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:
QuickBooks Quarterly Review Checklist
- 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 a QuickBooks specialist 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. To help bookkeepers plan for closing out their books at the end of year, keep this checklist in mind:
QuickBooks Year-End Checklist
- Reconcile all bank statements
- Record all outstanding transactions in QuickBooks
- Make sure your A/P and A/R are up to date
- Review your expenses and make sure they are categorized correctly
- Double check the mileage reimbursement rate for current year in your QuickBooks
- Verify all employee information is current and accurate
- Collect IRS W9 forms from all independent contractors you have paid this year
- Prepare a budget for next year
Your Quarterly and Year-End Checklist may vary and include additional items that are required for you to accurately manage your books. But these checklists provide a good start for making sure you have an understanding of what the basics are. Once you get through your checklist and are confident that your data is accurate and up-to-date, it’s time for you to have a little fun and run some reports.
Most of the QuickBooks versions currently being used by businesses come with enough reporting capabilities to help you make cost saving decisions. If you need more, you always have the option of creating reports yourself by dropping data into Excel…but the standard reports in QuickBooks are usually enough for the average business. And businesses using industry specific versions of QuickBooks have the ability to collate data in reports that are unique to their industry. Here are some of the industry specific reports that can be run, provided you are using an industry specific version of QuickBooks.
Industry Specific QuickBooks Reports (available QuickBooks 2013 and newer)
Reports in QuickBooks for Contractors
- Job Status
- Job costs by vendor and job summary
- Job costs by vendor and job detail
- Job costs by job and vendor summary
- Job costs by job and vendor detail
- Job costs detail
- Cost to complete by job summary
- Cost to complete by job detail
- Unpaid bills by job
- Unpaid job bills by vendor
- Expenses not assigned to jobs
- Billed/unbilled hours by person
- Billed/unbilled hours by person and job
- Billed/unbilled hours by person and activity
- Open purchase orders by vendor
- Open purchase orders by vendor detail
- Certified payroll – box 1 employee information
- Vendor account information
- Customer account information
Reports in QuickBooks for Manufacturing
- Sales by rep detail
- Sales by product detail
- Sales by customer type
- Sales volume by customer
- Sales by class and item type
- Profitability by product
- Open sales orders by item
- Open purchase orders by item
- Open sales orders by customer
- Inventory reorder report by vendor
- Physical inventory worksheet
Reports in QuickBooks Professional Services
- Project costs detail
- Job costs by vendor and job summary
- Job costs by vendor and job detail
- Job costs by job and vendor summary
- Job costs by job and vendor detail
- Cost to complete by job summary
- Cost to complete by job detail
- Unbilled expenses by project
- Expenses not assigned to projects
- Billed vs. proposal by project
- Billed/unbilled hours by person
- Billed/unbilled hours by person and project
- Billed/unbilled hours by person and activity
- Open balances by customer/project
- A/R aging detail by class
- Project status
- Project contact list
Reports in QuickBooks for Retail
- Profit and loss monthly comparison
- Balance sheet monthly comparison
- Gross margin by inventory item
- Sales graph
- Customer payments by payment item
- Estimates by customer
- Monthly sales by customer
- Accounts payable graph
- Bills by due date
- Purchase volume by vendor
- Vendor returns summary
- Vendor returns detail
- Open purchase orders by vendor
- Sales tax liability
Reports in QuickBooks for Non-Profit
- Biggest donors/grants
- Budget vs. actual by donors
- Donors/grants report
- Donor contribution summary
- Budget vs. actual by programs/projects
- Program/projects report
- Statement of financial income and expense
- Statement of financial position
- Statement of functional expenses (990)
