December is a great time to take stock in your bookkeeping in preparation for the upcoming new year. This time of year is super busy with Thanksgiving and Christmas. November and December as short months but that shouldn’t prevent you from being prepared for the new year. Here are some tips to help you streamline…
It doesn’t matter what the method is; you should reconcile all of your accounts before the end of the year. Make sure your bookkeeping is caught up and on track. Keep a checklist when reconciling to make sure nothing is overlooked. Things that should not be over looked are:
- Loans
- Credit card accounts
- Payroll obligations
- Credits on customer accounts
- Back tax filings
Review your assets
Most businesses will maintain an asset category, which should be reviewed before moving into 2019. Look for entries that don’t belong in there and assign them to the correct category. The end of the year is the best time to highlight transactions that don’t seem clear.
Review payable and receivable accounts
When you review payable and receivable accounts, it will reveal any issues that went unnoticed during the year. It is also a great time to collect over due payments. This will help you clear up those past unpaid debts or write them off for the year. If you need to, send reminders to customers to payoff those debts before the year is done.
Sub-Contractors
If your business uses a subcontractor, December is a great time to ensure payments are in order, because Form 1099 is January 31 and all forms need to be filled out by vendors for tax time.
Healthy Business
If you do your own bookkeeping, now is a great time to hire a CPA or bookkeeper to review your accounts to make sure you didn’t miss anything during the year. A successful business needs a rock-solid foundation to operate from, in this case, healthy reliable financials are extremely important. If you are not sure if you are up to date, give us a call. Our specialties are bookkeeping and payroll for small and medium businesses.
We look forward to hearing from you!