🔷Highlights
- Digitised 2,000+ disorganised, handwritten accounting records
- Built a complete year-end file with validated ledgers and notes
- Eliminated duplicate entries and improved long-term accuracy
- Delivered a future-ready bookkeeping structure for continued compliance
Introduction
When a UK accounting firm found itself overwhelmed by a client’s disorganised, handwritten financial records, it turned to Corient for help. The project wasn’t just about entering numbers—it was about restoring structure, accuracy, and clarity to an entire year’s worth of chaotic transactions. The end goal? A clean, compliant, and ready-to-file year-end financial report.
The Initial Problem: What Went Wrong?
The client’s records were purely manual—stacks of handwritten notes with no digital trail. Here’s what they were facing:
- Over 2,000 financial transactions jotted across notebooks and loose sheets
- Illegible handwriting, inconsistent formatting, and missing labels
- No separation between sales, purchases, and bank activity
- No digital system to rely on, making year-end reporting almost impossible
The accounting firm knew they needed expert help, and that’s when Corient stepped in.
Corient’s First Solution: The Fix
Corient’s team approached the project with a clear roadmap:
- Sorting & Categorisation
Each handwritten entry was sorted into buckets—Sales, Purchases, and Bank Transactions—to bring structure to the chaos. - Digitisation
Our team transcribed every record into our cloud-based accounting platform, following industry standards to ensure compliance and consistency. - Validation & Cleanup
During entry, we flagged duplicates, inconsistencies, and missing data, checking each against banking records and cross-references.
This brought order to the books, but a new challenge soon emerged.
The New Problem: A Surprise Roadblock
While transcribing, we discovered:
- Multiple duplicate entries, many of which weren’t evident at first glance
- Records missing crucial data like invoice numbers or dates
- Gaps in bank statements that didn’t align with the recorded cash flow
This posed a risk to accurate year-end reporting—and potentially, HMRC compliance.
Corient’s Second Solution: Fixing the New Problem
To tackle this, we implemented a 4-step solution:
- Deep Record Validation
We compared each entry with supporting bank statements, ensuring every transaction had a verified source. - Client Collaboration
We worked closely with the accounting firm via Zoom and shared spreadsheets, helping them spot missing records and fill in gaps. - Year-End File Preparation
With cleaned and categorised data, we built a full year-end working file, complete with ledgers, supporting schedules, and annotated notes. - Ready for Future Compliance
We also delivered the digital bookkeeping format as a template for next year, making it easier for the client to maintain consistency moving forward.
For other firms facing similar challenges, our guide on outsourced bookkeeping services explains how outsourcing improves both accuracy and efficiency.
The Final Outcome: A Success Story
After several weeks of detailed work, the firm received:
- A comprehensive year-end accounting file, ready for filing and internal review
- Clean, accurate ledgers based on 2,000+ transactions
- Annotated notes to explain any flagged entries
- A digital system they could now use year-round
“We were honestly drowning in paperwork—Corient didn’t just clean it up, they gave us structure and clarity we can use long-term. We’ll never go back to doing this manually again.”
Key Takeaways: Why This Matters for Businesses
- Accurate financial data is critical for compliance and strategic planning.
- Outsourcing bookkeeping helps overcome time-consuming, manual work.
- Digitisation transforms messy records into structured, future-ready data.
One organised file today prevents dozens of problems tomorrow.