The payments you make to your employees, such as salaries, wages, and deductions, are documented in your payroll records. By checking your payroll records, you can ensure that all payments and deductions have been appropriately documented and that you comply with all tax requirements. Download this checklist from Acuity, and start optimizing your financials. Simplify your processes with the help of this guided checklist, including insightful data, helpful resources, and easy-to-use templates. A few mistakes on your bookkeeping can seem like no big deal, but when the errors compound it can quickly snowball out of control.
Whatever your goals and timelines look like, communication is key. Keep the client looped in through the whole process with regular meetings and updates. In this way, they become a strategic partner, not just a bystander. Ensure all payments owed by your client are recorded and paid for.
Key Monthly Bookkeeping Checklist Items (Free Template)
This step involves reviewing and potentially categorizing your payroll costs within your bookkeeping system. Solid bookkeeping practice is fundamental, but can also be overwhelming, even for those who specialize in it. Keeping financial records accurate and up-to-date involves a multitude of tasks. If you get behind, it derails your whole financial system, not to mention your business. 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.
Match each credit card charge to a corresponding receipt to ensure how to calculate net realizable value nrv accuracy. Don’t worry—you don’t have to spend hours sifting through mountains of paper. For example, for physical receipts and invoices, consider using a mobile scanning app.
If you’re not already using an online, cloud-based accounting system , you should join the quickbooks ambassador program consider it for next year. As a small business owner, you can view the balance sheet report as a financial snapshot of your business. Towards the bottom of the report, take note of the section labelled “Retained Earnings.” This line item tracks your company’s net worth over several years. The year-end profit and loss report or “transitory accounts” summarizes the incomes and expenses of a business for the year.
Bookkeeping cleanup checklist template
The most surefire way to keep a client’s books clean is setting up workflow automation to support you in improving the processes that impact your top line. Setting and communicating clearly defined expectations with your client will ensure all stakeholders know what to expect. An accounting engagement letter template can help set this project up for success. With clean books, you can confidently prepare reports for your clients. You can update them on what you’ve completed and if you’ve uncovered anything that needs their attention.
Monthly bookkeeping made easy: Follow this checklist (with template)
You may find that you’ve received retainer deposits that you’ve not applied to a client invoice, or you may only have used a part of the deposit. An open client deposit report will point this out so you can calculate your revenue with more accuracy and better manage the client’s funds. An open vendor deposit is money your business has sent to a vendor, but the vendor hasn’t sent you a vendor invoice to use that money. The open vendor deposit reports show which orders are yet to be filled. Ensure that everything that needs to be recorded, uploaded, and categorized is properly squared away, and you haven’t missed anything over the past month. If other people are contributing to the software, confirm that they’ve also done their part to the fullest.
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. You can find these types of errors by double-checking your work and preparing trial balances at the end of each reporting period. And in business, the same thing can happen to your accounting books.
Our team of professional bookkeepers can clean up your books and help you keep your bookkeeping look neat and tidy while you continue to run your business. Enjoy accounting support specifically tailored to your business needs. This step is crucial to getting accurate information for your financial reports. Review past transactions to check that they accounting profit vs normal profit were categorized correctly, as well as update those that have not yet been categorized.
- Imagine a power outage corrupting your bookkeeping software, a hardware malfunction erasing your files, or even a cyberattack compromising your system.
- The open vendor deposit reports show which orders are yet to be filled.
- Sort through invoices, credit card statements, receipts, bank statements, and other necessary financial data.
- In order to identify any mistakes or discrepancies early on, you should balance your bank accounts at least once every month.
- A quick health check can help you figure out how financially fit your business is, while finding ways to improve it.
Besides investing in useful accounting software, you can use a monthly bookkeeping checklist to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Your team will breeze through their assignments and quickly see what’s completed. Let’s look at some tasks you can add to your monthly bookkeeping checklist that will ensure your firm is more profitable and ready for scalable growth. As you make your way through your bookkeeping cleanup checklist, you want to ensure that you are up-to-date with paying your taxes.
