Accounting Tasks Spreadsheet Free Templates and Checklists

accounting checklist

Regularly reviewing them ensures you stay on top of your obligations, avoid late fines, and maintain good relationships with vendors, creditors, ratio analysis types and tax authorities. Monitoring these daily transactions gives you a clearer picture of your business’s financial situation, helping you spot trends and manage budgets. By closely monitoring your cash reserves, you can grow your cash flow more effectively and avoid pitfalls.

The process of recording transactions includes logging and verifying the money going in and out of the door, as seen in the general ledger. Though sales tax payments are required every quarter, making monthly calculations is a much more manageable compare and contrast job-order and process costing systems task. At the same time, you can also estimate any county or city-level sales tax your clients must pay.

While accounting may not be what motivates you to go to work every day, it’s likely something you’ll encounter whether you do it yourself or outsource to an accounting firm. There are weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual accounting tasks you need to complete to ensure your business’s success. Welcome to your weekly accounting tasks, otherwise known as the land of invoicing, financial data management, and other business bank account fun. Carefully categorize business expenses and liabilities at the end of every month and record all sources of income, including past due invoices. This not only facilitates easy tracking of cash flow but also lays the groundwork for accurate financial reporting. The requirements of small business accounting come down to a handful of best practices and essential reports, which you can do manually or with accounting software.

Weekly bookkeeping to-do’s

One of the primary services accountants offer is the preparation of a client’s annual financial statements to display their performance over the year. Typically, this includes an income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. Accounting software like QuickBooks can help you generate financial reports, manage taxes, and take care of other small business accounting tasks.

  1. Our tool is simple to use, so you don’t need in-depth accounting knowledge.
  2. Regularly reviewing and responding to financial alerts is crucial for staying on top of your business’s financial health.
  3. Since cash is the fuel for your business, you never want to be running on or near empty.
  4. Marshall is a former Securities & Exchange Commission-registered investment adviser with a bachelor’s degree in finance from Appalachian State University.
  5. If your business needs to charge and collect sales tax for the products you sell, you’ll likely need to make monthly payments to the appropriate state department.

Review Employee Timesheets

Also, if you pay independent contractors $600 or more during the year, you’ll need to send each one a 1099-NEC form, as well as copies to the IRS. The deadline for sending these forms to employees and contractors is January 31. If you check regularly (and compare to prior months’ numbers), it’s easier to make adjustments, so you are neither short nor drop shipping and sales tax overloaded.

accounting checklist

The 11 best accounting practice management software solutions in 2024

A payroll service provider can do all this to save you time and ensure accuracy at a reasonable cost. Whether you have a seasoned or new business, brick and mortar or eCommerce, there are numerous monthly accounting tasks you need to handle. If your business needs to charge and collect sales tax for the products you sell, you’ll likely need to make monthly payments to the appropriate state department. This can be as simple as a statement showing your current cash position, expected upcoming cash receipts, and expected cash payments for this period.

Managing finances doesn’t have to be the bane of your professional existence. Nor does it have to take you away from the personal reasons you started your business in the first place. We provide third-party links as a convenience and for informational purposes only.

If you have to sell inventory for a deep discount, you could deduct it from your year-end taxes. Most invoices are due within 30 days, noted as “Net 30” at the bottom of your invoice. Find out how to integrate Process Street with the apps you use every day, like Quickbooks for generating invoices or Freshbooks for organizing expenses. This is one of your key reports for itemizing what the company owes and owns. Or it’s not certain who is meant to approve the claim or whether that approval has been given or not. Then, there are the occasions where an approved and processed expense doesn’t end up being paid to the employee when its meant to be paid.