Catch-up bookkeeping for a small retail shop for three months

Project overview

We run a small retail shop and have fallen behind on our books for the last three months. We need someone to organise our receipts and bank statements and bring the accounts up to date so that our accountant can finish the quarter.

What you will deliver

• Categorised income and expenses for 3 months
• Bank reconciliation for all accounts
• Organised list of missing receipts
• Profit and loss summary
• Clean QuickBooks or Excel file
• Notes on anything unusual

What we are looking for

• Bookkeeping experience with small businesses
• Strong QuickBooks or Excel skills
• Accuracy and discretion
• Understands basic VAT or sales tax concepts

How we will choose

We will shortlist freelancers by relevant experience, quality of past work, clarity of the proposal and availability. Price matters only within the fixed budget; reliability and quality matter more. We may ask shortlisted applicants a few questions or for a very small sample.

Our ideal match

We are happy to work with a motivated newer freelancer, as long as your samples show real care and quality. Honesty, curiosity and good manners matter to us as much as technical ability. Reliability, meaning answering messages and keeping promises, makes a big difference on a bookkeeping job.

A note about applications

A great proposal talks about this bookkeeping job, not about your whole career. Tell us about a similar project and what you learned from it. Long generic introductions are easy to spot, and we usually skip them.

Working steps

The first step is a quick discussion where we confirm the brief and any open questions. Next, please share an early version or plan of the bookkeeping so we can confirm you are on the right track. Finally, we will review the finished work against the list, request any small changes, approve it and release payment.

Keeping in contact

You can expect an answer from us within a working day, and we ask for the same courtesy. Please keep important decisions in the platform chat so both sides have a record. If a voice or video call would be faster, we are happy to arrange one.

Notes on the deliverables

We will check 'clean QuickBooks or Excel file' carefully against the brief, so please double-check it before you deliver. If you know a better way to handle 'notes on anything unusual', we are open to hearing your suggestion in your proposal. We will check 'categorised income and expenses for 3 months' carefully against the brief, so please double-check it before you deliver. 'organised list of missing receipts' is one of our priorities, so please tell us early if you foresee any difficulty with it. If you know a better way to handle 'bank reconciliation for all accounts', we are open to hearing your suggestion in your proposal.

What we will provide

All the material we have collected for the bookkeeping will be shared on day one. If something you need is missing, we will try to find it or agree on a sensible alternative. We want you to be able to focus on doing excellent work.

Scope and expectations

The work listed above is the full scope of this bookkeeping job. We would rather agree on the details at the start than discover a misunderstanding halfway through. Extra items can be discussed separately, with their own price and timeline.

Payment

This is a fixed-price job with a budget of USD $105. The price is firm, so please apply only if it works for you. Payment will go through the platform's secure system, and we release it promptly after the work is approved.

Confidentiality

We will share information about our business that is not available publicly. Please do not show this material to other clients or in public places. If you would like to show the finished work in your portfolio, ask us first and we will usually agree.

Timeline

Our plan is for the bookkeeping to be delivered within roughly 3 to 4 weeks. If the deadline is a problem, suggest a better one and explain why. If you expect a delay, please tell us as early as possible, because a short honest message is always better than silence.

A little about our team

We are a small, friendly business that values clear communication and fair treatment of freelancers. We pay for work that meets the brief and give honest, constructive feedback. We would like this bookkeeping to be a positive experience for both sides.

Changes after delivery

The price includes up to two rounds of changes to the bookkeeping. We promise to give specific, consolidated feedback rather than vague comments. If something does not match the original brief, fixing it is not counted as one of the rounds.

Working hours

We do not mind when you work, only that the deliverables arrive when promised. Please tell us in your proposal when you are normally online. If your availability changes during the job, tell us straight away so that we can adjust.

Quality standards

A careful, accurate bookkeeping is more important to us than a rushed one. Anything we receive must be your own work, with no copied or unlicensed content. Before you deliver, please re-read the brief and check each item on the list as if you were the customer.

How to apply

To help us choose quickly, please include the following in your proposal:

• One or two examples of similar work you have completed
• A short description of how you would approach this bookkeeping
• The date you could start and finish
• Any questions you have about the brief

Proposals that are copied and pasted without reading the job will be ignored.