Year-end books review & CPA handoff.
A year-end books review gets your QuickBooks file genuinely close-ready: every account reconciled, the chart of accounts and categorizations reviewed, adjusting and accrual entries booked, financial statements finalized, and 1099s prepared — then a clean handoff package assembled for your CPA or EA. To be plain about the boundary: we get the books year-end-ready and hand a clean package to your tax preparer; we do not prepare or file your income-tax return. That is the CPA’s work, and we coordinate directly with them.
What you can check before you sign
- Fixed fee, written first
- Your own QuickBooks file
- No hourly billing
If your file needs our paid diagnostic first, its fee is credited in full against the cleanup. Either way, you get a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.
A year-end books review is the annual close that makes your books tax-ready: every bank, card and loan account reconciled to its statement, categorizations reviewed, adjusting and accrual entries booked, statements finalized and 1099s prepared, then a clean handoff package for your CPA or EA. One fixed fee, scoped in writing; we do not prepare or file the return.
They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.
What stood out the most was TechBrot Inc’s attention to detail.
What a year-end books review covers.
Every account, not just the visible ones — reconciled, reviewed, adjusted, and finalized so the file is genuinely tax-ready before it reaches your CPA.
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.
How we close your year and prep the CPA package.
Six steps, in order. The close moves account by account, then finalizes the statements and assembles the handoff package — ending where your CPA picks up the return.
- 1
Scope the year and pull the statements
We start with a free file review to see where the books stand, then gather the year-end statements for every bank, credit-card, and loan account and confirm the scope in writing before any work begins. You know what the close covers and what it costs first.
- 2
Reconcile every account to its statement
Each account is reconciled to its year-end statement so the books tie to the bank. Where reconciliation has lapsed during the year, we catch it up — this is the foundation; nothing downstream is trustworthy until every account ties.
- 3
Review the chart of accounts and a year of categorizations
We review the chart of accounts for structure and correctness, then check a full year of categorizations for misclassifications, duplicates, and miscoded transactions — correcting them so the financials reflect what actually happened in the business.
- 4
Book the adjusting and accrual entries
We book the year-end entries a clean set of books needs — depreciation, prepaids, accrued liabilities, and owner contributions or distributions — so the statements are accurate on an accrual basis where that’s how your books are kept, and so nothing the return depends on is missing.
- 5
Finalize statements, prepare 1099s, assemble the package
With accounts reconciled and entries booked, we finalize the financial statements, prepare 1099s for eligible vendors, and assemble the handoff package — reconciled books, financials, a fixed-asset schedule, and confirmed loan balances — in the form your CPA expects.
- 6
Hand off to your CPA and coordinate
We deliver the clean package to your CPA or EA and coordinate directly with them through filing — answering questions about the books and reconciling any adjustments back into the file. Here the boundary holds: preparing and filing the income-tax return is the CPA’s work, not ours.
Who needs a year-end review.
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.
A QuickBooks ProAdvisor closes the year; your CPA files the return.
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 QuickBooks ProAdvisor holding the Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2 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.
What people ask about a year-end books review.
Do you prepare or file my income-tax return?
No. TechBrot is a bookkeeping and advisory firm — not a CPA or tax-preparation firm. A year-end books review gets your books reconciled, adjusted, and assembled into a clean handoff package, but preparing and filing the income-tax return is your CPA’s or EA’s work. We coordinate directly with your tax preparer so the bookkeeping and the return line up, and if you don’t have one yet, we can point you toward finding one.
What’s the difference between a books review and a tax return?
A year-end books review is bookkeeping: reconciling every account, correcting a year of categorizations, booking adjusting and accrual entries, finalizing the financial statements, preparing 1099s, and assembling a package your CPA can file from. The income-tax return is a separate, tax-preparation step your CPA or EA performs — using the reconciled books and financials we hand them. One produces the trustworthy numbers; the other reports them to the IRS. We do the first; your CPA does the second.
How is a year-end review different from a month-end close?
A month-end close keeps the books current month to month — reconcile, categorize, and review the period’s statements. A year-end review is the annual close: it covers the full year and every account, adds the adjusting and accrual entries a clean set of books needs at year-end, finalizes the financial statements, prepares 1099s, and assembles the CPA handoff package. Year-end builds on a year of monthly closes — or catches up the ones that were missed.
What’s included in the CPA handoff package?
A tax-ready set your preparer can work from without redoing the bookkeeping: reconciled books with every account tied to its year-end statement; finalized financial statements (profit & loss and balance sheet); a fixed-asset schedule; confirmed loan balances; and prepared 1099s for eligible vendors. The goal is that your CPA opens a file they can trust rather than one they send back for cleanup first.
Will you work with my existing CPA or EA?
Yes — that’s the design of the service. We get the books year-end-ready and coordinate directly with your CPA or EA, delivering a clean package and answering their questions through filing. The bookkeeping is ours; the return is theirs. If you don’t have a tax preparer yet, we can point you toward finding one, but we don’t prepare or file the return ourselves.
Can you fix a year of messy books before filing?
Yes. When the year isn’t reconciled, categorizations are off, or year-end entries were never booked, the review reconciles and corrects the whole year and assembles the CPA package. If the books are far behind, that becomes a cleanup — $1,200–$15,000+ depending on how far behind — and we scope it in writing after a free file review before any work begins.
Do you prepare 1099s?
Yes — identifying eligible vendors and preparing 1099s is part of getting the books year-end-ready, so it’s handled alongside the close rather than scrambled separately. We prepare them as part of the review; filing deadlines and any coordination with the income-tax return stay aligned with your CPA or EA.
What does a year-end books review cost?
We start with a free file review to see where the books stand, then scope the year-end review as a fixed fee in writing before any work begins — so you know what it covers and what it costs first. If the books are significantly behind and need a full catch-up, that’s a bookkeeping cleanup ($1,200–$15,000+ depending on how far behind). Independent firm; written scope. To scope your year-end close before filing season, call a ProAdvisor at (877) 751-5575.
Get the books year-end-ready before they reach your CPA.
Tell us where the books stand. We’ll tell you which engagement fits, if any.
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