Sometimes life gets busy and business owners may push off bookkeeping for months or even years. The catch up can feel daunting but hiring the right professional can resolve the nightmare within weeks.
Ideally, finding an accountant that can resolve your bookkeeping catch up and the associates tax ramifications would help make your catch-up experience seamless.
Even when you’re hiring a professional team, it’s best to have your paperwork organized as your accountant will ask for them regardless. This will save you time and frustration.
Here’s a complete checklist of what to organize (free PDF checklist format available for download at the end of this blog):
1. Business Information
a. Legal business name
b. Entity type (single member LLC, partnership, C corporation, S corporation, sole proprietorship etc.)
c. EIN or Tax ID
d. State and local business registration info
2. Bank and credit card access
a. Logins for all company bank and credit card accounts
b. Statements for all past closed accounts for the catch-up period
c. Accountant’s access to your accounts
i. This is helpful if you’d like to speed things up from your end and don’t want to send all the PDFs. With your accountant added to your account (limited permissions ok) they can retrieve the PDFs without needing to bother you.
3. Accounting software access
a. Login credentials or ownership access to software used to keep your past company financials
i. QuickBooks is the most common for small to medium sized businesses
ii. If you have no past software, your accountant should be able to help you set one up
4. Receipts and invoices
a. This is especially important if there are relevant business transactions that are not recorded in your statements already; your accountant will need to record them with manual journal entries
5. Payroll reports (if applicable)
a. Payroll provider login
b. Past payroll reports for catch up period
c. Tax filings (941s, 940s, W2s, 1099s)
6. Loan and financing documents
a. Loan agreements
b. Monthly payments and balance information
c. Line of credit or cash advance documentation
7. Tax filings
a. Sales tax filing (if applicable)
b. Prior business tax return filings
c. Any IRS or state notices
i. Your accountant will want to resolve them, if relevant
8. Known Missing Items
a. Transactions you knew are for business but not recorded in any statements, receipts, or invoices
Our free checklist PDF download here.
Need help catching up? Our friendly and trusted team is ready to help you navigate this burden with ease. Contact us today!