behind Again: When we do your books monthly, you're always current. No more scrambling at tax time.

Way Cheaper: Monthly bookkeeping might cost $400-600 per month. That's $4,800-7,200 per year. A full year backlog cleanup? $5,000-10,000. Monthly is actually cheaper.

Better Visibility: With monthly books, you know your profit every month. You can make informed decisions instead of guessing.

Easier Tax Filing: When books are current, tax filing is quick and cheap. Just make adjustments and file. No massive catch-up project.

After we cleaned up that e-commerce seller's 18-month backlog, we set him up with monthly bookkeeping for $500/month. He's been current for two years now. Tax filing takes two days instead of three weeks. He knows his numbers monthly. Never wants to go back to backlog chaos.

Chartered Accountant Expertise in Backlog

Backlog cleanup requires more skill than regular bookkeeping. When records are messy or missing, you need accounting knowledge to reconstruct what happened.

What chartered accountants bring to backlog cleanup:

We Know What We're Looking For: Missing transactions? We know how to find them. Bank reconciliation doesn't balance? We know where to look. Revenue recognition issues? We know the right treatment.

We Understand Business Context: An $50,000 transaction - is that a loan, capital injection, or large sale? A bookkeeper might guess. We analyze the context and classify correctly.

We Prepare Proper Financial Statements: Once transactions are recorded, we prepare SFRS-compliant financial statements. Not just numbers in Xero, but actual formatted statements that auditors or banks will accept.

We Catch Errors: If your previous bookkeeper made mistakes, we find and fix them during cleanup. Better to fix now than when IRAS audits you later.

A logistics company in Tampines had their office admin doing "bookkeeping" for a year. When they applied for a bank loan, the bank rejected their financial statements because they were wrong. We did a complete backlog cleanup, found dozens of errors, corrected everything, and prepared proper statements. Bank approved the loan.

Tax Advisor Review During Backlog Cleanup

Having a tax advisor involved in backlog cleanup helps catch tax issues early.

Tax issues we spot during backlog cleanup:

Non-Deductible Expenses: Owner recorded personal expenses as business expenses. These need to be reclassified before tax filing to avoid IRAS issues.

Missing Income: Cash sales that weren't recorded. IRAS has ways of finding unreported income. Better to record everything properly.

Capital vs Revenue: Did you expense something that should be capitalized (or vice versa)? This affects both accounting and tax.

GST Issues: For GST-registered companies, was GST accounted for correctly? Missing input tax claims or incorrect output tax can cost thousands.

During one backlog cleanup, we found the owner had been claiming his family's overseas holiday as business travel expenses. We reclassified this as non-deductible drawings before filing tax. Saved him from IRAS penalties if they'd found it during an audit.

How Long Backlog Cleanup Takes

Timeline depends on how far behind you are and how messy your records are:

• 3-6 months backlog with decent records: 1-2 weeks
• 6-12 months backlog: 2-4 weeks
• 1-2 years backlog: 4-8 weeks
• 3+ years backlog or very messy records: 2-3 months

We can rush if you have a deadline (audit, tax filing, loan application). Add 50-100% to the price for rush service (complete in half the normal time).

What Backlog Cleanup Actually Costs

• 3-6 months backlog: $2,000-$5,000
• 6-12 months backlog: $5,000-$10,000
• 1-2 years backlog: $10,000-$18,000
• 3+ years backlog: $18,000-$25,000+

Cost depends on:

• How long the backlog period is
• Number of transactions per month
• How organized (or disorganized) your records are
• Number of bank accounts and payment methods
• Business complexity (single revenue stream vs multiple)
• Whether you need rush service

Yes, backlog cleanup is expensive. But what's the alternative? Miss your tax deadline and pay penalties? Get rejected for a bank loan? Make bad business decisions because you don't know your numbers? Backlog cleanup is an investment in getting your business back on track.

Common Backlog Situations We Handle

E-commerce Sellers: Multiple sales channels (Shopee, Lazada, own website, Amazon). Multiple payment methods (PayPal, Stripe, bank transfer). Marketplace fees, returns, shipping costs. We sort it all out.

F&B Businesses: Daily cash sales mixed with card payments. Foodpanda and Grabfood commissions. Supplier invoices. Inventory. We reconstruct everything.

Construction Companies: Project-based revenue. Progress billing. Retention sums. Subcontractor payments. Materials purchased. We handle the complexity.

Trading Companies: Inventory purchases and sales. Customs and shipping costs. Foreign currency transactions. We track it all.

Service Businesses: Billable hours. Client payments. Expense reimbursements. We capture every transaction.

What We Need From You

To do backlog cleanup, we need:

• Bank statements for all business accounts (for the entire backlog period)
• Credit card statements
• Sales invoices or sales records
• Purchase invoices and receipts
• Marketplace reports (if e-commerce)
• Payment gateway statements (PayPal, Stripe, etc.)
• Loan documents (if you took loans during the period)
• Fixed asset purchases (equipment, vehicles, computers)

Don't worry if it's disorganized. We've seen worse. Just give us everything you have and we'll sort it out.

Getting Your Backlog Cleaned Up

Here's how to start:

Step 1: Tell Us Your Situation

How far behind are you? What kind of business? Roughly how many transactions per month? Any deadline pressure?

Step 2: We Assess and Quote

We'll ask for a sample of your records (one month of bank statements, some invoices). We assess the work required and give you a fixed price quote.

Step 3: You Provide Documents

Send us all your documents. Upload to Google Drive, Dropbox, or physically drop off. Whatever works.

Step 4: We Clean Up Your Backlog

We work through the backlog systematically. We'll ask questions when we need clarification on transactions.

Step 5: Review and Deliver

We review the completed work, prepare financial statements, and deliver everything to you. Your books are now current.

Why Companies Choose Us for Backlog Cleanup

"I gave them three shoeboxes of chaos. They gave me back organized books and financial statements I could actually understand."

"We were two years behind. They cleaned it up in six weeks. Bank approved our loan application immediately."

"Found errors our previous bookkeeper made for a year. Fixed everything before tax filing. Saved us from IRAS problems."

"Rush cleaned our backlog in two weeks for a bank deadline. They delivered on time."

We're Singapore Chartered Accountants. We've cleaned up hundreds of backlogs. We've seen every kind of mess. We respond within 1 hour. We work fast.