How Gravel Beam CPAs Cleared a 12-Month Backlog in 15 Days
A mid-sized construction client walked in with a year of chaos. Bonding deadlines were weeks away. Here's how Gravel Beam got every ledger clean – without pulling a single person off existing work.
- Firm
- Gravel Beam CPAs
- Firm type
- Specialty CPA Firm (Construction & Contractor)
- Service
- Bookkeeping Backlog Catch-Up & Ledger Cleanup
- Engagement
- 3 Weeks (15 Business Days)
- Team size
- 3 Bookkeepers + 1 Project Lead
A Year of Chaos Walked Through the Door. Bonding Deadlines Were Three Weeks Away.
Gravel Beam CPAs specialized in construction and contractor accounting. They knew the industry inside and out – job costing, WIP reporting, vendor-heavy ledgers. When a mid-sized construction client walked through the door with 12 months of disorganized books, the partners understood exactly what they were looking at.
The problem wasn't complexity. It was volume. Multiple bank accounts, dozens of vendors, transactions spread across job sites – none of it reconciled. The client's internal admin had fallen behind as the business grew, and nobody caught it until year-end was already breathing down their necks.
Year-end tax filing was blocked. Bonding applications – critical for a construction company – couldn't move forward without clean financials. The CPA firm's internal team was already at capacity serving existing clients. Pulling staff off other engagements wasn't an option. Hiring wasn't fast enough.
The partners had three weeks and a full year of mess to untangle.
"Our construction client walked in with a box of bank statements and a year of chaos. Bonding deadlines were weeks away, and we didn't have a single clean ledger to show for it."
Fifteen Business Days to Untangle Twelve Months
Gravel Beam called Accountably and explained the situation. Within days, a team of three bookkeepers and a project lead was deployed – all experienced with construction accounting, job costing, and vendor-heavy ledgers.
Week one was discovery and mapping. The team opened all four bank accounts, catalogued every gap, and built a prioritized cleanup plan. No entries were touched until the partners reviewed the scope. The focus was on understanding the mess before fixing it.
Week two was full reconstruction. Transactions were coded and categorized – more than 200 entries that had been sitting uncategorized for months. Reconciliations ran account by account against source documents. Entries were aligned with project timelines for WIP and cost reporting, giving the construction client the job-level visibility they needed for bonding.
Week three was quality control and handoff. A senior reviewer cross-checked every reconciliation. Ledgers were cleaned, standardized, and delivered review-ready. The firm's day-to-day operations never slowed down. Not a single existing client engagement was disrupted.
"We wanted to help this client, but our team was at capacity. Accountably gave us the extra horsepower to get it done – without interrupting our flow. It felt like they were part of our team from day one."
Clean Books. Met Deadlines. A Client Relationship Saved.
Twelve months of chaos turned into clean, review-ready books in 15 business days. The numbers spoke for themselves.
Bonding applications were submitted on time. The construction client's tax filing went out without delay. More than 50 partner hours were freed up – time that went back into serving existing clients and building the firm's advisory pipeline.
Gravel Beam proved they could handle anything that walked through their door. The construction client stayed. The relationship strengthened. And the firm had a trained offshore team they could scale the next time capacity got tight.
"Fifteen business days. Twelve months of chaos turned into clean, review-ready books. I still can't believe we pulled it off without missing a single deadline for our other clients."
* Client names have been changed. The results are real.
Common Questions
A Year of Backlog Doesn't Have to Take a Year to Fix
Gravel Beam cleared 12 months of chaos in 15 business days. Let's talk about what that timeline looks like for you – no commitment, just a straight answer.