The best Christmas present for your accountant is organized records. Follow these simple steps and you’ll feel the love all the way through 2019. Use Quickbooks to help:
- Reconcile your bank and credit card accounts up to December 31, 2018. Print the reconciliations and keep them with your records.
- Get a copy of a W-9 for all subcontractors, service providers, repair and maintenance providers, attorneys, landlords, or anyone to whom your company is required to issue form 1099-Misc for 2018. Please have that information entered into your Quickbooks Online or Quickbooks Desktop. Also, provide your accountant a copy of the completed W-9s. If a vendor refuses to give you the W-9, you can advise them that you will have to withhold 24% of the payments made as required by law. That should provide some motivation!
- Start a folder called “2018 Accountant.” Put everything that is tax related in that folder. Your fold will include tax forms, copies of your employees’ W-2s, W-3, NJ W-3, Form 940, quarterly payroll reports (forms 941, NJ-927, NJ-WR 30 or other states’ employment tax returns), copies of December 2018 bank statements and loan statements, and Forms 1099 received. Your desk clutter will be cleaned up in no time. Once your accountant asks you for this information, you can just hand over the “2018 Accountant” folder. You can smile and forget about searching and digging for information.
- Don’t forget to take year-end inventory.
- Remember to file all your payroll tax forms by January 30, 2019.
- Business owners, don’t forget to gather and organize your out-of-pocket expenses that you paid with cash. Small things can add up. You can enter them on a spreadsheet such as Excel and give the totals to your accountant. You don’t need to give your accountant those receipts. You can keep them somewhere safe just incase we need them.
- Review your accounts receivable as of 12/31/18. If anything is over 30 days old, it’s time to make collection calls. Also, please write-off anything that is uncollectible.
- Review your accounts payable as of 12/31/18. If anything is posted in error, please write it off via journal entry as of 12/31/18.
As always, we are here to help you every step of the way. Should you have any questions or concerns about using Quickbooks or any other general accounting questions, please feel free to drop us a line via email or give us a call.
Happy Holidays!
Article contributed by Quinn Do
Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash
