21 Questions to Ask Accounting & Bookkeeping Clients + Onboarding Checklist & Template

If your business stores inventory, perform an end-of-year inventory count to make sure your totals match your Balance Sheet and your books. This review will provide insight into waste and loss management, as well as reduce inaccuracies in inventory counts and receivings. If there are any outstanding payments, reach out to your customers before the end of the year to successfully close your books. Reviewing bank and credit card statements to confirm that they match. Use professional pre-built templates to fill in and sign documents online faster. These checklists are designed as a quick reference tool to help you keep your policies and procedures current. They will be particularly useful if you who have had little or no experience so far of what to look for when identifying money laundering.

• These checklists are designed as a quick reference tool to help you keep your policies and procedures current.
• If you’re not ready to transition to a full online workflow system, Jetpack Workflow has also created a set of 32 free workflow templates and checklists to help you get started .
• Being vigilant can help your clients avoid interest and late fees on missed bills from suppliers.
• Now is the time to prepare any necessary journal entries such as accruals, deferrals, prepaid expenses, and depreciation.
• You should receive one 1099-K from each of the Online Payment Networks you use by January 31st.
• Understand where your business is spending and receiving funds, and gives you a better overview of your financial health.

If you’re not ready to transition to a full online workflow system, Jetpack Workflow has also created a set of 32 free workflow templates and checklists to help you get started . Though most employees are not paid weekly, you should check the payroll schedule each week to ensure you are processing payroll promptly. Though the rules differ by state, most states have hefty fines for late payroll payments. By far the most basic bookkeeping function, it’s crucial that your clients’ activity is pulled into their accounting system regularly. Entering transactions weekly allows you to raise questions promptly before your client has forgotten the purpose of a transaction.

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It’s more than likely your potential client faces some regulatory challenges at the city, county, or state level. Your firm could have resources or contacts that can aid in solving these issues and including this question in your checklist can help determine your client’s needs. In your accounting questionnaire for clients, it’s essential to ask if their business is suffering from any wage or benefits issues. Examples might include union negotiations, labor disputes, or potential minimum wage increases. One common problem with both lead nurturing and on-boarding is that there’s too much talking and not enough listening. With the right questions, it’s possible to collect the information you need to close the deal with prospective clients and demonstrate your value to new clients. Close Your Books – Once you’ve got every piece of financial information accounted for, you should balance and close your books for the year.

Using the document collection feature, clients can submit their financial statements, federal identification documents, tax return reports, and other financial reports. Depending on the client type, you can also request them to submit FEIN, S-Corp letter, adjusted TB, balance sheets, and more. It takes the guesswork out of bookkeeping so you can focus on running your business. Often, small businesses keep a monthly bookkeeping checklist as many bookkeeping tasks need to be completed every month. But it’s also useful to have a daily bookkeeping checklist too along with an annual one. Caryl Ramseyhas years of experience assisting 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.

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See why over 7,000 accountants and bookkeepers use Jetpack Workflow. You can also provide feedback to your clients quickly if there is a check or payment that doesn’t process correctly.

Running a successful bookkeeping business means juggling several competing priorities at any given moment. Financial health of your organization – and is a key metric for shareholders to review at the end of every quarter. You may find your business benefits from certain categories depending on your market sector. Moreover, maintaining distinct transaction categories makes it easier to report expenses to the IRS when needed. Understand where your business is spending and receiving funds, and gives you a better overview of your financial health. What needs to be done every day, month and at the end of the fiscal year.

Review Timesheets

Schedule a call with one of our online accountants to get started. The 1099-K tracks the payments bookkeeping checklist template received through third-party payment networks, like eBay, Stripe, Shopify, PayPal, and others.

• A client’s business structure will affect every aspect of accounting and bookkeeping.
• We’ll give you financial visibility throughout the year and deliver insights to make strategic business decisions.
• Prior to starting Titan Web Agency, he freelanced in SEO and Web Design while working in the corporate world.
• This juggling act can be difficult at times, which is why it’s important to have a system to keep everything straight.
• Along with your balance sheet and P&L, this statement helps determine the financial health of your business.

Dig deeper into your potential client’s relationship with their previous firm. That sums up my daily and weekly bookkeeping checklists.Remember to https://simple-accounting.org/ download my checklist form HERE for your own use! Next week I’ll go over my monthly, quarterly and annual checklists, so keep an eye out for that.

Monitoring and revising your cash flow budgets ensure your small business can use its retained earnings to grow sustainably. A three-part video series that explains what happens when you miss deadlines to file and pay your taxes, how the IRS collects overdue taxes and what you can do if you can’t pay. Walk through our online quarterly tax calculator to figure out what you owe. Bench takes bookkeeping off your hands, pairing you with a real, human bookkeeper at a price you can afford. Try our services for free before deciding if we’re the right fit for you. Maybe they created helpful visual data presentations to help them understand their portfolio value or financial reports. If you know of any recent changes in tax legislation that could affect your potential client, ask them about it.

• The client will probably tell you about their business checking and savings accounts, and maybe a few credit card accounts.
• These last few additions to your new accounting client questionnaire are questions a bookkeeper should ask a client, too.
• Contact your state’s department of revenue to find out how to make payroll deposits and file the proper forms.
• Overcome the challenges your accounting firm is facing acquiring, training and retaining staff.

The first thing you should do every day is check how much cash your practice has available. Unexpected expenses can pop up on a daily basis and you don’t want to have to guess when it comes to available cash. Instead, take a few minutes at the beginning of the day to make sure you know exactly what you have on hand.

Prepare monthly financial statements

A comprehensive accounting checklist and task list for your small business to complete daily, weekly and annually. Start tracking your profit with an easy-to-use free template created by our small business bookkeeping and accounting experts. Staying on top of your cash flow, in and out of the practice, is incredibly important. Forecast how much cash you will need in the coming weeks/months to pay your bills, employees and suppliers. Knowing your projected cash flow is also critical to making informed business decisions.

Keep track of routine journal entries and calculations done in the previous month to speed up this process each month. In this post, we’ll look at why you need a checklist and provide a list of functions bookkeepers complete to close their clients’ books monthly and how to streamline each step. Be sure to make any required payroll, federal, or state tax payments or filings to the appropriate agencies. Also, annual, quarterly, and monthly sales tax returns must be filed with the state where your business is conducted. You can track your activities and tasks on paper, using spreadsheets, or within a workflow management tool like Jetpack Workflow. Jetpack Workflow is used by over 6,000 accounting and bookkeeping professionals to stay organized and avoid missing any critical deadlines.