New clients are often surprised that the first thing we request is not a spreadsheet or a summary they've prepared themselves, but the plain source documents — bank statements, invoices, receipts, payroll reports. It feels like a step backward. It isn't.
A spreadsheet is someone's interpretation of the numbers. A bank statement is the numbers. Starting from the source means every entry can be traced and verified, rather than inherited along with whatever small errors crept into an earlier version.
It also happens to be the fastest route to accurate books. Reconstructing from a summary means re-checking it against the source anyway — so we save a step by starting there, and you get a cleaner result for less time billed.
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