Fall Festivities - Fall Prep for Year-End Success

Fall has officially arrived, and so has the time to start prepping for Year-End and tax season! My team and I in the QuickBooks Community want to make sure that you are ready and well equipped to tackle this season with no spooky surprises. Let’s go over all the steps you should be taking in your QuickBooks Online account to ensure success. 

1. First and foremost, reviewing the first month of the fiscal year is an essential step so let’s start here. Check when your accounting period starts. By doing this, it allows QuickBooks to clear accounting ledgers while you work on other year-end activities.

Here’s how: You’ll go to Settings > Account and settings. Selected Advanced. In the accounting section, select the pencil icon. Select the First month of fiscal year dropdown, then select the month where you start your fiscal year. Select Save.

2. Next, it’s always a good idea to check each customer’s account balances to not only make sure their information is up to date, but to check up on any outstanding balances. Then, you can send a statement to the customer to get everything squared away. 

Here’s how: Go to Reports. In the Find report by name dropdown, select Accounts receivable aging summary or Accounts receivable aging detail. (These reports are available in Advanced, Plus, and Essentials).

Link for more information on how to create and send a statement to the customer

3. Third, you’re going to clear any outstanding deposits from the deposit queue. To ensure that all payments are recorded in the correct bank register in the chart of accounts, you’ll want to record and create bank deposits if there are still payments in the undeposited funds account. 

4. Review vendor account balances to check for outstanding bills, credits, etc. 

Here’s how: Go to Reports. In the Find report by name dropdown, select Accounts Payable aging summary or Accounts payable aging detail. (These reports are available in Advanced, Plus, and Essentials).

5. This step I’m sure you knew was coming - reconcile your accounts! Let’s hope you’ve been taking our advice and have been reconciling on a monthly basis, but if not, use this time to catch up on reconciling before year-end approaches so that all your data is balanced, accurate and ready for tax season.

Find more tips for year-end reconciliation here.

6. Reports are your best friend this time of year, and running reports to identify any issues and discrepancies is your next fall prep step. You can create a management report for profit and loss to see and compare how much you’ve made. 

Here’s how: Go to Reports, then select Management reports. Select Create management report. In the Template name, enter a name and fill out any necessary info including the date range you want to pull from. On the Reports page > choose Balance Sheet in the Report dropdown. Select Add new report > Profit and Loss. Save and close. 

If it doesn’t match, here’s an article for possible reasons and recommended solutions.

7. Next, distribute profits from the business as needed. Your accountant can help you with this! You can also set up an Owner’s Equity and Draws account to track payments and withdrawals over the year.

8. Prepare your tax returns with your accountant and reclassify transactions if needed. Your accountant is a huge help to the year-end process, and they can really help forecast your financial future and review all your books so you can feel extra confident. And if needed, your accountant can add, move or edit from the register and change the account or class of your transactions to better organize your Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet.

Link for more information on adding your accountant directly to your QuickBooks Online account. 

Once all the steps are complete, you’ll be ready to close your books for year-end.

Keep an eye out in the QB Community for upcoming important Year End dates and guides that will be shared soon!