9 Useful Daily Bookkeeping Checklist Items + Free Templates

Kathryn is a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 7 years of experience in both public practice and industry accounting. She has had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of individuals and companies, which gives her a unique perspective on what it takes to be successful in the industry. Kathryn loves all things business and productivity and has been able to combine her love for creating content into writing for accounting firms looking to improve their businesses.

• Our monthly bookkeeping checklist template was carefully created to help you and your firm accurately carry out monthly bookkeeping in a timely manner.
• And the monthly bookkeeping checklist is done on the various things used in the business.
• And don’t assume they know everything in the financial statements as they are a small business owner, not an accountant.
• Solid bookkeeping practice is fundamental, but can also be overwhelming, even for those who specialize in it.

When you use our monthly bookkeeping checklist, you provide your team with everything they need to complete tasks without you. They won’t need to ask you questions, nor will they need you to get involved in the process because they’ll have everything they need right within these checklists. Caryl Ramsey has years of experience assisting monthly checklist for bookkeepers in different aspects of bookkeeping, taxes, and customer service. She uses a variety of accounting software for setting up client information, reconciling accounts, coding expenses, running financial reports, and preparing tax returns. She is also experienced in setting up corporations with the State Corporation Commission and the IRS.

Balance your books

After reviewing it, you’ll know what money you need to collect from clients and what needs to be invoiced and closed out for income recognition purposes. Similar to the Open Client Deposit report, this report shows vendor deposits on project and inventory purchase orders that have not yet been applied to an invoice. Ensure that orders are being fulfilled by the vendor and that your recorded costs are accurate.

Next on our list of bookkeeping duties and responsibilities has to do with both employee and expense management. Sometimes a worker will pay for a business expense out of pocket and request reimbursement later. There are also specific considerations regarding taxation on employee expense reimbursements. Just as you reconcile your personal checking account, you need to know that your cash business transaction entries are accurate and that you are working with the correct cash position. Reconciling your cash makes it easier to discover and correct any errors or omissions — either by you or by the bank — in time to correct them.

Free Accounting Workflow Templates

To uncover errors, check whether you forgot to record an entry in either column of your accounting ledger. After you have a bookkeeping system in mind, the next step is to pick an accounting software. There’s a variety of spreadsheet software you can use, such as Microsoft Excel, that can be used for simple bookkeeping. Tracking your A/R, usually with an aging report, can help you avoid issues with collecting payments. If there are only a few transactions, it is easy, yes, but the things don’t necessarily fit in.

After all, they have financial obligations that need to be met as well. Payroll, if applicable, will need to be run at least once a month. This will vary by business and by location but something to keep in mind to be completed regularly. Get it out of the way early and return to your regularly scheduled programming. Think of it like putting off the laundry until you have nothing to wear. Stay on top of your tax filings, so they don’t pile up and overwhelm you when deadlines approach.

Free Template – Monthly Bookkeeping Checklist

Plus, you can make more informed business decisions about how to spend it. Keep a record of each of your suppliers that includes billing dates, amounts due, and payment due dates. If suppliers offer discounts for early payment, you may want to take advantage. Since cash is the fuel for your business, you never want to be running on or near empty.

That’s why it’s crucial to stay on top of bookkeeping tasks for up-to-date snapshots of the health of your business at any given time. It’s important to have an efficient bookkeeping system in place if you want your firm or business to grow and succeed. As a small business owner, there are few tasks that are more important to successfully manage your business than bookkeeping. Reconciling means matching what is in QuickBooks to what is in the bank account. As long as no major problems arise, reconciliation usually goes fairly quickly. I need to wait on my client to give me the information for this task, so it doesn’t always happen as step four.

Bookkeeping Personal Tax Checklist Template

Reporting and analysis are also essential parts of your bookkeeping job duties. These reports can show you the essential metrics you need to track the performance of certain strategies and provide crucial insights to inform the next business move. Accounts payable includes any payments owed to suppliers or creditors by a company. As liabilities are bought on credit, you need to be sure that you keep an eye on all the due dates for these invoice payments including payment terms such as Net 30, Net 15, etc. We hear you and we’ve got you with a bookkeeping duties list that you can use as a guide to get you informed on the bookkeeping process.

• Financial transactions are business activities that involve money, such as sales, expenses, and payments.
• Whether you have a seasoned or new business, brick and mortar or eCommerce, there are numerous monthly accounting tasks you need to handle.
• Join over 1 million businesses scanning & organizing receipts, creating expense reports and more—with Shoeboxed.
• Since contractors and employees come and go, if you keep all of their information updated on a monthly basis, then it will be so much easier when it comes time to submit tax documents.
• Finally, it provides a clear record of spending that can be helpful in budgeting and financial planning.
• It allows you to identify and correct any errors or discrepancies in a timely manner.

Each task can be delegated or automated, saving time and money for your firm. Make sure the bills you’re paying for your business have been paid on time and are accurate with this report. Address any incorrect or uncategorized transactions to ensure your net income is reported accurately. Similar to reconciling bank transactions, this process involves comparing credit card statements against transactions listed in your general ledger. Paying hires includes more than just calculating their hourly rates and handing them over.