What you actually get back
Extracts from the working papers behind each service, so you can judge the format before you commit to anything.
Every figure on this page is invented. These are structural examples using representative numbers, not anonymised client work. No client data appears here, and none ever will — including in anonymised form, unless a client has specifically agreed to it in writing.
Exceptions schedule
The document that says most about how a job was done. Every item I could not resolve from the records, with the evidence I do have and the specific question I need answered. Short is good; empty usually means someone guessed.
| Date | Description | Amount | What I know | What I need |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 Feb | FASTPAY LTD | £2,400.00 | New payee, no matching invoice in the records | Invoice or a note on what this was for |
| 17 Feb | Transfer out | £5,000.00 | Round sum to an account not in the records | Is this a second business account or drawings? |
| 02 Mar | CASH DEPOSIT | £860.00 | No corresponding sales record for the date | Takings, capital introduced, or a refund? |
| 28 Mar | AMZN MKTPLACE | £318.44 | Mixed basket — likely part personal | Split, or treat wholly as business? |
Four open items on a full quarter is a normal, healthy result.
Bank reconciliation
Agreed to the statement, with reconciling items listed individually rather than collapsed into a single difference.
| Balance per bank statement | £18,420.11 |
| Less: unpresented payments (4) | (£2,865.40) |
| Add: deposits not yet credited (1) | £1,150.00 |
| Less: bank charges not in ledger | (£38.50) |
| Balance per ledger | £16,666.21 |
| Difference | £0.00 |
VAT return workings
Nine-box summary with the treatment applied to each category shown, and every excluded item listed. Prepared for review — submission stays with you.
| Box 1 — VAT due on sales | £9,241.60 |
| Box 4 — VAT reclaimed on purchases | £3,118.22 |
| Box 5 — net VAT due | £6,123.38 |
| Box 6 — total sales ex VAT | £46,208.00 |
| Box 7 — total purchases ex VAT | £19,844.00 |
| Items excluded, listed separately | 7 |
Sector work: delivery platform reconciliation
A hospitality example, because it is the one that most reliably hides money. Platform gross sales rarely equal what reaches the bank, and the gap is usually coded as though it does.
| Platform | Gross orders | Commission | Net expected | Actually received | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platform A | £14,208.00 | £4,262.40 | £9,945.60 | £9,945.60 | — |
| Platform B | £8,940.00 | £2,592.60 | £6,347.40 | £6,102.15 | (£245.25) |
| Platform C | £3,110.00 | £932.99 | £2,177.01 | £2,177.01 | — |
The £245 variance on Platform B is the finding: unexplained deductions worth roughly £2,900 a year if it repeats monthly. Recording gross sales net of commission would have hidden it entirely.
Monthly summary
The page most people actually read. Plain English, one side, no glossary required.
| Mar | Feb | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income | £46,208 | £41,905 | +10.3% |
| Cost of sales | £19,844 | £16,702 | +18.8% |
| Overheads | £12,110 | £11,988 | +1.0% |
| Profit | £14,254 | £13,215 | +7.9% |
Cost of sales rose almost twice as fast as income. That sentence, and what to do about it, is what the written summary covers.
Power Query model
What replaces the monthly rebuild. Named, readable steps applied to the raw export — so when the export format changes, one step is edited rather than the workbook rebuilt.
| 1. Source — folder, all monthly exports |
| 2. Promote headers, set data types |
| 3. Remove bank's blank footer rows |
| 4. Normalise date formats (mixed UK/US in source) |
| 5. Merge with rules table → category |
| 6. Flag unmatched rows to review queue |
| 7. Load to model |
Step 6 is the important one: rows that do not match a rule are surfaced for review, never silently dropped.
Want to see it on your own numbers?
A Profit Leak Review is the cheapest way to get a real deliverable rather than an illustrative one.