Checklist
Year-End Checklist for Owner-Managed Businesses
The work that makes a year-end straightforward is done before the year ends. This is what we ask owners to look at while there is still time to act.
Before the year closes
- Reconcile every account — Bank, credit card, loans. An unreconciled account at year-end becomes a problem at filing.
- Chase what you are owed — Review outstanding invoices and decide which are collectable and which are not.
- Review what you owe — Unrecorded bills distort the year as much as unrecorded income.
- Confirm payroll records agree — Between your payroll provider, your books and your bank.
- Check contractor records are complete — Names, addresses and taxpayer numbers, gathered before you need them.
- Count inventory, if you hold any — A physical count at year-end, not an estimate from the system.
- List equipment bought or disposed of — With dates and amounts, so it is recorded correctly rather than reconstructed later.
- Separate anything personal — Personal spending on a business card is normal; leaving it unidentified is not.
- Note changes to the business — New owners, new states, new lines of business, a new lease.
- Book the conversation — Planning decisions taken before year-end have effect. The same decisions taken after it usually do not.
The one that is always left
Contractor records. Every year, the item that holds up a filing is a missing address or taxpayer number for someone paid months earlier who is now hard to reach. Collecting that information at the point of engagement takes a minute; collecting it in filing season can take weeks.
This material is provided for general information only and does not constitute accounting, tax or legal advice. It does not take account of your particular circumstances. Contact the firm before acting on anything you read here.