Before you reconcile your 12/31 bank accounts, review any checks that haven’t cleared the bank. If you have any outstanding checks from prior months, consider voiding them from your system.

Putting a stop payment can get costly but it they are significant amounts, consider it insurance from possible fraud. Void them and put a note in the memo.

Best practice: make a journal entry to create a digital trail in case your vendor contacts you for an update on payment status.

Collect all year-end documents for your tax professional. Scan and keep the originals.

Here is a short list to get you started:

1. All Bank and credit card 12/31 statements including the reconciliation reports
2. Company Payroll form W-3
3. All 12/31 loan statements
4. W-2’s
5. 1099’s

Review and clean up your Accounts Receivable for the year end.

Pull the Accounts Receivable report.

• Review and verify customer balances.
• If you are on an accrual basis and you know some of these balances from prior periods will be uncollectable, inform your CPA or tax professional of the bad debt amounts.
• If you find duplicate entries, be sure to void them.

Review and clean up your Accounts Payable for the year end.

Pull the Accounts Payable report:

• Check for unused credits and apply to any outstanding bills when you make a payment.
• Review any outstanding bills and verify the amounts.
• If you find duplicate entries, be sure to void them.

Now is a good time to review your vendors for 1099 information. You can send a note to the vendor or a W-9 to get the missing information before we go into the new year when it will be needed.

Online:

Go to expenses, in upper right prepare 1099’s, continue to 1099’s, you will see a list of your vendor’s that you have checked the 1099 box in their file. You will see in red any information that is missing. Determine if you didn’t fill in the info or need to send the vendor a W-9. Once you get the information, go to the vendor detail and update it. You can also drop and drag a copy of the 1099.

Desktop:

Go to vendors, print/efile 1099’s, run the review 1099 vendors, review for missing information. Determine if you didn’t fill in the info or need to send the vendor a W-9. Once you get the information, go to the vendor file and update it. You can also drop and drag a copy of the 1099.