Why Use a Bookkeeping Checklist?
One of the hardest parts of DIY bookkeeping is simply knowing whether you're done.
You categorize some transactions. You send your invoices. You look at the bank account.
Is that bookkeeping?
Partly.
A repeatable bookkeeping checklist gives your financial routine a beginning and an end.
Instead of vaguely thinking, "I should work on my books," you know exactly what needs your attention.
Not every business will need every task on this list. A solo consultant has different bookkeeping needs from a business with employees, loans, multiple credit cards, and dozens of customer invoices.
Use the tasks that apply to your business and build a routine around them.
Weekly Bookkeeping Checklist
Your weekly bookkeeping routine should be relatively quick.
The goal is to prevent small administrative tasks from accumulating into a much larger project.
Review Recent Transactions
Check the transactions coming through your business accounts.
Make sure activity looks familiar and flag anything that needs additional research or documentation.
You do not necessarily need to complete your entire monthly bookkeeping process every week. This is simply an opportunity to catch problems while the transactions are still fresh in your mind.
Save Receipts and Documentation
Upload or organize receipts, invoices, and other documentation from the week.
A good rule is to make this as easy as possible.
If your receipt process requires seven steps and a perfectly named folder structure, you probably will not maintain it during a busy week.
Simple and consistent beats elaborate and abandoned.
Send Customer Invoices
If your business invoices customers, make sure completed work has actually been billed.
Revenue sitting on your to do list cannot pay your bills.
Review Outstanding Invoices
Look at invoices that have not been paid.
Identify anything overdue and follow up according to your normal payment policies.
Consistent follow up is generally easier than realizing three months later that several customers still owe you money.
Review Upcoming Bills
Check what the business needs to pay soon.
This gives you a better picture of upcoming cash requirements and reduces surprise expenses.
Check Your Cash Position
You do not need to obsessively refresh your bank account.
But you should know roughly where your cash stands and whether upcoming payments or expenses require attention.
Monthly Bookkeeping Checklist
The monthly close is where your bookkeeping comes together.
This is the process that turns day to day financial activity into useful financial records.
Finish Recording and Categorizing Transactions
Make sure the month's financial activity has been recorded and properly categorized.
Resolve transactions you flagged earlier and gather any missing information.
Review Customer Invoices and Vendor Bills
Make sure accounts receivable and accounts payable accurately reflect what customers owe you and what the business owes others.
Reconcile Bank Accounts
Compare your bookkeeping records against the official statements for your business bank accounts.
Investigate and resolve discrepancies.
Reconcile Credit Cards
Credit card accounts should also be reconciled.
Remember that paying a credit card is generally not a new business expense. The underlying purchases are what created the expenses.
Reconcile Other Relevant Accounts
Depending on your business, you may also need to reconcile loans, payment processors, or other financial accounts.
Review Your Profit and Loss Statement
Look at:
Revenue
Major expense categories
Profit
Changes compared with previous periods
Anything unexpected
Do not simply generate the report and file it away.
Your financial statements are useful because they tell you something.
Review Your Balance Sheet
Look for balances that appear unusual or inconsistent with what you know about the business.
Pay particular attention to bank and credit card balances, loans, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and other significant accounts.
Resolve Outstanding Bookkeeping Questions
Do not let a mystery transaction live in your books indefinitely because it was easier to click "Ask Me Later."
Resolve outstanding questions while the month is still relatively recent.
Close the Month
Once the accounts are reconciled, outstanding questions are resolved, and financial statements have been reviewed, consider the month's bookkeeping complete.
Then move on.
Quarterly Bookkeeping Checklist
Quarterly reviews are an opportunity to zoom out.
Instead of focusing on whether individual transactions are correct, look at what your books are telling you about the business.
Review Revenue and Profit Trends
Compare the quarter with previous periods.
Ask questions like:
Is revenue growing?
Is profit growing with it?
Which expenses have changed?
Are there seasonal patterns?
Are certain services becoming more or less important?
Prepare for Estimated Taxes
If you make quarterly estimated tax payments, use your current financial information to help you prepare.
Your bookkeeper can keep your records accurate and current, while your tax professional can advise you about your specific tax obligations.
Review Contractor Activity
If you pay independent contractors, periodically reviewing those payments can make year end reporting much easier.
Do not wait until January to discover you are missing information you needed months ago.
Review Your Budget or Financial Goals
If you have revenue, spending, cash, or profitability goals, compare your actual results against them.
A goal becomes much more useful when you periodically measure your progress.
Annual Bookkeeping Checklist
Year end should be a review of bookkeeping you have maintained throughout the year, not the first time you look at it.
Make Sure Every Month Is Complete
Confirm that all twelve months have been reconciled and reviewed.
If you discover missing periods, our guide to catching up on bookkeeping when you're months behind can help you build a plan.
Review Contractor Information and 1099 Requirements
Make sure contractor information and payment records are organized for any required reporting.
Tax rules can change, so confirm current requirements with an appropriate tax professional or official guidance.
Review Major Asset Purchases
Make sure major equipment or other significant purchases have been recorded appropriately and that your tax professional has the information needed for tax treatment.
Review Loans and Other Liabilities
Confirm year end balances against available statements and documentation.
Review Your Full Year Financial Statements
Look at the entire year.
How much revenue did the business generate?
What did it cost to operate?
How profitable was it?
How did the year compare with the one before it?
What changed?
This is where twelve months of consistent bookkeeping becomes business information.
Prepare Records for Your Tax Professional
Provide the reports and supporting information your tax professional requests.
When the books have been maintained throughout the year, this process should feel much less like an emergency.
How Much Time Should Small Business Bookkeeping Take?
There is no universal answer.
A business with a handful of monthly transactions might need very little weekly maintenance.
A higher volume business with multiple accounts, invoices, bills, payroll, and other activity will naturally require more attention.
What matters is that your routine matches the complexity of your business.
If you consistently cannot finish your bookkeeping within the time you have available, that is useful information too.
The business may have outgrown its original bookkeeping system.
Turn Your Checklist Into a Habit
You do not need to spend hours thinking about bookkeeping every week.
Put your recurring tasks on the calendar.
Create one place for documentation.
Handle small questions before they become old questions.
Close every month before the next one gets too far underway.
A boring bookkeeping routine is actually a wonderful thing.
It means your books are being handled without requiring a crisis to make them a priority.
And once the routine itself is consuming more time than you want to give it, you can always hand it off.
Want a Simpler Way to Start?
Mainstay's free bookkeeping starter bundle includes 7 Bookkeeping Habits That Buy Back Your Time and a free small business bookkeeping template to help you build a more manageable system for your books.