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. Now that you have all your financial records in one place, it’s time to invoicing apps ensure your bank’s records match your own bookkeeping. This process, known as bank reconciliation, involves comparing your bank statement balance to the balance in your accounting records and identifying any discrepancies. Adjusting entries are accounting entries made at the end of an accounting period to update account balances and ensure that financial statements are accurate.
- You can request information from your clients and Karbon will send automatic email reminders until the request has been completed.
- However, with credit cards, there’s an added layer of complexity—the potential for personal and business expenses to get mixed up.
- If we do, we don’t have to pull together multiple credit card statements or search through your personal transactions to add up expenditures.
What to Include in Your Bookkeeping Checklist (Free Template)
This will catch any transaction posted to an account after it has been reconciled and avoid messes for everyone. The first step is receiving client information (which can often be the most challenging step in the process). You may receive your client information as a physical or electronic file.
Business Budgeting
Think of it as an investment in your financial well-being, ensuring you have easy access to accurate and up-to-date financial information whenever you need it. You may have to manually add transactions that are not in your accounting software to ensure that you can successfully reconcile your bank statement. When you are completed, the balance in your bank account should be the same as the balance on your accounting system. Accounting software can help you keep your records in one accessible space.
The new year is right around the corner, and there’s no better time, in my opinion, to take a hard look at your business’s bookkeeping practices. Today, I’m going to lay out a case for why bookkeeping is essential if you want to lower your tax liability and then give you the steps to get there. Use this guide to find the most efficient way to price and package your services and attract clients.
Bookkeeping cleanup checklist template
Budgeting helps you better manage your cash flow and make smarter decisions about how to grow your business. Sorting out expenses can help you see where real estate bookkeeping your money is going and identify ways to be a more profitable business. Clean up your company’s books in one simple, coherent checklist by Acuity. Make sure to track down any past-due payments and correctly record them. Also, consider reminding customers or following up if they have unpaid amounts. Before you know it, it’s been months or even (yikes) years, since your bookkeeping has been properly updated.
With so many tasks competing for your attention, it can be especially difficult to maintain your quality of work. And for your staff performing bookkeeping, consistency is another goal that can be hard to reach. Checking your bank feeds can help you catch any mistakes or fraudulent activity before they get out of hand. One of the most important is a uniform process for invoicing and payments. Ensure all tax obligations have been met, with any IRS penalties paid. If your client sells products, ensure their purchase and sale history is documented and up-to-date.
Regularly reconciling your clients’ accounts ensures this is true. Negative numbers can arise from errors in recording transactions. For instance, a negative number in your accounts receivable report might indicate a payment received without a corresponding invoice. Address these discrepancies promptly to ensure accurate financial reporting and a smoother tax filing process. The sum of money your company owes to suppliers or vendors is called reasonable salaries and s corps accounts payable. By checking your accounts payable, you can ensure that all bills have been appropriately recorded and that any past-due invoices have been paid.
Untangling Expenses
The sum of money owed to your company by clients who still need to pay their invoices is called accounts receivable. Make a note of any transactions that you don’t have a record of and prepare to track down that information if needed. If you use a third-party payment processor, review all of your transactions there as well. If they don’t, adjust your records to match your bank or credit card statement to your accounting entries. The heart of the bookkeeping process is to ensure your clients’ financial records are complete and accurate.
By following the nine (plus a bonus) steps outlined below, you can clean up your clients’ books, and rest assured you’ve taken every step in the process. This seemingly simple step is crucial for gaining valuable financial insights from your data. By accurately categorizing each transaction, you can track your spending habits, identify areas for potential overhead savings, and monitor the health of your income streams. Accurate bookkeeping is the key to getting a clear picture of your business’s health. A cleanup doesn’t just tame the clutter; it empowers you to understand your cash flow, identify areas for growth, and ultimately, take control of your financial future. Access hundreds of free accounting and bookkeeping process workflow templates.