20 Basic Accounting Tasks For A Small Business

Interior designers don’t always get their start by studying the craft at a college or university, but many do. A formal education in interior design provides a secure foundation to get start… 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.

Make sure that you send W-2 to your employees and 1099 forms to your contractors by the deadline. Reviewing statements can help you catch issues early on, like overspending, and prevent problems later on with your books. Your fixed assets usually do not convert directly into cash. And because fixed assets are generally larger purchases, they can depreciate in value over time.

It is not the vendor or bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered. This easy-to-use and feature-rich software is ideal if you have no bookkeeping experience and want top-notch customer support.

Task #9 Tax Season Preparation

To answer any questions you might have when it comes to small business tax preparation. Call us old-school, but we like physical paper copies of all bills. We recommend printing out e-bills as well so that you can have everything in one place. You don’t have to jump back and forth from the computer to the filing cabinet trying to remember who sends e-bills and who sends paper. Develop the skills you need to lead a more profitable business. Lindsay is in charge of the Sales and Marketing team at Design Manager and has enjoyed growing the DM company for the past 10 years.

Reema and her team can help you navigate your bookkeeping needs as you steer towards a successful future. Monthly, quarterly, and annual sales tax returns should be filed with the state where you do business. Review your revenue and expenses with this report, also known as the Income Statement.

Review Unpaid Bills From Vendors

Some reports are advantageous to run on a weekly basis, while others can be done monthly. Though many bills are due on a monthly cycle, others may be due upon receipt. Therefore, it’s important to review bills weekly to check for errors, note the deadline, and schedule payment accordingly. Besides avoiding late fees, paying early allows you to take advantage of early payment discounts (when provided in a vendor’s terms). Recording bills as a weekly bookkeeping task also makes it easier to check that accounts have sufficient funds. This monthly bookkeeping checklist template outlines the most efficient way to complete your client’s monthly bookkeeping process. Use this template to streamline your workflow process & save time.

Outsourcing your bookkeeping to a virtual accounting firm like ours. With flat-rate prices starting at just $199/mo, you’ll likely find that it’s faster, easier, and cheaper to hire a professional.

• Depending on when a check is deposited, it may not reflect in your account till the following day.
• At month-end close, review your revenue and expense accounts to confirm they are accurate.
• Don’t put yourself in the position of losing all your financial information in the event you make a mistake or your program crashes.
• Many companies will also call customers for an update at this point.
• For businesses that primarily collect electronic payments, mobile deposits may be adequate to handle the inflow of paper checks and save a trip to the bank.
• Using the purchase of a $1,000 point-of-sale system as an example, a business would debit their cash account and credit their equipment account for the transaction.

Having a checklist helps ensure that no tasks fall through the cracks—and you successfully complete all the necessary bookkeeping to-do’s for your business. Depending on the amount of financial reporting that needs to be done on a monthly basis, the creation of accounting reports can reduce the potential for omissions or errors. In some cases, these errors or omissions are legitimate, which is why a month-end reporting and checklist are so critical. In other cases, the mistakes may be due to an attempt to conceal some type of theft or fraud. Either way, the end of month accounting allows for a reporting every single month so that any discrepancies or errors do not continue unnoticed for long periods of time. The financial statements of every business are critical to understanding the financial health of a company. Additionally, these month and year-end checklists allow business owners the ability to make solid financial decisions on a consistent basis.

The open vendor deposit reports show which orders are yet to be filled. Start small and work these accounting to-dos into your regular business admin tasks. I actually calculate my quarterly taxes as I receive the funds, and then verify that this amount is correct at the end of every week. Take time to have a quick check-in with your business finances every week.

Annual Small Business Bookkeeping Tasks

Closing your books monthly is essential for your business. It can show you your business’s financial information and what areas you need to improve in. Closing your books monthly can also help you make decisions about your business’s finances, prevent costly mistakes, and prepare you for tax time. This downloadable version of the checklist includes key steps in the accounting process, broken down by day, week, month, quarter and year. Once a quarter, the bookkeepers must figure out taxes and may also put together quarterly financial statements. A daily summary of cash receipts is helpful because it gives the business owner an idea of how much money it took in that day. It can help the company understand its current cash position.

The business can define the matching rules in the system for reconciliation, which simplifies the process. Don’t have the same person who handles the cash handle the bank reconciliation. Instead of waiting for a monthly bank statement, businesses can reconcile their bank accounts every week. By simply logging into an online bank portal, businesses can compare the bank account balance against their book balance as frequently as they want. Performing this task on a weekly basis helps businesses promptly address any inconsistencies and detect fraud before it becomes a larger issue.

Accounting And Bookkeeping

If there are only a few transactions, it is easy, yes, but the things don’t necessarily fit in. It would almost waste more of my time to log in, download and upload necessary statements, and reconcile the few transactions. Reconciling means matching what is in QuickBooks to what is in the bank account. As long as no major problems arise, reconciliation usually goes fairly quickly.

Bring your favorite snack or drink, then reward yourself with some ice cream or chocolate. The beginning of the year is usually the best time to make needed adjustments. If you plan to do your own taxes, research what items you will need and what software you will use.

Order Laser Checks Or Tax Forms

You always want to have a handle on your business’ cash flow; you want to know how much cash is coming in, how much cash is going out, and how much cash you have on hand. That’s why, every day, it’s important to review your cash position, both at the beginning and the end of the day. Check your inventory status on a month-to-month basis to avoid being caught off guard by a shortage in supplies.

If you’re not using cloud-based accounting software that automatically backs up your data, make sure to back up your financial data manually at least once a month. This will give you peace of mind that you won’t lose your data if you have a hardware failure or file corruption.

Alternatively, I could also create a spreadsheet of these items and email it to them, especially if they are remote. When I do this task, it takes about a half hour of my time. QuickBooks will learn your transactions, so every time you get something from Comcast, for example, it knows to put it into a certain category.

If your clients have employees, you may be completing payroll bi-weekly or monthly. This may also be outsourced and need to be imported into the financials. Either way, this will need to be completed and payroll deductions submitted.

Synergic also offers consultation of software for your accounting and bookkeeping needs. Fusion Legal & Tax’s bookkeeping department ensures books are not only up to date and accurate, but also prepared in compliance with IRS and state regulations. Get up and running with free payroll setup, and enjoy free expert support. Try our payroll software in a free, no-obligation 30-day trial.

When I added up all the hours, it was around five hours total for the month. That is about perfect because I charge this client $250 a month, which works out to be about $50 an hour. My client is happy with the flow of things, so we haven’t transitioned to a more automated system, but because of the extra paper monthly bookkeeping checklist it is more time-intensive than it probably needs to be. Get it out of the way so you can continue doing business as usual. It’s sort of like putting off the laundry until you have nothing to wear. It’s better to stay on top of your tax filings so they don’t pile up and overwhelm you when deadlines approach.

Any write-down of inventory translates to a deduction on your year-end taxes. If you do not write down unsellable inventory, you are overstating your inventory balance and paying additional taxes that you don’t owe. Keep a record of each of your vendors that includes billing dates, amounts due and payment due date. If vendors offer discounts for early payment, you may want to take advantage of that if you have the cash available. Read on for a breakdown of essential bookkeeping tasks to keep your small business finances in order.

• It is essential to do this every day, because it’s easier to spot discrepancies with recent transactions.
• You’ll also need to send copies to your employees/contractors.
• In order to complete a month-end checklist, you will need to ensure all financial and accounting areas are documented correctly and any mistakes corrected.
• How are the actual amounts holding up to your projections?
• Bookkeeping services will often charge an initial set up fee.

Here are 7 simple tasks to incorporate within your bookkeeping checklist for your small business every month. To understand how a month-end checklist can help your business, you should understand what one of these checklists actually contains. In order to complete a month-end checklist, you will need to ensure all financial and accounting areas are documented correctly and any mistakes corrected. Bookkeepers need to frequently report back to management, get their feedback, and work as per their instructions. They should immediately inform management or business owners when there’s something wrong with the company’s financial health. Petty cash is essential to run day to day business operations smoothly. So, bookkeepers should maintain a petty cash book, write slips each time cash is taken out, enter petty cash entries into software and reconcile it at the end of the month.

Depending on how up-to-date your books are, this shouldn’t take more than 2-4 weeks. Use this guide to understand how professional bookkeeping services work and can help you.

This simple act focuses your thoughts and ensures that your goals align with your company’s current state. The more disorganized your information is, the bigger the tax bill (not to mention, your tax preparer’s) will be, now is the time to be proactive.

Author: Edward Mendlowitz