The Ultimate Small Business Accounting Checklist

Track your accounts payable and keep enough funds to pay your suppliers on time to avoid late fees. Whether you make payments online or drop a check in the mail, keep copies of invoices sent and received using accounting software to make things easier during tax time. While accounting may not be what motivates you to go to work every day, it’s likely something you’ll encounter whether you do it yourself or outsource to an accounting firm. There are weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual accounting tasks you need to complete to ensure your business’s success. Create a payroll file sorted by payroll date and a bank statement file sorted by month.

No assurance is given that the information is comprehensive in its coverage or that it is suitable in dealing with a customer’s particular situation. Intuit Inc. does not have any responsibility for updating or revising any information presented herein. Accordingly, the information provided should not be relied upon as a substitute for independent research. Intuit Inc. does not warrant that the material contained herein will continue to be accurate nor that it is completely free of errors when published. If your business needs to charge and collect sales tax for the products you sell, you’ll likely need to make monthly payments to the appropriate state department.

Financial Accuracy

Read more about getting paid faster in our guide to getting invoices paid on time. Since cash is the fuel for your business, you never want to be running on or near empty. Knowing how much you expect to receive and how much you expect to pay during the upcoming weeks and allocative efficiency months is important, too. Set aside time to reorder your best-selling products and identify slow-moving items that may need a price reduction.

For publicly-traded companies, the SEC requires the annual reporting of financial statements. Year-end is a busy time for accountants, so here are two of the most important tasks to complete and bring the year to a close. Depending on where your clients operate, they may also need to make quarterly state income tax payments. Can I use this checklist template within the Financial Cents application? In Financial Cents, you can create a project from this checklist template, making it easy for you and every member of your team to get work done. Financial Cents also gives you a great overview of all client work and projects so you never miss another deadline.

Achieve even greater efficiency with process automation

On the other hand, if everything lines up perfectly, you can breathe a sigh of relief (until the next month rolls around). These weekly tasks aim to monitor cash flow for all business operations to keep your business running smoothly. Keep track of all these year-round tasks and more with the 32 free Jetpack Workflow templates designed to keep your accounting practice on schedule. Financial statements are essential resources business owners rely on to assess the financial health of their operations. These reports provide information on employee wages, tax withholdings, and other payroll-related details, ensuring compliance with labor and tax laws. Similarly, confirm whether any invoices you’ve sent on behalf of your clients were left unpaid each week.

1. This is a very important step in every business’s financial reporting process, as it lays the foundation for next year’s financial and strategic planning.
2. The primary role of a controller, accountant, or bookkeeper is to safeguard company assets.
3. To help you bring in your money when you need it, we’ve created this incredibly simple invoice generator.
4. Some items that should be included in year-end accounts are the performance summary, balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, closing entries, and reconciliations.
5. The year-end closing process in accounting is the time when companies do an audit and update their books at the end of the financial year.

However, these daily accounting tasks keep you organized, ensure your reporting remains accurate, and make audits much easier. The year-end closing process in accounting is the time when companies do an audit and update their books at the end of the financial year. This is a very important step in every business’s financial reporting process, as it lays the foundation for next year’s financial and strategic planning. To put it succinctly, a year-end checklist is important because it allows you to organize the financial close process and ensure that you complete each and every task to close the books. For most teams at a company, the end of the year is a time to relax and wrap up any pending work.

Why is a Year-End Accounting Checklist Important?

We created our Monthly General Accounting Checklist Template with feedback from bookkeepers like you. However, please review each task carefully and feel free to edit them to fit your firm’s unique needs. It allows users to track and manage deadlines effectively, ensuring all tasks are completed on time.

You’ll want to gather and record all your transactions, usually weekly, but you can do this daily or bi-weekly, depending on your volume. This includes recording revenue such as product sales and expenses like purchasing supplies. Fortunately, this checklist guides you through the process and explains what you need to do to create your balance sheet. Plus, we try to make sure you understand it along the way, with an explanation of key terms and concepts.