Content
- Annual Small Business Bookkeeping Tasks
- Monthly Accounting Tasks
- We Perform Following Tasks In Outsourced Accounting And Bookkeeping Management:
- Whats Included In Small Business Bookkeeping Services?
- Create A Bookkeeping Checklist For Each Client
- Key Monthly Bookkeeping Checklist Items Free Template

Your bookkeeper should be paying your bills on a monthly basis. Make sure he or she is doing that, and ask if they’re paying via paper checks and snail mail or online. Toward the end of the year, it is imperative to assess the company’s yearly financial performance and its current financial health. This is determined by preparing statements, including the profit and loss statement, cash flow statement and the balance sheet.
- File Personal Income Taxes – Just like all taxpayers, you’re required to file a personal income tax return.
- If your business year runs on a calendar year, you’ll need to file by March 15.
- Businesses will also be taxed at the local level and need to pay property taxes.
- At month-end close, review your revenue and expense accounts to confirm they are accurate.
- Sometimes, you need to pull up the previous bank statements to double check the facts of the transaction.
At some point, you might want to pass your bookkeeping responsibilities onto someone else . Having a bookkeeping checklist makes it easy to train and onboard someone to take over your business bookkeeping—and gives them a concrete list of all the new tasks they’ll be responsible for. Want to be at the top of your bookkeeping game all year long and equip your employees with the right tools? You can download 32 workflow templates here for Monthly Bookkeeping Checklist free – it includes a bookkeeping checklist template that will make accounting easier for you going forward. Next, If you have any past due invoices, there is no better time to send them a reminder. On the other hand, confirm that you’ve settled all your vendor invoices or reach out to them if need be. These reports will let you know if there are any invoicing errors, incorrect transactions, or duplicate invoices you should account for.
Annual Small Business Bookkeeping Tasks
People can be difficult to reach sometimes, so it’s better to do this now instead of in January when you feel super stressed with deadlines. 1099s need to be issued by January 31st of the following year. In order to issue a 1099, you need to gather a W9 tax form from each individual or business. If you think you’ve gotten to the bottom of it and you’re able to delete it, there might be a notice that pops up saying this transaction has been reconciled. If you are unsure what to do here, I recommend making a note and leaving it for your CPA to look at.
Adapting this bookkeeping cleanup checklist for your needs, and following it monthly, will ensure a clean set of books. Before long, you’ll have a solid general ledger and be able to generate a simple income statement. Producing a proper balance sheet at this point will require accurate historical records, which presents a bit of a Catch-22. You’ll need to use what you can from your older source documents to reconstruct general ledger transactions for prior periods. Begin by setting up a chart of accounts in your new accounting software and entering each transaction completely and accurately. A healthy set of books is built entry by entry, and the experience will help sharpen your eye for anomalies in your older records. While you’d probably love to focus on design all day, the reality of running an interior design firm means that there are other important tasks that need to be addressed to operate effectively.
Monthly Accounting Tasks
Anything that I don’t know what it is goes into a category called, “Ask My Accountant.” I would email these transactions to my client or bring them when I meet with them. I do periodically meet with this client, and sometimes we tackle these questions at that meet up. At some point in the month, I need to get the deposit book from them so I can record all the income information for them. As a bookkeeper you don’t always have https://www.bookstime.com/ to do it that way, but it is best practice to enter checks before they show up in the bank feeds. It is called open because this shows your client deposits that still need to be applied to your clients’ invoices. You want to know the fiscal health and standing of your small business. Your accountant will make sure you don’t file any mistakes, but you should have a good idea of where your business is at and where it’s going.
- Be sure to include a due date and payment terms to ensure clients know how and when to pay you; this will help if you have chronically slow-paying customers.
- If you literally keep your records in a shoebox, you probably know that there’s some room for improvement.
- It is important to keep your books updated, especially to maintain year-end accuracy.
- Your bookkeeper or accountant should use IRS Form 941 and your own state’s filings to make these payments.
- Payroll might be prepared once a month, but payroll accounts need to be tally throughout the month so that your employees can receive their salary on time.
- Make sure that the receipts match the purchases made with cash and that you are not missing any transactions.
This is such a fundamental clean-up activity that you should count on undertaking it even if you haven’t seen any red flags. Some accounting software might not allow you to create retrospective ledger entries until you have entered every transaction for the current fiscal year and restarted the general ledger. These problems are easy to spot when you look for them, and they tend to indicate systematic problems with a company’s books. If one or more of these issues crops up, you’ll need to thoroughly audit your records and establish a steadier course for the future. To compare your petty cash fund to your records, physically count the leftover cash in your fund.
Also, there is nothing wrong with adjusting those goals to meet the current business climate. This is also a good time to inspect your upcoming invoices to confirm that you’ve received the value you’re paying for before making payment.
Not making these payments could lead to a failure-to-deposit penalty of up to 15%. Compare deposits listed on the bank statement with deposits shown in the accounting system. Integrating a bank feed simplifies this process by providing a digital link between the bank account and the accounting software and imports bank transactions daily. This means the bookkeeper isn’t forced to manually download the bank statement and import it. The business can define the matching rules in the system for reconciliation, which simplifies the process. Don’t have the same person who handles the cash handle the bank reconciliation. Bookkeepers are responsible for many tasks, and in small businesses, some of those responsibilities fall on the owner, as well.
It is simply your accounts receivables report sorted by the length of time each invoice has been outstanding. Your customer’s ability to pay and pay on time is important to your company’s financial health. Your collections process and records need to be reviewed and updated every month.
We Perform Following Tasks In Outsourced Accounting And Bookkeeping Management:
But the review gives you the best way to evaluate your business status and trends that may have an influence on your business’s future. Monthly, quarterly, and annual sales tax returns should be filed with the state where you do business. Quarterly payroll filings and payments are due the last day of the month after the quarter ends. Make sure you calendar in a day or two at the end of each quarter to complete all your filings.

It can show you your business’s financial information and what areas you need to improve in. Closing your books monthly can also help you make decisions about your business’s finances, prevent costly mistakes, and prepare you for tax time. To keep on top of your monthly accounting responsibilities and cut down on time spent closing your books, create a monthly financial calendar. Your calendar can help you prepare for closing your books for the next month. And, your calendar can help you avoid falling behind on your books. When closing your books at the end of the month, record any payments related to your fixed assets.
Whats Included In Small Business Bookkeeping Services?
Review any unpaid invoices and decide what action to take from there. In most cases, a simple reminder email or phone call will do the trick. In other cases, it might be time to contact a collections agency.
Standardizing your accounting process is a vital part of scaling your accounting firm. The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation. Your CPA might file your 1099s for you, but I highly recommend that you start gathering W9s now while you can!
Create A Bookkeeping Checklist For Each Client
This must be performed each year by certified professionals, and such independent audits add more value to your business than the regulatory requirements alone. Annual audits help test and assess various controls and procedures, and suggest necessary changes to improve efficiency or meet industry standards. Taking stock of your company’s performance and health is essential for further planning and strategizing, so it is necessary to make sure that the data presented is accurate. These annual checks mainly cater toward regulatory and compliance requirements, along with reporting of performance to shareholders.

Inventory may be the lifeblood of a retail business, but it also represents assets that can be converted to cash. In that sense, inventory is a critical element of bookkeeping.
Monthly Bookkeeping: Understanding The Tasks Involved
Make a plan on the calendar when you plan to collect all financial reports, record all transactions and when you plan to close the books. If you establish closing dates for these types of records every month, communicate these dates with any other persons that need to adjust any ledgers or records. As time goes on, you will be able to make adjustments to your calendar for efficiency and accuracy purposes.
Small Business Basic Bookkeeping Checklist
Depending on how you compensate yourself, you may have to pay self-employment taxes on your income. Before we jump into the essential bookkeeping checklist for small business owners, let’s quickly touch on why it’s so important to have a bookkeeping checklist in the first place. 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 same invoice. It also helps you keep track of the payments you’ve received. Your monthly email reminders will also include tax deadlines for sales tax, quarterly tax payments, and more, to help you stay on top of your obligations to the tax man.
Key Monthly Bookkeeping Checklist Items Free Template
The due date may be before or after the federal date, so be sure to check with your state so that you’re on time. Send W-2s and 1099s – If you have paid employees or paid contractors in excess of $600 for the year, you need to send them either a 1099-MISC form or a W-2. You should have these sent out before January 31 each year. These are some tasks that you’ll need to complete at least once a year.
Profit And Loss Statement
Small businesses conduct countless accounting procedures each month. In addition to managing expenses, business owners must also maintain payroll and oversee employees. By the time you clean up your records back to the beginning of the current fiscal year, you’ll have what you need to produce your business’s most fundamental reports. For starters, you’ll have an accurate balance sheet, along with basic sales and profit numbers. If you went back at least a few months, you’ll also have enough information for aged accounts payable and aged accounts receivable reports.












