Bookkeeper — answered personally.

Glossary · Resources · Plain-English

The bookkeeping glossary,grouped by the question each answer.

Twenty-four terms, grouped by workflow. Reporting, reconciliation, tax, and catch-up & cleanup — each term defined in plain English for the owner who hit a word on a QuickBooks report.

How to read this

Four categories. Twenty-four terms. No CPA jargon.

Each section groups the terms by the workflow they live in — the reporting section is what you’ll see on a monthly report, the reconciliation section is what surfaces the moment the books go up against the bank, the tax section is the vocabulary that shows up at a year-end handoff, and the catch-up & cleanup section is the rest of the project vocabulary. Tap a category below to scroll straight to it.

From Reporting to Catch-up & cleanup

Twenty-four definitions, four grouped sections, one card per term.

Use the category index below to skip straight to the section you’re working in — or read top to bottom. Every definition is short on purpose; if the long version is what you need, the consultation is free.

Read next

The glossary is the hub. These are the pages that use it.

Two editorial surfaces already lean on these definitions — the tax-ready-books checklist and the CPA handoff checklist. Skim them for the same voice in long form.

Tax-prep pillar

A small-business checklist for tax-ready books before April

The checklist every owner needs in November — what “tax-ready” actually means, what your CPA needs from you, and the moment to call for cleanup help before the annual filing window closes.

CPA handoff

The quarterly and year-end handoff checklist

The same checklist I walk my own books through each quarter — every-quarter cadence, quarter-end wrap-up, and the year-end pack that lands at the CPA walkthrough.

Still puzzled?

Some answers only exist on your books, not on a glossary page.

The definitions above are the general case. Whether “accrual”, “depreciation”, or a particular cleanup scope is the right move for your business this quarter depends on your numbers, your entity, and where you’re headed — which is exactly what the free 30-minute consultation is for. Bring one question or twenty.