In many respects, your business is only as healthy and successful as its bookkeeping. As we cycle through each year, there are many opportunities at the year’s end or as we embark on a fresh start to get into better habits. These positive behaviors ultimately cultivate a profitable, highly sustainable, thriving organization.
Here at Whyte & Associates, Inc. in Rancho Cucamonga, California, we are pleased to provide a few of our “secrets” or tips to close the year strong – with a smooth and seamless accounting process!
- Ensure time is on your side. You do not want to be scrambling at the last minute to pull together a team and an array of essential documents. There is no room for error or potential missteps; a mad rush usually equates to incomplete and inaccurate reporting.
- As your vital financial and accounting partners, we need to be aware of any pertinent changes to your organization. Additionally, we typically request information on a monthly or quarterly basis. By responding promptly to requests like a list of sales, invoices, invoice numbers and dates, and so on, we can help ensure that “closing of your books” goes as smoothly and stress-free as possible.
- Lean into tools to complement and support your team. Our firm, for instance, has a robust infrastructure to help ensure easy, accurate, responsive, and secure storage, retrieval, and even analysis (for business intelligence) of the “paper trail” left behind by your business’s operations.
- Zero in on employee-related data. Take a close look at the payroll, benefits, and expenses associated with your workforce because it plays such a tremendous and outsized role in your overall operating costs. Be on the lookout for potentially costly errors, like inaccuracies related to benefits payments.
- Get into the habit of establishing and adhering to a closing schedule. Identify any crucial deadlines and associated activities well before the drop deadline for reporting.
- Reconcile transactions by ensuring that those recorded match the data in everything from credit card and bank statements to invoices and receipts.
- Review and close out accounts properly. Compare accounts receivable and payable, ensuring that the amounts received and paid make sense with what has been accrued. You must support the validity of everything that “comes in” and “goes out.”
- Accrue accounts payable and receivable, adding what is owed to you and, likewise, any debts outstanding appropriately as credits, debits, and liabilities or expenses on the respective income statement and balance sheet.
Of course, Whyte & Associates, Inc. is here for you with an array of monthly, quarterly, or annual statement preparation and tailored bookkeeping services and guidance that grows with you and your business. Call our office in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, at (909) 575-0080 to learn more.
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