8 steps to prepare for year-end

Published December 10, 2020

Are you ready for your upcoming fiscal year-end? Do you know what your accountant requires to close your books? For a smooth year-end, use AgExpert Accounting to review your books in a few simple steps. 

1. Record all your transactions  

First and most importantly: ensure you’ve recorded all bills received and invoices issued up to your fiscal year-end date. By carefully checking your files, you can save time in future steps. (No one likes when a missing record shows up later and throws your numbers off.)

2. Reconcile your bank and loan accounts 

Have your transactions been accurately recorded as coming from or going to the correct bank account? Verify your entries one by one against your account statements. It’s a bit of work up-front, but it will help you spot any recording errors and save you time in the end. Be sure to reconcile all your bank accounts including credit card and loan balances. 

• Get instructions on reconciling your bank accounts in AgExpert Accounting. 

3. Review your Accounts Receivable and Payable 

Why generate your Accounts Receivable and Payable reports? You can ensure that all payments received and made by the end of the fiscal year are recorded and accounted for. Missed a payment? Record it accordingly. Your account balances should reflect any outstanding funds. 

4. Review Your Financial Statements 

You can easily generate the financial statements required by your accountant, including the Income and Expense statement and the Balance Sheet statement, as of the last date of your fiscal year-end. To ensure the numbers reflect your business commitments during the year, run both reports and make corrections if necessary. You may want to run your trial balance report to further confirm your numbers. 
 
5. Perform an Inventory Count  

If your income and expense accounts were set up to track inventory in AgExpert, you should be up to date. However, it’s always recommended to go over each account to ensure you have accurate quantities and values.

6. Check your payroll 

Are you up to date with your CRA payroll remittance? Review Payroll records and ensure all your reports are accurate and showing according to your remittance frequency. 

7. Process your final GST return

You will need to make sure you process a final GST return to record accurate net GST to be reported to CRA.

8. Look at your Capital Assets list 

Take a quick look at your capital asset list and add any missing, new or existing possessions at their original cost. You can also run the CCA report, which provides an understanding on the portion of the capital assets costs that you’re allowed to expense for the year.   

• Get more detail on each step of your year-end in AgExpert Accounting.