When's the last time you did some spring cleaning on your accounting? Do you have accounts and balances on your books that are confusing or not even relevant?

Today's video is all about how to clean up your accounting to get ready for your taxes to be DONE!
If you don't do your books, send this video to your bookkeeper or team member that handles the bookkeeping!

Here's a little stepbystep guide:
1) Make sure all transactions are added to the books for the year. Check littleused accounts (savings accounts or paypal/venmo) – add and classify those transactions
2) Review your P&L and Balance sheet for anything in “uncategorized” places – uncategorized income, assets, liabilities, etc. Everything needs a category. If you don’t know what something is, find out and put it in the right place.
3) Review your balance sheet for anything that looks old or out of place – is A/R correct? AP? What about petty cash? What about employee AR or legacy undeposited funds?
4) Perform and inventory count and and adjust inventory balances – do this as close to yearend as possible.
5) Reconcile balance sheet accounts – ALL OF THEM!
6) Clean up Income statement items
a. Review for accuracy – change coding of expenses
b. Make sure there are no transactions in main “categories” if there are subcategories
c. Clean up “Misc” and “ask my accountant” and “uncategorized” items
d. Change any accounts that you don’t like the name
e. Reorganize anything now that you can see a whole year of activity
7) Make sure Payroll expenses tie back to payroll reports
8) Make sure contractor payments are recorded in the right categories and reported for 1099s


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Hannah Smolinski is a #CPA and the Founder of Clara CFO Group. Find out more about Clara CFO Group at https://claracfo.com/

Disclaimer: This video is intended for educational purposes and
should not be taken as legal or tax advice. You should consult with your financial professionals about your unique financial situation before acting on anything discussed in these videos. Clara CFO Group, LLC is providing educational content to help small business owners become more aware of certain issues and topics, but we cannot give blanket advice to a broad audience.