Financial reconstruction · Conroe, TX
The records are gone. The books come back anyway.
A lost file, a vanished bookkeeper, a dead drive, years never kept — a senior operator rebuilds the books from the records your bank, processor, and payroll provider still hold. Every month reconciled, every estimate flagged and documented. Fixed fee, scoped before any work starts.
Recovery checked before rebuilding is quoted — if your file is recoverable, you'll hear that instead. We don't replace your CPA.
In brief
Reconstruction, in plain terms.
What is it?
Rebuilding books whose records are gone — from the copies your bank, processor, payroll provider, and vendors still hold. Every month reconciled, anything unprovable flagged on a documented schedule.
How is it different from catch-up or cleanup?
By what survived. Catch-up: records exist, months never entered. Cleanup: months entered wrong. Reconstruction: the records themselves are gone — collection comes before any bookkeeping can.
What does it cost?
A one-time fixed fee, scoped in writing after a free review — by accounts, years, and what survives. If the review finds your file is recoverable or the job is really a catch-up, you're quoted for the smaller job.
Can I do it myself?
The collection phase, genuinely yes — our reconstruction guide publishes the full method, including the records-request list. The service is for when the rebuild itself outruns your weekends.
Why owners call
Books go missing in very human ways.
None of these means the history is lost — every dollar that touched a third party left a copy somewhere. These are the calls we get.
“My bookkeeper disappeared — and so did my books.”
The person who kept the file is gone and won't respond. We check the recovery doors first — QuickBooks Online's cloud copy, your CPA's accountant's copy — then rebuild from third-party records if the file is truly gone.
Free reconstruction review File lost or corrupt“The QuickBooks file is corrupt / the drive died.”
A dead computer, a failed drive, a file that won't open. If data recovery can't bring it back, the books rebuild from the records your bank, processor, and payroll provider still hold.
Free reconstruction review Never really kept“Honestly, there were never real books — just a shoebox.”
Years of business with no accounting system at all. We build the first real file from statements, oldest month first, reconciled as it goes — so the history finally exists.
Free reconstruction review Bought a business“I bought a business and got no usable books with it.”
The records that came with the purchase are thin, wrong, or missing. We reconstruct the operating history you actually need to run and report on what you bought.
Free reconstruction review Lender or CPA needs history“Someone needs financials for years I can't produce.”
A lender, the SBA, or your CPA needs statements for periods with no books behind them. We rebuild those periods from source, reconciled, so the numbers are defensible — your CPA handles what gets filed.
Free reconstruction review Partner or legal dispute“A dispute needs the real history on paper.”
A partnership split or disagreement where the books must be rebuilt honestly from source. We reconstruct operational books and document every basis — and we're plain about where forensic-CPA work begins.
How we scope it honestlyWhatever went missing, the first step is the same: a free review that checks the recovery doors, counts what survives, and puts a fixed fee in writing.
How reconstruction runs at Westgate
Recovery first, collection second, rebuild proven.
Free review & recovery check
A senior operator checks every door that could shrink the job — cloud copies, accountant's copies, backups, recoverable drives — then counts the accounts and years genuinely gone. Fixed fee and timeline in writing before anything starts.
Batch the records requests
Every bank, card issuer, processor, payroll provider, and key vendor gets its request at once, through the secure portal — so the waiting happens once, not serially.
Build the scaffold
A clean file: lean chart of accounts, opening balances anchored to the earliest reliable statement — facts first, structure before transactions.
Rebuild oldest-first, reconciled
Each month reconstructed from the collected records and reconciled to its statements before the next — deadline-critical periods sequenced first when a filing or loan is driving.
Deliver proven books + the flag schedule
Per-period statements tied to source, the documented schedule of anything estimated, and an optional handoff to a monthly close so this is the last rebuild.
Scope is honest and specific to your gap — one lost year of one account and five shoebox years across payroll are different jobs. The free review tells you exactly which, and what the fixed fee is.
What's included
Everything a rebuild takes — line by line.
Grouped the way the work actually runs. Exactly which lines apply to your gap is set in writing after the free review.
Recover & collect
The recovery sweep
Cloud copies, accountant's copies, backups, and recoverable drives checked before any rebuilding is quoted — the hour that can shrink the whole job.
The batched records requests
Every bank, card issuer, processor, payroll provider, and key vendor asked at once through the portal — the waiting happens once, not serially.
The account inventory
Every account the gap touched — including closed ones — listed from old returns and loan files, so no hole surfaces at tie-out time.
Rebuild & prove
The clean scaffold
A lean chart of accounts and opening balances anchored to the earliest reliable statement — structure before transactions, facts before entries.
Every month reconstructed and reconciled
Oldest-first, each month tied to its statements before the next — deadline-critical periods sequenced first when a filing or loan is driving.
Liability accounts rebuilt with extra care
Payroll and collected-tax accounts in the gap re-tied to filings and provider records — the accounts other parties depend on, held to a prove-it standard.
Deliver & document
Per-period statements that check out
P&L and balance sheet for every rebuilt period, reconciled to source — the history a lender or CPA can verify, not just read.
The flag schedule
Every estimate documented with its basis, delivered beside the books — the honesty layer your CPA works from, never buried in the numbers.
The handoff to a rhythm
Opening balances connected cleanly to the present, and an optional move to a monthly close — so this is the last rebuild.
Which job is yours?
What survived decides the service.
Reconstruction — records gone
File lost, bookkeeper vanished, drive dead, or years never kept. The raw material gets re-collected from third parties before bookkeeping can start. That's this page.
Catch-up — never entered
The records exist, but whole months were never recorded. The data is already in your feeds and statements — that's catch-up bookkeeping.
Cleanup — entered wrong
The months are there but miscategorized, unreconciled, or out of balance. Correcting and re-proving them is bookkeeping cleanup.
Real jobs mix all three — lost years reconstructed, the recent gap caught up, the surviving stretch cleaned. The free review scopes whatever combination yours is as one project, one fixed fee.
Operational standards
Four things every reconstruction holds to.
Recovery checked before rebuilding is quoted
If the file is recoverable or the job is really a catch-up, you hear that — we quote the smaller job and say why.
Proven, not approximated
Every rebuilt month reconciled to third-party source. A history that can't be checked isn't a history.
Estimates flagged, never invented
Unprovable items live on a documented schedule with their basis stated — visible to you and your CPA, never buried in the numbers.
Boundaries stated plainly
Operational books, rebuilt honestly. Forensic opinions, testimony, and filings belong with forensic CPAs and your CPA — and we say so up front.
Want the full method we run? It's published free: reconstructing financial records — the Third-Party Rule rebuild →
Losing the books feels like losing the history of the business. It almost never is — your bank kept its copy, your processor kept its copy, your payroll company kept its copy. Our job is to collect what survived and rebuild the truth from it, month by month, honestly flagged where the paper runs out.
Twenty years with a national nonprofit. Six years at a resort hotel — spa, restaurants, and golf course. Five years with a church. He has seen these books from the inside.
Reconstruction FAQ · Updated July 2026
Direct answers when the records are gone.
However the records went missing, the first step is the same. Get a free review — we respond within one business day.
Ready when you are
Get the history back — proven, not guessed.
Tell us what went missing and what's driving the timeline. A senior operator checks the recovery doors, counts what survives, and gives you a fixed-fee scope in writing — including an honest "this is really just a catch-up" when it is.