Find out what you're inheriting before you quote it
Every bookkeeper knows the takeover story: the books look done, and then the first bank rec reveals nothing was actually reconciled for months. Tally ties the inherited reports out against their sources — so you diagnose before you price, and deliver findings instead of accusations.
The moment
Marked reviewed. Never reconciled.
It's the profession's recurring horror story: you take over a client, open the file, and the surface looks fine — everything marked reviewed, months of it. Then you run the first real tie-out and find the last actual reconciliation was half a year ago. Now you have two problems: a mountain of cleanup you didn't price, and a conversation with a client who believed their books were being kept.
Both problems have the same root — the gap between books that look done and books that can prove it. And both have the same fix: check before you commit. Diagnose the state of the books before you quote the cleanup, and bring the client findings with receipts instead of your word against their old bookkeeper's.
How Tally helps today
Diagnose before you quote
Tie out what they hand you
Drop any report or workbook the previous bookkeeper left and Tally verifies every figure against the file's own rows — what holds, what doesn't, in seconds.
Check it against the books
Connect the client's QuickBooks (read-only, Intuit-approved) and tie reports out against actual invoices and credit memos — the figure that doesn't tie is named, with its documents.
Deliver findings, not accusations
Share a verified version where every checked figure carries its receipt — the "here's what I found" conversation, backed by numbers the client can click into themselves.
Honest limits
A tie-out proves the report matches its source — it can't prove the source is right. If the books themselves are miscategorized, that's judgment work only you can do. What Tally removes is the mechanical uncertainty: you'll know exactly which figures don't hold before you put a price on fixing them.
Taking over books — common questions
Know what you're walking into
Free to try, read-only, and nothing is stored — check the state of the books before you commit to them.
Related: A second set of eyes for solo bookkeepers· Does my report match QuickBooks?· Essay: Reviewed, but Not Reconciled