The end of the financial year can be the most daunting period for small businesses when it comes to bookkeeping and accounting. With so many things on their plate, a small business owner had to don many hats to take care of day to day business and this naturally can strain the bookkeeping and accounting side of things.
Keeping the books in order will help business owners avoid overpayments of taxes and gives a snapshot of the financial health and performance of the company. And more importantly, it gives a business a smoother transition into the next year. However, unless a business has a dedicated bookkeeper or leverages the services of an expert accounting firm like Outsourced Bookkeeping, it is natural to fall short of these goals.
Whether you are the owner of a start-up that manages the books or a small business owner who works with a bookkeeper to keep the books on track, it is important to have a serial checklist of bookkeeping tasks that can help you during the year-end period. If you agree and are looking for help regarding the year-end bookkeeping checklist then this blog is for you.
Here we give you a list of bookkeeping tasks that will help you spruce up and update your company’s books to give you fresh air and a great start for the year to come. So let’s get started:
Year-end Bookkeeping Checklist for Small Business Owners:
Reconcile the books: The first pit stop in year-end bookkeeping is the complete up-to-date reconciliation for the past 12 months. A business is usually recommended to reconcile bank accounts and credit cards every month to ensure that the books are matching with bank statements. If you have not performed them monthly, then it is high time to set aside time a start reconciling. In case, you do not have time or manpower you can also opt for bank and credit card reconciliation services offered by Outsourced Bookkeeping here.
Account for expenses paid through personal accounts: Overlap of personal and business expenses is common in small businesses and if this happens in your case too, then this is the time to set it right. Generate the list of these expenses, and sort them in the right ledger account, prepare a journal and get them entered in the books.
Review the ledger accounts: Next stop in our year-end list is the review of the ledger account to check if the income and expenses are recorded accurately. This review is even simpler with bookkeeping software as all it takes is to pull out the detailed ledger report for the tax year and check for inconsistencies.
Clean-up the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable: Year-end is also the right time to review the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable as they can spring up a few surprises and shed light on issues. The ageing reports for AP and AR and can accomplish this by pointing out the issues plaguing since last 12 months. While an AP report can reveal the reason for inaccurate balances, an AR report can help you look into outstanding AR and then it’s your decision to take regarding the write off the bad debt caused by outstanding receivables.
Prepare a budget and forecast: Now that a business owner can easily gauge the performance of your business and its financials, year-end is the right time to develop the budget estimate for the upcoming year. Closing the books with accurate information also help you set the benchmark for the year to come and this will help forecast and guide you towards the goal set for the next year.
Seek the help of tax professionals: Always review the discrepancies between tax reported and tax calculated, if any. The variation may have been the result of changes made to the bookkeeping process mistakes or inaccuracies that must be readily dealt with. Seeking the help of tax experts will help a business not only iron out the inaccuracies (if any) but also uncover new opportunities to reduce the tax burden.
If you are finding it difficult to get your taxes right, you can also seek help from tax experts for either calculation or even tax preparation. Our tax experts at Outsourced Bookkeeping have been helping businesses with tax preparation and consultation for more than a decade now. You can find more about our services here.
How Outsourced Bookkeeping can help?
Year-end bookkeeping and year-end accounting checklist is crucial aspect for every business that aims to improve its business performance. But not every business is equipped with enough manpower or expertise total full benefit from the updated books at the year-end.
Fortunately, businesses need not worry about either of these things since they can easily outsource complete bookkeeping and accounting services to remote accounting firms like Outsourced Bookkeeping. As one of the best remote accounting firms in the business, Outsourced Bookkeeping provides a complete stack of bookkeeping and accounting services to all types of businesses. From bookkeeping, accounts payable & accounts receivable to tax preparation services, our accounting experts provide all the expertise and assistance needed for a business to thrive. For more information on our services, you can contact us here: https://outsourcedbookeeping.com/