Bookkeeping practice procedures - shoe boxes

If they have a business bank account list payments on one spreadsheet and income on another. Match the paperwork to the bank tranasactions and analsye to the requisiste headings. Any invoices  not paid through bank account confirm if paid cash or year end creditors, making sure to ignore personal items.

If there is no bank account then just list and analyse.

Fortunately the kind of client that does this kind of thing is usually a one man band, so the volume of tranactions is low.

Ditto...but my approach would be to get going into it using VT+. You will get an excellent grounding in double entry and learn as you go along.  And mistakes can be easily corrected. Most of my clients are of the shoe box variety and are constitutionally incapable of keeping written records. You need to keep an sceptical attitude at all times and be on the watch out for the unexpected. Frequently you will find gaps in the paperwork, missing bank statements, cheque stubs etc. If your first client comes from an existing practice you should have an opening trial balance to start you off, otherwise you will have to build your own as best you can. Good luck.