The end of September is the end of yet another business quarter, which means it’s time for a recommended checkup to keep your QuickBooks data accurate and up-to-date. To help you get started and make sure you have the basics covered, here is a quarterly review checklist for bookkeepers, business owners or other professionals using QuickBooks to manage their finances:
- Prepare all quarterly payroll reports, and pay any balance due
- If FUTA exceeds the threshold for annual filing, file and pay FUTA tax
- Reconcile payroll liability accounts against quarterly reports
- Deposit Federal and State payroll taxes and withholdings (quarterly depositor)
- Reconcile and pay sales and/or meals tax (quarterly filers only)
- Create/review quarterly profit and loss and balance sheet statements
- Create/review quarterly inventory and sales reports
- Nonprofits and some for-profits should also do quarterly cost allocations
- If you pay estimated taxes, make your quarterly payment
After reviewing these items, it might also be a good idea to check in with your CPA to get any recommendations for making sure your books will be ready to close at year-end. If you have fallen behind with your bookkeeping and financial tracking/reporting, you may want to consider working with one of our QuickBooks specialists to cleanup, repair or migrate your data so you can get back on track.
Maintaining your QuickBooks files and data on a quarterly-basis will allow you to easily manage the end-of-year checklist. Being accurate not only helps you easily navigate tax season, it helps you plan for tax season in December by giving you a close estimate of what your taxes will be.