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LedgerClean helps bookkeepers diagnose and fix messy QuickBooks Online files. You upload QBO report exports, LedgerClean analyzes them, and you get a prioritized diagnostic report with a health score, a guided cleanup checklist, and draft journal entry memos.

The basic workflow

1. Create an engagement — enter the client name, platform (QBO), engagement type (Cleanup, Monthly, Both, or Rebuild / Migration), fiscal year end, and the review period you want to diagnose.
2. Export reports from QBO — for a standard cleanup or monthly engagement, LedgerClean needs six required reports plus optional ones if the client uses A/R, A/P, or has items in the bank feed For Review queue. For a Rebuild / Migration engagement, only the Bank Feed - For Review exports are needed.
3. Upload and run — drag and drop your files, then click Run Diagnostic Scan (or Run Rebuild Mode Scan in rebuild mode). Results are ready in 2–5 minutes.
4. Review findings — you'll get a health score, category-by-category breakdown, an estimated cleanup time, and a step-by-step cleanup checklist. Rebuild Mode produces a per-account scoping summary instead of a health score.
5. Work the checklist — follow the guided fix procedures in the recommended order. Mark items done as you go.
6. Re-scan — export fresh reports after cleanup and run a new scan to verify your work and show the client the improvement.

LedgerClean works with QuickBooks Online (QBO) report exports. Xero support is planned for the future.

File types

• .xlsx — preferred. This is QBO's native “Export to Excel” format. Best results.
• .csv — supported as a fallback, but .xlsx is recommended for accuracy.

Required reports (all 6, for a standard diagnostic)

• Account List (Chart of Accounts)
• Trial Balance
• Balance Sheet
• Profit and Loss
• Transaction List by Date
• General Ledger

These six apply to Cleanup, Monthly, and Cleanup & Monthly engagement types. Rebuild / Migration engagements skip these entirely and use only Bank Feed - For Review exports. See Rebuild Mode.

Conditional reports

• A/R Aging Summary — required if the client uses Accounts Receivable
• A/P Aging Summary — required if the client uses Accounts Payable

Strongly recommended

• Reconciliation Summary — helps detect reconciliation gaps and forced reconciliations
• Bank Feed – For Review — current state of each account's For Review queue. Critical for identifying transactions that haven't made it into the books yet. QBO caps each export at 300 rows and only captures what's currently visible, so use the gear icon to set rows per page and run multiple exports per account if there are more than 300 items. This file exports as .csv (not .xlsx) — that's normal. Upload the .csv directly.

The accounting basis you use when exporting QBO reports directly affects the accuracy of your diagnostic scan. Here's what to know.

Which basis should I export on?

Export using whichever basis the client files taxes on. If the client files on cash basis, export cash basis reports. If accrual, export accrual. LedgerClean detects the basis from the uploaded reports and adjusts its analysis accordingly.

What happens if I export on the wrong basis?

Exporting on the wrong basis can cause misleading results:

• Cash reports for an accrual-basis client may miss accounts receivable and accounts payable issues entirely, since those balances don't appear on cash-basis reports.
• Accrual reports for a cash-basis client may flag A/R and A/P balances as issues when they're not relevant to how the client actually operates.
• Mixed basis exports (some reports on cash, some on accrual) will produce inconsistent findings. The Balance Sheet and P&L should always be on the same basis.

How does LedgerClean detect the basis?

LedgerClean compares patterns across your uploaded reports — primarily the Balance Sheet and P&L. If it detects A/R and A/P balances on the Balance Sheet with corresponding revenue and expense timing on the P&L, it identifies the file as accrual basis. If those balances are absent, it identifies cash basis.

If the detection seems wrong, verify that all your exports use the same basis and that the date ranges match your review period.

What if the client is on the wrong basis in QBO?

This is a finding LedgerClean may surface — for example, if QBO is set to accrual but the client files taxes on cash basis. In that case, the diagnostic reflects what's in the file as exported. Note the basis mismatch and address it as part of the cleanup, but don't re-export on a different basis just to change the diagnostic results. The scan should reflect the file's current state.

After each diagnostic scan, LedgerClean assigns a health score from 0 to 100based on what it finds across eight issue categories. The score gives you and your client a quick snapshot of the file's condition.

Score ranges

What affects the score

The score is a weighted average across eight categories:

• Reconciliation Gaps — highest weight. Unreconciled accounts, forced reconciliations, and backlogs.
• Uncategorized Transactions — items coded to Uncategorized Income/Expense, Ask My Accountant, or other suspense accounts.
• Unprocessed Bank Feed — transactions sitting in the For Review queue (only scored if you upload the For Review export).
• Chart of Accounts Issues — duplicates, miscategorized account types, unused accounts.
• Balance Sheet Anomalies — negative bank balances, stale Undeposited Funds, Opening Balance Equity issues.
• Duplicate Transactions — exact and near-match duplicates.
• Vendor/Payee Issues — duplicate vendor names, blank payee names, inactive vendors.
• P&L Anomalies — unusual month-over-month spikes, journal entries hitting revenue accounts directly.

What each category detects

The cleanup checklist is the core of LedgerClean. After the diagnostic scan, it organizes every finding into a prioritized work order, and a separate Fix Procedures step generates step-by-step correction instructions for each item.

The cleanup checklist

After running a diagnostic scan, LedgerClean generates a prioritized checklist of issues found in your client's QBO file. Each issue includes:

• Severity — Critical, Warning, or Info.
• Category — which of the 8 detection areas flagged it.
• Description — what was found and why it matters.
• Accounts involved — the specific QBO accounts behind the finding.

Issues are prioritized so you can work through them in order, starting with the most impactful findings.

How to generate fix procedures

Fix procedures are not included in the initial scan. They are a separate step. After your scan results load, click the Fix Procedures button to generate step-by-step correction instructions. This uses AI to create detailed, issue-specific guidance for each finding in your checklist.

Generating fix procedures takes additional processing time and is a paid feature (Solo and Firm plans, or any engagement unlocked with a Single Cleanup credit). The scan gives you the diagnostic picture first so you can review findings, share the assessment with your client, and decide which issues to address before generating the detailed fix instructions.

What fix procedures include

Each fix procedure has four sections:

• Investigate — where to look in QBO with specific navigation paths.
• Determine — how to interpret what you find and identify the root cause.
• Fix options — numbered step-by-step instructions for each scenario. Multiple options are provided because the correct fix depends on what your investigation uncovers.
• Ask the Client — ready-to-use questions you can send directly to the client when their input is needed.

Each procedure is also tagged with a confidence level — Standard (safe to proceed), Review Carefully (double-check before acting), or Ask the Client(judgment call that only the client can make). The “Ask the Client” label appears in two places: it is one of the four sections inside every procedure, and it is also a possible confidence tag on the procedure as a whole.

Tracking issue status

Each issue has a status dropdown with four options:

• Open — default, not started.
• In Progress — actively working on it.
• Waiting on Client — need information or documents from the client.
• Resolved — correction made in QBO.

Status changes save automatically. You can filter by status to focus on what still needs attention.

Internal notes

Every issue has a notes field, visible only to you. Notes do notappear on shared client reports, shared proposals, or PDF exports. Use them to track what you've tried, capture client responses, or leave reminders for yourself.

Exporting the checklist

Click Excel in the export bar to download the full checklist as a spreadsheet. The export includes all issues, severity levels, statuses, internal notes, and fix procedures if generated.

The Excel file is formatted as a working tracker with filters, severity color coding, and status dropdowns.

Tips

• Generate fix procedures before exporting to Excel.
• Work through issues by category to stay organized.
• Use Waiting on Client status to track which issues are blocked.
• Re-scan after making fixes to see your updated health score.

Draft journal entry memos

For reclassifications, adjusting entries, and write-offs, LedgerClean drafts journal entry memos with the date, memo text, debit/credit lines, and a supporting explanation. These can be exported as CSV in either SaasAnt-compatible or QBO native import format.

AI disclosure

Fix procedures are generated by AI (Anthropic Claude) based on the specific issues detected in your client's file. They are designed to give you a starting point and save research time, but should be validated against the client's actual situation before implementing. You are responsible for reviewing all AI-generated guidance before making changes in QBO.

For more detail on how AI generation works, PII handling, and Anthropic's data terms, see How Fix Procedures and JE Memos Are Generated.

LedgerClean uses two layers of analysis: a rule-based detection engine and AI-powered interpretation.

Rule-based detection runs first.The eight category detectors scan your uploaded QBO exports for structural patterns — duplicate accounts, unreconciled months, uncategorized transactions, and so on. These detectors are deterministic: the same file always produces the same findings.

AI-powered interpretation runs second. Once the detectors identify issues, the findings (with personally identifiable information removed) are sent to the Anthropic Claude API. The AI generates:

• Fix procedures — step-by-step instructions for resolving each issue in QBO, including which menus to navigate and what to click.
• Draft journal entry memos — debit/credit lines with dates, memo text, and supporting explanations for reclassifications, adjusting entries, and write-offs.
• Plain-language explanations — descriptions of why each issue matters and what happens if it's not fixed.

Confidence levels

Each fix procedure is tagged with a confidence level:

• Standard — straightforward fix based on clear data. Safe to proceed after a quick review.
• Review Carefully — the AI is fairly confident, but the situation has some ambiguity. Double-check before proceeding.
• Ask the Client — the fix requires information or a judgment call that only the client (or someone with full context) can provide. Don't act on these without client input.

What data does the AI see?

Before anything is sent to the AI, LedgerClean strips or anonymizes personally identifiable information: SSNs, EINs, bank account numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses. Your client's business name is replaced with a generic label. Vendor and customer names are sent because the AI needs them to generate accurate fix procedures.

The AI operates under Anthropic's commercial API terms, which prohibit using API data for model training. Your client's data is not used to train or improve the AI.

LedgerClean offers several ways to get your data out.

PDF exports

• Cleanup Assessment — a client-ready summary with the health score and key findings. Great for scoping conversations.
• Diagnostic Report — the full detailed report with all categories, issues, and recommended cleanup sequence.
• Cleanup Checklist — a printable version of your working checklist.
• Progress Summary — available after a re-scan, shows before/after comparison.

PDF reports on paid plans include your firm name and logo (configure these in Account Settings).

CSV exports

• Journal Entry Memos — available in two formats: SaasAnt-compatible import format and QBO native journal entry import format.

Importing journal entries into QBO

After exporting the JE memo CSV, you have two import paths:

• QBO native — In QBO, go to Settings > Import Data > Journal Entries. Upload the QBO-format CSV.
• SaasAnt — Use the SaasAnt Transactions app (QBO add-on). Import the SaasAnt-format CSV — SaasAnt handles field mapping automatically.

Review each journal entry after import to confirm accounts and amounts are correct.

How to generate bank rules

If your client's engagement has a Bank Feed (For Review) export uploaded, the project report shows a Suggested Bank Rules card at the top. LedgerClean clusters the For Review queue by vendor, proposes a categorization account for each cluster, and lets you export an .xlsthat QBO accepts via Banking > Manage Rules > Import Rules.

Account suggestions only populate when an Account List (Chart of Accounts) export has also been uploaded — the engine matches against that list and never invents account names. You can edit rule names, pick alternate accounts from the dropdown, exclude rows you don't want, and toggle auto-add per rule before exporting. Bank rule export is included on Solo, Firm, and Single Cleanup plans.

Shared links

Generate a read-only link to share your diagnostic results without requiring the recipient to log in. You can optionally include the cleanup time estimate and set an expiration date. Shared links are available on paid plans.

Shared links show the health score, category findings, and (optionally) cleanup time and pricing. They do not include your checklist notes, item-level status tracking, or confidence-level tags — those stay private to your account.

Adding your firm logo and name

When you generate a shared link, your client gets a read-only page they can view without signing in to LedgerClean. Here's what's included and what stays private.

Shared diagnostic report includes:

• Health score with the color gauge
• Category-by-category findings with severity levels
• Issue descriptions (the client-facing versions, not your internal notes)
• Cleanup time estimate (if you toggled this on when creating the link)
• Your firm name and logo (if configured in Account Settings)
• A disclaimer stating this is an AI-powered diagnostic, not a professional audit opinion

Shared diagnostic report does NOT include:

• Your cleanup checklist or item-level status tracking
• Internal notes you've added to any issue
• Confidence-level tags (Standard / Review Carefully / Ask the Client)
• Fix procedures or step-by-step instructions
• Draft journal entry memos

Shared proposal includes:

• Everything in the shared diagnostic report
• Your pricing (hourly, flat fee, or monthly line items from your pricing template)
• A note that estimates are based on detected issue volume and complexity and that actual time may vary

Shared proposal does NOT include:

• Fix procedures or JE memos
• Your checklist, notes, or internal tracking

Tips for sharing

• Preview before sending. Open the shared link yourself to see exactly what your client will see.
• Set an expiration. If the engagement has a decision timeline, use the 7-day or 30-day expiration option instead of “Never.”
• Add context. The shared page doesn't include a cover note. Send the link in an email with a brief explanation: what you found, what you recommend, and what the next step is.

LedgerClean lets you build a pricing proposal alongside the diagnostic, so you can share findings and your fee in a single client-ready link or PDF.

Set up your pricing template

Go to Account Settings > Pricing Template. Add line items with a label (e.g., “Cleanup”, “Monthly”), a type (Hourly, Flat Fee, or Monthly), and a rate. Check Default On for items you want included automatically in every new proposal.

Customize per engagement

On the report page, open the Proposal Pricing section. You can enable or disable individual line items, override rates and hours (hours auto-populate from the cleanup time estimate), and switch between two presentation modes:

• Itemized — shows each service line with its rate and calculated total
• Single Fee — collapses everything into one flat fee with a custom label

Share with clients

Generate a shared proposal link— a read-only page showing the health score, findings, and your pricing. If you've configured firm branding in Account Settings, your logo and firm name appear on the proposal.

Common “where do I find...” answers:

Once you've completed cleanup work in QBO, export fresh reports and upload them to the same project to run a new diagnostic scan.

What you get

• Side-by-side comparison — original health score vs. current, so you can see the improvement at a glance.
• Per-category progress — for example, “Uncategorized Transactions: 47 → 3”
• Updated checklist — reflects the current state of the file after your cleanup work.
• Progress Summary PDF — a client-ready document showing the before/after improvement.

LedgerClean stores up to 5 scans per project, so you can track progress across multiple rounds of cleanup.

If you do ongoing monthly bookkeeping for a client, you can group multiple review periods under one client and track quality over time. This is available on the Solo and Firm plans.

Setting it up

From the dashboard, click + Add Periodon any project to create a new period within the same client group. Each period has its own date range, label (e.g. “March 2026”), and uploaded files. You can also use the Run Next Monthbutton, which auto-fills the next month's dates and label.

Health score trend

The group view shows a line chart of health scores over time. Each dot is color-coded by zone (green, yellow, orange, red) so you can see at a glance whether the file is improving, steady, or drifting.

Delta detection

When you have two or more scanned periods, LedgerClean compares the most recent scan to the one before it and classifies every finding as:

• New — appeared in the latest period but not the previous one.
• Recurring — present in both periods. If the severity changed (e.g. warning → critical), that's flagged too.
• Resolved — was in the previous period but is no longer detected.

Run Next Month

On the group view page or any grouped project's report, click Run Next Month. LedgerClean calculates the next period's start date (day after the previous period ended), end date (last day of that month), and label (month + year). You can edit all three before confirming. The new project is created with the same client name, engagement type, and group — just upload fresh exports and scan.

LedgerClean supports three engagement types: cleanup (one-time fix), monthly (ongoing bookkeeping QC), or cleanup + monthly (fix first, then maintain). You choose the type when creating a project.

Setting up a monthly engagement

1. Create an engagement and select Monthly or Cleanup & Monthly as the engagement type.
2. Upload the first month's QBO exports and run a diagnostic scan.
3. From the group view or the report page, click Run Next Month. Dates, labels, and settings carry forward.
4. Upload fresh exports for the new period and scan again.

Reading the results

• Health score trend — the group view shows a line chart. Look for downward trends that signal drift before it becomes a cleanup engagement.
• Delta detection — each finding is tagged as new, recurring, or resolved compared to the previous period. Focus on new issues first.
• Estimated monthly hours — calculated from transaction volume, bank account count, and tracking complexity. Use it to scope or validate your monthly fee.

When to use it

Monthly QC catches issues early — a few uncategorized transactions this month, a missed reconciliation next month. Addressing them monthly takes minutes. Letting them compound for 6 months creates a cleanup project.

When you have two or more scanned periods in a project group, LedgerClean can generate combined PDFs that span all periods. This is available on the Solo and Firm plans.

What's included

• Combined Assessment — a single PDF covering all scanned periods, with the health score trend, per-period findings, and an overall summary. Useful for showing a client the full picture of their file.
• Combined Proposal — a multi-period proposal that rolls up your pricing across all periods. Useful for quoting a cleanup engagement that spans several months of history.

Generating combined exports

1. Open the engagement group view from the dashboard.
2. Ensure at least 2 periods have been scanned.
3. Click Download Combined Assessment or Download Combined Proposal.
4. To share with a client, click Share Combined Assessment or Share Combined Proposal to create a share link.

Rebuild / Migration is an engagement type for clients where the books aren't populated yet: a fresh QBO setup, a migration from another platform (Xero, Wave, Sage, FreshBooks, etc.), or a takeover where bank feeds are stacked up waiting to be categorized. A standard diagnostic has nothing to analyze in that state — the Trial Balance, Balance Sheet, P&L, and General Ledger are effectively empty because nothing has posted to the register yet.

Rebuild Mode reads the For Review queue directly and produces a scoping view: total transactions, date range, and inflow/outflow totals broken out per account, so you can sequence and price the categorization work before you start.

How it works

1. Pick Rebuild / Migration as the engagement type when you create the engagement (or switch to it later on the upload page).
2. Export the Bank Feed - For Review queue for each bank / credit card / line of credit. QBO caps each export at 300 rows and only captures what's currently visible, so use the gear icon at the top of the queue to set rows per page, then page through and export multiple times per account if there are more than 300 items. QBO names each file with the account it came from, so the filename becomes the account label on the report automatically — no need to rename.
3. Run the scan. Button reads Run Rebuild Mode Scan.
4. Read the per-account scoping summary on the report page. Apply the pricing rubric below it to build your quote.

When you're done rebuilding

Once the For Review queue is categorized and real books exist, switch the engagement type to Cleanup, upload the full report set, and re-scan. You'll get the standard diagnostic with a health score and fix procedures.

If a finding doesn't look right, you can flag it directly from the report. Flags help LedgerClean improve detection quality and give you a way to annotate your work.

Flag types

• False Positive — the issue doesn't actually exist in the file. The detection rule triggered incorrectly.
• Wrong Severity — the issue is real, but the priority level (critical, warning, info) is off.
• Missing Context — the finding is confusing, or the suggested fix doesn't apply to this situation.

How to flag

On any finding in the report, click the flag icon. Select the flag type and optionally add a note explaining why. Flagged findings are logged and reviewed to improve future scans.

Free

3 diagnostics per month, 1 active engagement. You'll see the health score and category summaries, plus full detail for Chart of Accounts and Uncategorized Transactions categories. Good for seeing the accuracy before committing.

Single Cleanup — $29 one-time.

One cleanup engagement with full Solo-level access — same features as Solo, limited to one engagement. No subscription required. Includes all 8 detection categories, fix procedures, cleanup checklist, JE memos, bank rule export (.xls for QBO Import Rules), PDF/Excel export with firm branding, and unlimited re-scans. The credit never expires; once spent on an engagement, that engagement stays fully unlocked forever.

Solo — $49/month.

Unlimited diagnostics, up to 5 active projects, up to 50,000 transactions per file. Includes the full cleanup checklist with fix procedures, draft journal entry memos, bank rule export, re-scan comparisons, PDF and CSV exports, firm branding on reports, shared links, and multi-period analysis with health score trends and delta detection.

Firm (coming soon)

Everything in Solo, plus unlimited active projects and team member seats. Join the waitlist on the pricing page to get notified when it launches.

Free trial

Signing up creates a Free Preview account by default — 3 scans a month, 1 active engagement, Chart of Accounts and Uncategorized Transactions categories shown in full detail. To get the full Solo or Firm feature set, click Subscribe to Solo or Subscribe to Firm on the pricing page or your account settings. That starts a 14-day free trial with full access — no credit card required to start the trial. If you don't add a payment method before the trial ends, your account returns to Free Preview with no charge.

View full plan comparison →

My file won't upload or shows “invalid format”

• LedgerClean accepts .xlsx and .csv files only — not .pdf, .numbers, or .ods.
• Do not open, edit, or re-save the file before uploading. LedgerClean detects the report type from column headers, and re-saving can shift them.
• If a file is rejected, re-export it directly from QBO and upload the fresh copy.

The Analyze button is grayed out

• All required files must show a green checkmark. If any is missing or shows a red error, the button stays disabled.
• If you checked A/R or A/P when creating the engagement, the A/R Aging and A/P Aging reports are also required.
• If a scan is already running, the button shows “Running Diagnostic Scan...” and is temporarily disabled until it finishes.

My transaction count seems wrong

• LedgerClean counts transactions from the Transaction List by Date export.
• QBO's dashboard count may include bank feed items (For Review queue), which aren't in the Transaction List report.
• Filtered or date-mismatched exports will show different counts. Verify the export date range matches the review period you set in LedgerClean.

I can't log in or reset my password

• Make sure you're using the email address you signed up with.
• To reset your password, click Forgot password? on the login page. You'll receive an email with a reset link — check spam/junk if it doesn't arrive within a few minutes.
• If you signed up with a magic link, use Sign in with email link instead of entering a password.
• Still stuck? Email support@ledgerclean.com.

A finding seems inaccurate

Before reporting, verify three things:

1. Your export date range matches the review period you set in LedgerClean.
2. You exported on the correct accounting basis (cash vs. accrual).
3. The reports weren't filtered or edited before upload.

If the finding still looks off, go to the Support pageand send us the project name and which finding looks wrong — we'll investigate.