Check My Books

Most bookkeeping worry isn't about a specific number. It's the background hum of am I forgetting something? — the thing that makes people avoid opening the books at all.

Check my books answers that in one click. It looks at your organization the way a bookkeeper would at the end of a month, and tells you one of two things: you're caught up, or here is precisely what's left, with a link straight to each fix.

It's on every plan, and it never changes anything on its own. Running it is always safe.

1. Run it

From your Dashboard, click Check my books. The answer opens right there — you don't leave the page, and nothing is recorded.

Run it whenever you want reassurance. Most people land on a rhythm of once a month, after reconciling. There's no cost to running it more often.

2. Read the answer

If you're caught up, you'll see "Your books are balanced." and three green markers:

That's the whole answer. Close it and get on with your day.

If something's outstanding, you'll see "Here's what's left." under a heading of Needs your attention. Each row names one thing in plain language and gives you the button that takes you to it:

• "Your books are out of balance" → Open trial balance
• "Assets minus liabilities doesn't match net assets" → Open financial position
• "3 draft entries to post" → Review drafts
• "2 reconciliations in progress" → Finish reconciling
• "47 bank transactions to record" → Review
• "1 bank account needs reconciling" → Reconcile

The list is ordered so the most important thing is first. You don't have to clear all of it in one sitting.

3. Work the list, or defer what can wait

Click the button on an item and you land exactly where you can fix it. Come back and run the check again — items drop off as you resolve them.

Some things genuinely can wait. If an item isn't your priority this week, click Defer and pick how long. It moves out of your active list and the row tells you when it comes back ("Returns Sep 15, 2026"). Changed your mind? Restore brings it straight back.

A few items can't be deferred. If your books don't balance, or assets minus liabilities doesn't match net assets, there's no snoozing it — those aren't housekeeping, they mean a report you run today would be wrong. Deferring is for real work you're choosing to schedule, not for making a warning disappear.

If everything active has been deferred, you'll see "Nothing active right now — the items below are deferred." That's an honest answer, not a clean bill of health. It's worth a glance at what you pushed out.

• Run it after reconciling, not before — reconciliation clears several of these items at once.
• If you're brand new and see "Nothing recorded yet", that's expected. Record something first.
• Before you close a period or start a Form 990, get to all three green markers.
• If you deferred something, make a note of when it returns.

Deferring an out-of-balance warning. You can't, and that's on purpose. Out of balance means the two sides of your books disagree — every report you run until it's fixed is telling you something untrue. Open the trial balance and find it.

Treating "all deferred" as "all clear." The screen is careful to say the difference. So is your auditor.

Only running it at year end. By then a small problem has had eleven months to grow copies of itself. A monthly click after reconciling is the whole practice.

Assuming it checks your categories are right. It doesn't, and nothing can. It confirms your books are complete and internally consistent — that everything is recorded, posted, reconciled and balanced. Whether a gift landed in the right fund is a judgment only you can make. This check tells you nothing is missing; reading your Statement of Activity tells you it's meaningful.

• Closing an Accounting Period — what to do once you're caught up
• Bank Reconciliation — clears several of these items at once
• Categorize Transactions — the queue behind "bank transactions to record"
• Statement of Financial Position — where the balance check points you