The Ultimate Bookkeeping Checklist To Streamline Your Firm +Free Templates 5 december 2023 – Posted in: Bookkeeping

The first step to take at the end of every month is to sit down and review your business’s cash flow. Make sure you record all income, even if some invoices are still past due. Staying on top of your cash flow builds strong financial habits and gives you the clearest picture of where your business stands month to month. Keep copies of all invoices sent, all cash receipts (cash, cheque, and credit card deposits), and all cash payments (cash, cheques, credit card statements, etc.). The checklist is designed for business owners and operators who manage finances alongside other responsibilities. This comprehensive bookkeeping checklist covers everything you need to keep your business finances on track month after month.

For example, I set a timeline to complete my month end close 10 business days before the month’s end. Success in the month end close begins before the accounting period’s end. It requires foresight, planning, and setting the right mechanisms in motion for a smooth, accurate, and efficient closing process.

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Keeping good records will also help you stay on top of important tax deadlines, which results in fewer tax penalties. These weekly bookkeeping tasks help maintain momentum throughout the month while preventing last-minute rushes when deadlines approach. Depending on where your clients operate, they may also need to make quarterly state income tax payments. Use year-to-date financial data to determine a client’s quarterly tax obligations. Fill out a 1040-ES and make any necessary payments to help your client avoid fines or penalties. Most client transactions these days likely take place electronically.

• Nonetheless, make sure that your bookkeeping checklist outline is enough for the amount of content you will place.
• DCG has a transparent and structured pricing approach tailored to the specific needs of our clients.
• A month end close checklist QuickBooks users can implement often takes advantage of these built-in features to improve efficiency and accuracy.

Review and approve full-year financial reports and tax returns

• Finalize your bookkeeping checklist by structuring the bookkeeping items, the ones that you gathered before, logically.
• Now that you have all your financial records in one place, it’s time to ensure your bank’s records match your own bookkeeping.
• Finally, verify that loan balances on your balance sheet match year-end loan statements, with separate accounts for interest, late fees, and principal.
• The Income summary then closes out to retained earnings and dividends closes out to retained earnings.

Start by matching your books to your bank and credit card statements. Every transaction should line up with your statements so you can spot errors, missing entries, or unauthorized charges early. Reconciliation is the foundation of accurate financials—if this step isn’t done, everything that follows could be off. Keeping your books up-to-date is essential if you want to run a successful business. At the end of the day, what separates a good monthly bookkeeping process from a great one—other than a robust checklist—is how much you’re able to automate your processes. Ensure you’re well-informed about tax due dates, including payroll taxes and income tax filings.

Month-end is the perfect time to make sure you’re not caught off guard by penalties from missed payments or overdue filings.The good news? Reviewing your tax compliance and reporting at month-end helps you stay in the clear. Tools like P&Ls, cash flow statements, and balance sheets are automatically generated and organized—so you always know what’s due and when.And if you ever face an audit? A bookkeeping checklist is one of the essential worksheets that company bookkeepers use to track bookkeeping tasks. It is a type of accounting form that contains a list of assignments that bookkeepers must do—whether daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

Pay special attention to these metrics as you close the books each month. I calculate and do these myself, but a larger company may want to keep a completely separate workbook with this on record or consider offshore accounting services for specialized tasks. Understanding your cash flow helps your business more effectively manage its budget.

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Monthly reports typically include balance sheets, profit & loss statements, and cash flow statements. They’re not just for compliance; these reports give clients a clear snapshot of their business health. With accurate monthly reports, you can confidently show your clients exactly where their business stands and equip them to make smarter decisions moving forward.

Review your tax compliance and reporting requirements

As soon as you receive payments from customers, record them immediately in your bookkeeping software. This task keeps you from making the mistake of contacting customers who have already paid you for the bookkeeping checklist same invoice. Additionally, recording transactions assists in preventing fraud and theft by providing a clear audit trail. Ultimately, this daily task ensures the accuracy and integrity of your clients’ financial records.

The goal is to identify all financial transactions that affect your business. The only way to get a clear picture of your business’s health is to include everything, so don’t leave anything out. This strategic approach to your accounting schedules helps ensure that your financial operations continue to support business growth and compliance needs. Quarterly reviews offer a valuable opportunity to step back and evaluate larger financial patterns that might not be obvious in monthly reporting.

If you bill clients on an hourly basis, you should make sure your own timesheet is up to date and all invoices have been sent out. Asking managers for weekly timesheet approval can avoid a scramble when it’s time to process payroll. Depending on the size and complexity of your clients’ inventory, you should regularly review inventory counts to ensure accuracy and completeness. A full inventory reconciliation should be completed once a year prior to closing the books at the end of the year. Monitoring cash flow ensures you have enough funds to cover expenses and make informed decisions about spending and investments.

Following a clear bookkeeping checklist for end-of-quarter is extremely helpful for keeping on top of these tasks. I’m sharing this checklist I created so that YOU can do small tasks each day throughout the month. This will prevent your bookkeeping tasks from becoming a huge, overwhelming project at the end of the week or month.

Understand your cash flow, profitability, and tax obligations with ease. Regardless of your feelings about bookkeeping, I hope you’ll see the value in a strong month end close process by the time you finish reading this article. Using software really automates your bookkeeping tasks because one entry (like an invoice) automatically completes several tasks all at the same time.

Quarterly bookkeeping to-do’s

You can complete these forms once you reconcile the client’s books at the end of the year and know how much they paid out to each entity. A 1099 is a required tax filing for reporting income not subject to tax withholding. Businesses typically need to file 1099s if they paid any contractors or entities $600 or more throughout the year.