The end of the year is approaching and it’s time to start thinking about getting your small business’ book ready for your tax preparer. What does this entail? 
Here are a few items that need to be done to make your tax preparer’s life easier so they can focus on ways to reduce your tax burden.
- Ensure all transactions are entered and categorized properly – please do NOT hand your tax preparer a box of receipts!
- Make any adjustments to your Chart of Accounts to ensure your expense categories line up with the categories on the tax return.
- Reconcile each month, starting with January, if not already done.
- Check on A/P – see if there’s anything you need to pay prior to the end of the year and ensure everything that has been paid has been marked as such.
- Check on A/R – are there any invoices you don’t expect you’ll get paid for?
- Pay your workers, including anybody who will need a 1099 (and make sure you have a Form W-9 for each of these folks!).
- Gather information about your assets and liabilities (receipts for new equipment or assets that were sold during the year, loan and credit card statements, etc.).
- Gather any information from investment activities.
- Finalize your mileage log if you use your vehicle for business.
- Run a Balance Sheet and Income Statement (P&L) and look them over really carefully to ensure correctness.
Feeling unprepared? Books incomplete or messy? I can help you get caught up and make sure everything is ready for your tax preparer. The sooner you can get started on this, the better! You don’t want to wait till April or even January to focus on this task. You can check out my quote calculator to get an estimate on pricing for preparing your books for 2024 tax time, or if you’d like to just go ahead and discuss your needs with me to expedite the process, you can schedule a 15-minute call.
Feeling pretty good about this year but want to start thinking ahead to 2025? If you’re ready to outsource your bookkeeping and accounting, check out my new instant quote calculator. Use your best estimates on what your business needs, and then schedule a call to review everything with me and ask any questions you may have. I can take over your books in less than a week so you can feel confident in the data you use for business decisions.