Year-end books review & CPA handoff.

A year-end books review is the annual close of your accounting records — the work that turns a working file into a finished one your CPA or EA can file from. It covers every account, not just the ones you watch month to month: each bank, credit-card, and loan account reconciled to its year-end statement; the chart of accounts reviewed so categories are correct and consistent; a full year of categorizations checked for the errors that quietly accumulate; and the adjusting and accrual entries that a clean set of books needs at year-end — depreciation, prepaid expenses, accrued liabilities, and owner contributions or distributions booked properly.

From there we finalize the financial statements, prepare 1099s for eligible vendors, and assemble the handoff package — reconciled books, the finalized financials, a fixed-asset schedule, and confirmed loan balances — in the form a tax preparer expects. Here is the boundary, stated plainly: we get the books year-end-ready and hand that clean package to your CPA. We do not prepare or file your income-tax return; that is the CPA’s or EA’s job, and we coordinate with them so the bookkeeping and the return line up. This is the annual close — distinct from a recurring month-end close, which keeps the books current month to month.

Covers 01 · Reconcile every account

Each bank, credit-card, and loan account reconciled to its year-end statement so the books tie to reality — not just the accounts you watch month to month, but every one that touches the return. Reconciliation is the foundation everything else in the close rests on.

Covers 02 · Review the chart of accounts and categorizations

The chart of accounts reviewed so categories are correct, consistent, and mapped sensibly — then a full year of transaction categorizations checked for the misclassifications that quietly accumulate and distort the financials. Wrong categories at year-end become wrong numbers on the return.

Covers 03 · Book adjusting and accrual entries

The year-end entries a clean set of books needs: depreciation, prepaid expenses amortized to the right periods, accrued liabilities recognized, and owner contributions or distributions booked properly. These are the entries that move books from cash-drawer accurate to statement-accurate.

Covers 04 · Finalize the financial statements

With accounts reconciled and entries booked, the financial statements — profit & loss and balance sheet — are finalized for the year. These are the statements your CPA reads from and the basis for the numbers that flow onto the return.

Covers 05 · Prepare 1099s

Eligible vendors identified and 1099s prepared so the year’s reporting obligations are handled alongside the close, not scrambled separately. We prepare them as part of getting the books year-end-ready; filing deadlines and any return filing stay coordinated with your preparer.

Covers 06 · Assemble the CPA handoff package

Everything assembled into a clean package a tax preparer can file from: reconciled books, the finalized financial statements, a fixed-asset schedule, and confirmed loan balances. A file your CPA can trust on opening — not one they send back for cleanup before they can start.

Your books aren’t reconciled or adjusted

Accounts haven’t been tied to statements all year, categorizations are uncertain, or the year-end entries — depreciation, accruals, owner items — were never booked. Heading into filing season like that, a year-end review gets the file genuinely tax-ready before it reaches your CPA.

Your CPA keeps sending the file back

Your tax preparer returns the books for cleanup before they can start, or bills extra to fix the bookkeeping themselves. A year-end books review hands them a file they can file from on opening — reconciled, adjusted, and packaged the way they expect.

You fell behind on monthly closes

The month-end closes slipped during a busy year and now the books need a full annual catch-up before filing. A year-end review reconciles and corrects the whole year at once and assembles the CPA package — turning a backlog into a clean handoff.

Closing a year well is bookkeeping discipline, not tax filing. The work that makes a return defensible is everything that comes before it: reconciling every account to its statement, correcting a year of categorizations, booking the adjusting and accrual entries a clean set of books needs, finalizing the financial statements, preparing 1099s, and assembling a handoff package a CPA can file from without redoing the bookkeeping. A Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor with active Online and Desktop certifications does that against a written scope and coordinates directly with your CPA or EA. Independent firm — not Intuit, and not a tax-preparation firm; the income-tax return itself stays with your CPA.

Month-end close

The monthly version of this discipline — reconcile, categorize, and review the period each month so the year-end close is a finish line, not a rescue. The recurring close that keeps the books current between annual reviews.

Financial statements

The finalized profit & loss and balance sheet a year-end review produces — what they are, how they’re built, and how a Certified ProAdvisor makes them statements your CPA and your lender can rely on.

QuickBooks payroll year-end

The payroll side of closing the year in QuickBooks — W-2s, payroll tax forms, and the year-end payroll steps that run alongside the books review so the whole year-end ties out together.

QuickBooks year-end close

The same annual close from the QuickBooks side — final reconciliations, adjusting entries, and 1099 prep done inside QuickBooks to hand your CPA a clean, file-from-it file.