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Start with the source data
Before anything is categorised, confirm that every bank, card and payment-processor feed has delivered a complete period. A missing three days of transactions will not announce itself later; it will simply make the reconciliation fail.
Collect outstanding bills and receipts at the same time. Chasing documents after categorisation means touching the same transactions twice.
Categorise, then reconcile
Work through uncategorised transactions using consistent rules rather than instinct. Where a transaction is genuinely unclear, park it in a holding account and ask, instead of guessing.
Only once categorisation is complete should you reconcile each account to its statement. Reconciling first almost always means reconciling twice.
Review the balance sheet, not just the profit and loss
Most bookkeeping errors show up on the balance sheet: unreconciled clearing accounts, payroll liabilities that never clear, negative asset balances. Review it every month rather than every year.
Close and document
Lock the period, save the reports and write a short note covering anything unusual. Six months later that note is often the fastest route back to why a number looks the way it does.