Recently I was honored with an invitation from Bethany and Hillary to speak at the premier Seattle Meetup groups, Solopreneur Education Network of Seattle and the Eastside (SENSE).
With over a thousand members, SENSE is one of most active and engaging Meetup groups in the area. They are a valuable resource and a really blessing for those of us who own and operate businesses with fewer than twenty employees; although I suspect companies with more than twenty employees would find real value there as well. Perhaps you would consider joining us? Click here to learn more.
The event was held at the office of Yin's Acupuncture, Massage And Chinese Medicine Center. Angie Yin, Lac., OMD is the owner and she was a most gracious hostess and one of the nicest most sincere people you will ever meet!
Eleven people attended and everyone was involved and asked a lot of great questions and I did my best to provide useful answers. Some questions involved Apple and Mac products which are not my strong points; however, thankfully several of the attendees with deep knowledge and skills in Apple and Mac products readily stepped in and answered all of those questions. Many, many thanks to all of you!
The topic was Ask A Bookkeeper -- Easy End of the Year Accounting and in case you are interested I pre-recorded a video of the entire presentation which you can see below. Unfortunately you will miss out on the Q&A portion of the event; however, when it repeats again in the future be sure to sign up early before it sells out:
Several years ago the accounting departments of smaller construction companies with less than $10M in annual sales had to slog through dozens of mind numbing General Journal Entries in order to "Close The Books". With QuickBooks that process is mostly automatic.
There are still a few things the accounting department needs to do. The easiest method is to open QuickBooks and go to the help menu and click on the "Year End Guide" as shown below:
A QuickBooks Year-End Guide similar to the one shown below will pop-up. It may vary depending on the version of QuickBooks you are using.
When you click on a task with your mouse the help screen for that task pops up and guides you through the process which normally takes several hours depending on the amount of bookkeeping data in your QuickBooks file and how complex your construction accounting system is setup.
Gather Receipts Into One Container
Review Personal Bank Statements - Business
Review Business Bank Statements – Personal
Reconcile Bank And Credit Card Accounts
Verify Petty Cash Entries
Invoice Unbilled Work
Money In (Accounts Receivable)
Inventory Count By December 31st
Fixed Assets Balance And Depreciation
Money Out (Accounts Payable)
Retirement Contributions - 401 (k), IRA, Etc.
Notes Payable, Loans, Mortgages, Credit Lines
Mileage Log / Each Vehicle / Business Use
W-9’s From Vendors & Contractors Over $600
Payroll Tax Deposits Match Quarterly Returns
Verify Profit And Loss - Does It Make Sense?
Back Up All Your QuickBooks Data Onsite And Offsite
We strongly recommend you have a basic disaster recovery plan in place.
Step #1 back up QuickBooks onsite
Step #2 back up QuickBooks in the cloud
If your QuickBooks is resting on our QuickBooks Desktop In The Cloud Intuit Approved QuickBooks Hosting service that has multiple backup procedures in place you do not need to back up again.
We have prepared a PDF checklist you can download by clicking on the buttons below. There is nothing to fill out, simply click on the button and download it to your heart's content.
We offer QuickBooks year end closing services if you prefer not to do it yourself or rely on someone who only does it once a year and the prices are very reasonable.
Profitable Construction - Companies have known about the value of outsourced bookkeeping services for a long time and now you know about it too!
For Construction Company Owners who do not need the full power of QuickBooks for contractors and want 24/7 online access we offer Xero Accounting Online and we have custom setup for construction companies. Click Here For More.
About The Author:
Our Co-Founder Randal DeHart - Is a Certified PMP (Project Management Professional) with several years of construction project management experience. His expertise is construction accounting systems engineering and process development. His exhaustive study of several leading experts including the work of Dr. W. Edward Deming, Michael Gerber, Walter A. Shewhart, James Lewis and dozens of others was the foundation upon which our Construction Bookkeeping System is based and continues to evolve and improve. Follow Randal on Google+