Tips for Closing Your Financial Reports for Year End

December 31st marks the end of the fiscal year for most companies.  A time to close your books for the year and compile your year end tax return.  This is the time to clean up your books so that you can send financial statements to your CPA for year end tax reporting.  Here are some items that need to be completed at the end of the year:

1. Reconcile all your bank, loan, lines of credit, petty cash account, and credit card statements through December 31st.  Sometimes there are statements that do not end directly on the 31st and since you need all transactions posted through the 31st of December, you may have to wait until the January statement arrives in order to close your books.

2. Review your Income Statement (Profit & Loss) for the entire year.  Make sure all income and expenses are in their proper category.

3. Review your Balance Sheet for the entire year.  Make Year End Accrual Adjustments and review all Fixed Assets purchased throughout the year. (Equipment, Vehicles, Furniture, Buildings, etc.) Print report for CPA.

4. Prepare your Quarterly and Year End Payroll Reports (if you have employees and run payroll yourself).  If you have a payroll agency, then they will prepare them for you.  Verify whether or not they are mailing the reports to you for your signature or they are authorized to sign them for you and are mailing them directly to the government agencies.  Obtain copies of the reports for your CPA.  Order your W2 forms if you prepare them yourself.

5. Make sure you have gathered tax id information for all vendors / subcontractors that have performed services for you.  Order your 1099 forms to print.  You will need to send out 1099’s and W2’s for the prior year by January 31st.

6. Once your CPA has finished your tax return ask them for the adjusting journal entries and a copy of the Trial Balance or the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss.  Then enter the CPA’s journal entries and compare the financials statements in QB against the CPA’s financial statements.

7. Having a financial package, such as QuickBooks®, helps to organize and prepare financial statements for your CPA and is a great time saver.  This software is user friendly as long as the set-up is done properly.  Call ATD Solutions at 877-ATD-QB41 with any questions regarding the software.  Also if using QuickBooks® you continue to use the same file year after year.  There is no need to start a new file when closing out the year.  All you need to do is password protect the file so that you do not enter anything in the books for the prior year once you have sent the file to the CPA. 

If you are in need of assistance to make sure that your financials are correct and your QuickBooks® file is set up properly or year end is processed correctly, please call ATD Solutions at 877-ATD-QB41.  ATD Solutions is staffed with qualified QuickBooks® Certified Pro Advisors who have accounting background degrees. Locations in Michigan, Kentucky, Florida, and South Carolina.