Business owners are faced with challenges that range from daily fires to long-term projections that can directly impact the success of the business. Especially at the end of the year, things can get extremely hectic. 2019 will be wrapped up in a mere matter of weeks. As we race to the end of the year, be sure to spend some time making sure your bookkeeping is up to date. With all the other responsibilities business owners are facing, many are turning to accounting professionals to help them stay up to date with bookkeeping tasks and ensure that they have the clear insight into business operations that they seek.
2019 Year End Bookkeeping Checklist
- Get caught up. If you’ve fallen behind on the bookkeeping tasks like data entry, report generation and reconciliations, now is the time to put a concerted effort toward getting things caught up. Even if you have to enlist the help of an outside consultant, it’s important for your books to be balanced and up to date before the calendar rolls over to 2020.
- Check for errors. Once you have the books up to date, the next important step is to look underneath stones (so to speak) for mistakes, miscoded payments and adjustments that may be needed. Check for open invoices that should be paid before the year ends and even accelerate payments that can be applied in against revenue in 2019 rather than postponed to 2020.
- Take the view from 30,000 feet. As you review for mistakes, it’s also a good idea to take the opportunity to fold in your broader business objectives. Your end of year bookkeeping checklist should have an outline of your business roadmap on the radar. Do you have growth plans in the works for 2020? Are there large equipment or real estate purchases in the works? What other high level objectives do you have for your business next year?
- Take a look at your tech. As the year comes to an end, the time is right for taking stock of your tech tools. Ensure that you start 2020 with bookkeeping software that is synced with your other technological tools such as e-commerce platforms or inventory management software. Additionally, check out whether you are spending on subscriptions or licenses that you no longer need. Optimizing workflows and trimming the budget can help set your business up for success as it heads into 2020.
- Nail your delegation game. It might seem counterintuitive to add an item to your checklist about delegating important tasks to someone else. Still, the choice to hire an accounting professional to take on the load may be an integral part of your overarching business strategy in 2020. Your outsourced bookkeeper can help you optimize your processes, stay up to date as well as provide deeper insights into the performance of your business.
Agile Planners has all the tools needed to help you manage the accounting and bookkeeping aspects of your business, freeing you up to focus on running your business as you wrap up 2019 and head full speed ahead into 2020. Use this checklist to get your business ready for the next decade, and if you need the assistance of an outsourced professional, here’s how Agile Planners can help:
- Deep dive into the books
- Outsourced partner to take repetitive tasks off your hands and get you caught up
- Technical consulting to ensure that your tech tools are optimized
- Training sessions to get your employees up to speed.
- And more.
