Accounting Articles

Year-End Checklists, Related Resources, and In-Product Help

Intuit ProConnection Really Simple
You can bring these articles to your desktop as soon as they are published.


Already a ProConnection subscriber?
Update your profile and personalize your ProConnection experience.
Update your profile

Not a subscriber yet?
Sign up now for free and start receiving customized newsletters directly to your inbox.
Sign up now

Editor's Note. Now that the end of the year is fast approaching, you may be looking for assistance on taking care of year-end issues, and at the bottom of this article we review resources in print, online, and in-product to help you close out the year right. First: Pam Newman introduces a year-end checklist for you to print and customize as needed for your own practice.

Year end brings lots of opportunities for us to be able to help our clients ensure they have a successful close to one year and beginning of another. Helping our clients be organized and complete in their year-end processes ensures a smoother transition from year to year.

Having a checklist helps you substantiate your rates with your client as well as ensure that you don't accidentally overlook any critical areas during the busy year-end season. Clients rely on us to be the ones who remember what needs to be taken care of and guide them through the myriad of year-end activities and filings.

Recommendations for Use

While you could give the year-end checklist to clients, I find that they appreciate me taking care of the year-end duties as much as possible to free them up to run their business. This approach provides them a peace of mind. That's why I personally use the check list for internal purposes instead of trying to overwhelm clients.

Instead of waiting till after first of the year, I start this process in the early part of December so that it causes less stress for everyone involved.

A couple of key areas I start with are the employee and subcontractor information so that the forms will not be unnecessarily delayed in January. I also review their financial reports to ensure that if any asset purchases need to take place there is time. Also I review their financials for year to date information and identify any large variances from the previous year (or expected year to date information) that could greatly impact their year end so that we have a chance to address them in a proactive manner.

In addition to the normal month end procedures, as outlined in the article Month-End Checklist, written by Sandi Smith, there are additional aspects to cover with your clients at the close of their fiscal year. Dependent on what works well for your processes, you can determine which order of completion is most effective for you. You may also want to add a few items to the checklist as applicable in your environment.

In the Overview of Year-End Resources at the end of this article, you'll find a link to a Word version of this checklist for your use.

Year-End Checklist

Here are twenty Critical Areas for Review at Year End:

1. Accrue any year-end costs associated with payroll and post to payroll expense and payroll liabilities.
1. Review your fringe benefits to ensure they are accurately reported for the year.
2. Ensure all your employee information is correct for year-end reporting (W-2, W-3, 940, 941).
2. Ensure all your vendor bills are posted by the year-end close date.
3. Invoice your clients to finalize any outstanding unbillable revenue to date.
1. Adjust outstanding receivables that are deemed to be uncollectible against bad debt expense.
2. Review if any should be sent to an outside collection agency for assistance.
4. Review your 1099 vendor information to make sure it is complete. (Check for Name, Address, Tax Id, Accurate coding of expenses as to whether they are eligible for 1099 tracking, etc.)
5. Reconcile
1. Your bank accounts.
2. Your credit card accounts.
3. Your loan accounts.
6. Conduct a physical inventory count and record adjustments within QuickBooks inventory.
7. Adjust any prepaid items, such as insurance, that need to be expensed.
8. Journalize any other accruals for year end that won't be paid until the following year.
9. Calculate and record amortization, depreciation, and any other necessary year-end adjusting journal entries.
10. Review your asset and expense balances to ensure that all fixed assets have been accurately recorded for any purchases or selling of assets.
11. Update any changes in employee or sales tax rates for the New Year.
12. Ensure any prepaid deposits received from clients throughout the year are adjusted to earned revenue.
13. Review and update the business plan to include changes anticipated for the upcoming year as needed.
14. Prepare the budget for the New Year if not done so previously.
15. Prepare year-end reports, W-2, W-3, 940, 941, 1096, 1099 and any other applicable forms and remit to appropriate parties.
16. Check to see if any local licensing or permits need to be filed with year-end data.
17. Review memorized transactions to ensure they are still applicable for the New Year.
18. Print your year-end reports, which should include
1. Profit & Loss Statement
2. Balance Sheet
3. Accounts Receivable Aging
4. Accounts Payable Aging
5. Budgeted vs. Actual
19. Schedule a time to review the information with your client to see if the information seems reasonable to them. While we can prepare various data, it is always wise for us to review the information with them and discuss any variances we find.
20. Ensure you have a regular backup process that includes verifying the data to help minimize any data loss. Consolidate and condense if needed for performance.

Overview of Year-End Resources

Now that the end of the year is fast approaching, here's a list of our resources to help you deal with year-end closing.

Year-End Checklist Already in QuickBooks. QuickBooks has its own Year-End Guide Checklist available from Help in the QuickBooks software. (See below.) The list can be used by you or your clients. The user checks off tasks as they are completed. Items in the checklist are hyperlinked to help articles specific to each topic.

New Printed Checklist. Here are two versions of the Year-End checklist for you to adapt and perfect as needed. The second version includes the Month-End checklist referenced in the article above.

• Year-End Checklist (Word doc. 34 KB)
• Month-End and Year-End Checklist (Word doc. 75 KB)

More Resources. Here are other resources for your use at the end of the year.

• QuickBooks Year-End Center: Year-End Closing
• Client Data Review: Year-End Productivity Boost
• Closing Dates in QuickBooks (Part of Longer Tip)
• QuickBooks Payroll and Year End
  • Enhanced and Basic
  • Assisted
  • Yearend Tune-up

Pam Newman, CMA/CFM, Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, is the author of Boost Your Bottom Line and Out of the Red, and is a frequent contributor to industry publications. Learn more at website for her firm, RRPC, Inc., at www.rppc.net.

Last Updated: 12/05/2008