Final reconciliations
Every bank and credit-card account reconciled through the last day of the fiscal year, so the closing balances tie to statements before anything is locked. The step everything else depends on.
QuickBooks®
QuickBooks year-end close and 1099 prep
Close the books for the year — clean, locked, and ready for your CPA.
Year-end is where open books come due. We run the operational close inside your own QuickBooks file: final reconciliations, adjusting entries booked per your CPA’s guidance, Undeposited Funds and Opening Balance Equity cleared, 1099s prepared for your contractors, and the closing date set so the prior year can’t drift. You hand off a CPA-ready file for filing.
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.
§ 01 · TL;DR
§ TL;DR
The QuickBooks year-end close is the operational work of finalizing the books for a completed year .
final bank and credit-card reconciliations, adjusting entries (depreciation, accruals, prepaids) reviewed and posted per your CPA’s guidance, cleanup of stuck accounts like Undeposited Funds and Opening Balance Equity, 1099 preparation for contractors, and setting the closing date in QuickBooks to lock the prior period. The output is a clean, reconciled, CPA-ready file. This is the operational close, not the advisory review — and not tax filing: TechBrot close the books and prepare the file; your CPA or EA sets tax positions and files 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.
Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2 and QuickBooks Workforce Certification,
§ 02 · What’s included
What the year-end close actually covers.
Six workstreams that take an open file to a clean, locked, CPA-ready year — 1099 prep folded in.
Adjusting entries, per your CPA
Depreciation, accruals, and prepaids reviewed and posted — booked per your CPA’s year-end guidance, or handed off for them to finalize. We record the entries; your CPA owns the tax treatment.
Undeposited Funds & OBE cleanup
We clear the two accounts that quietly break a year-end file: Undeposited Funds left holding phantom payments, and Opening Balance Equity that should have netted to zero. Both reconciled to reality before the close.
1099 preparation
Contractor payments mapped, W-9s and TINs verified, totals reconciled, and 1099-NEC/1099-MISC information returns prepared and filed where scoped — as a bookkeeping service, with tax determinations deferred to your CPA.
Set the closing date & lock
Once the year ties out, we set the closing date in QuickBooks and apply a password so the prior period is locked — no accidental edits to filed numbers, a clean audit trail going forward.
CPA-ready handoff
A reconciled trial balance, year-end financial statements, and a documented adjustments list packaged for your CPA or EA — so tax season is a filing exercise, not a reconstruction.
§ 03 · When the year-end close earns its keep
Signs your year-end close is at risk.
Most owners reach for a real year-end close when “we’ll sort it out at tax time” stops being a plan.
The books were never closed.
Left open all year, the file drifts — prior months keep changing. A year-end close reconciles, adjusts, and locks the period so the numbers stop moving.
Your CPA wants a clean file.
If your tax preparer keeps sending back “please fix and resend,” the file isn’t close-ready. We hand off a reconciled, CPA-ready file so they can file, not rebuild.
1099 deadline is bearing down.
Contractor totals, W-9s, and TINs all have to be right before the late-January filing window. We fold 1099 prep into the close so it’s done once, correctly.
Undeposited Funds won’t clear.
If Undeposited Funds or Opening Balance Equity are carrying balances that make no sense, the year won’t close cleanly. That cleanup is part of this engagement.
No one set a closing date.
Without a locked closing date, anyone can edit filed numbers and quietly break last year’s tax return. Setting and password-protecting it is the final step of a real close.
You DIY the year but want a backstop.
Working the free year-end checklist yourself and want a ProAdvisor to finish, verify, and lock it? That’s exactly what this engagement does.
§ 04 · How it runs
The year-end close, step by step.
A defined sequence from discovery to a locked period and a CPA-ready handoff — scoped to a fixed fee before any work starts.
- Step 1
Discovery & scope
A 30-minute discovery call: we look at the file’s state, your contractor count, your CPA’s requirements, and the deadlines. You get a written fixed-fee scope before any work starts.
- Step 2
Final reconciliations
Every bank and credit-card account reconciled through year-end so closing balances tie to statements. Variances investigated and cleared before adjustments.
- Step 3
Adjustments & cleanup
Depreciation, accruals, and prepaids posted per your CPA’s guidance;
Undeposited FundsandOpening Balance Equitycleared; the balance sheet reviewed against expectations. - Step 4
1099 prep & statements
1099-NEC/1099-MISC information returns prepared and filed where scoped; year-end financial statements and a reconciled trial balance produced for the handoff.
- Step 5
Lock & hand off
We set and password-protect the
closing dateto lock the prior period, then deliver the CPA-ready package to you and your CPA for tax filing.
§ 05 · Where this engagement sits
The close, and the pages next to it.
Year-end has a few adjacent pieces. Here’s exactly what this page does — and where the others pick up.
| Engagement | Where it lives | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks year-end close | This page | The operational close — final reconciliations, adjusting entries, Undeposited Funds / OBE cleanup, 1099 prep, set the closing date, CPA-ready handoff. |
| Year-end review | /accounting/year-end-review/ | The advisory check that asks “are the books ready?” and coordinates the CPA handoff — the analysis, not the hands-on close. |
| Payroll year-end | /quickbooks/payroll/year-end/ | W-2s and 1099-from-payroll forms generated from QuickBooks Payroll. Contractor 1099-NEC folds into this close; payroll forms live there. |
| Month-end close | /accounting/month-end-close/ | The recurring monthly close. Year-end is the annual close built on twelve clean monthly ones — if the months close, December is short. |
| Year-end checklist | /resources/checklists/year-end-checklist/ | The free DIY checklist — the self-serve companion for owners closing the year themselves. |
§ 06 · Where the close stops
We close the books. Your CPA files the taxes.
The year-end close is bookkeeping and management accounting: reconciliations, adjusting entries, account cleanup, 1099 information returns, and a locked, CPA-ready file. It is not tax preparation. We book adjustments per their year-end guidance, or hand off a clean file for them to finalize, and we coordinate the handoff so nothing falls through the cracks. Keeping that line bright is what keeps the work accurate.
The 1099 piece sits inside the bookkeeping lane: where scoped, we prepare and file the 1099-NEC/1099-MISC information returns for your contractors as a bookkeeping service — verifying W-9s, TINs, and payment totals; 1099s are information returns, not income-tax returns, and TechBrot does not file income-tax returns — while any tax determination (worker classification calls, deductibility) is deferred to your CPA. Payroll W-2 and 1099-from-payroll forms are generated from QuickBooks Payroll and handled on that page; contractor 1099-NEC is the part that folds into this close.
§ 07 · The annual close, built on the monthly one
Twelve clean months make a short December.
A year-end close is far smaller when the books were closed every month along the way. The annual close is built on the monthly close — if each period was reconciled and locked as it ended, December is a final reconciliation, a handful of year-end adjustments, 1099s, and the closing-date lock, not a year-long reconstruction. Where the books were never closed, the first move is catching the periods up and reconciling them before the annual lock; we scope that together on the discovery call.
If you’d rather work it yourself, the free year-end checklist is the self-serve companion to this engagement. And when the question is “are the books even ready to close?”, that diagnosis is the year-end review — clients can run the review first and bring the close in to fix and lock what it flags.
This page reflects how TechBrot runs the QuickBooks year-end close.
§ 09 · Questions
Year-end close questions.
What does the QuickBooks year-end close include?
The operational close of the books for the fiscal or calendar year inside your own QuickBooks file: final bank and credit-card reconciliations through year-end; review and posting of adjusting entries (depreciation, accruals, prepaids) per your CPA’s guidance; cleanup of stuck accounts like Undeposited Funds and Opening Balance Equity; 1099 preparation for contractors; setting and password-protecting the closing date to lock the prior period; and a CPA-ready handoff package of reconciled statements and a documented adjustments list.
Do you file my income taxes as part of the close?
No. TechBrot closes the books and prepares a CPA-ready file — we do not file income taxes, set tax positions, or represent you before the IRS. We book adjustments per your CPA or EA’s guidance and hand off a clean, reconciled file for them to finalize and file. The close is bookkeeping and management accounting; the tax return is your licensed tax professional’s lane, and keeping that boundary clear is what keeps the work accurate.
Are 1099s included in the year-end close?
Yes. Contractor 1099 preparation folds into the year-end close: we map contractor payments, verify W-9s and TINs, reconcile totals, and prepare and file the 1099-NEC/1099-MISC information returns where scoped — as a bookkeeping service, with any tax determination deferred to your CPA. Note that W-2s and 1099-from-payroll forms generated from QuickBooks Payroll are handled on the payroll year-end page; contractor 1099-NEC is the piece that lives in this close.
How is this different from the year-end review?
The year-end review is the advisory engagement that asks “are the books ready?” — it analyzes the file, flags what’s missing, and coordinates the CPA handoff. This page is the operational close: the hands-on work that reconciles, adjusts, cleans up, prepares 1099s, and locks the period. The review is the diagnosis; the close is the treatment. Clients can do both — the review identifies the gaps, the close fixes and locks them.
What does setting the closing date in QuickBooks do?
Setting a closing date in QuickBooks (and applying a closing-date password) locks the prior period so transactions on or before that date can’t be added, edited, or deleted without the password and an audit-trail flag. It’s the step that protects last year’s filed numbers from accidental changes and keeps the file in agreement with the tax return. We set it only after the year ties out and your CPA has what they need — it’s the final action of a real close.
Why do Undeposited Funds and Opening Balance Equity matter at year-end?
These are the two accounts that most often quietly break a year-end file. Undeposited Funds holds payments recorded but never grouped into a deposit, so it carries phantom balances that overstate assets. Opening Balance Equity is a setup placeholder that should net to zero once everything is reconciled — a lingering balance signals an unreconciled opening balance or a miscategorized entry. Clearing both is part of the year-end close — and core to a standalone QuickBooks cleanup when a file is broadly behind — because a file with stuck balances in either account isn’t actually closed.
What does the year-end close cost?
Year-end close is project and seasonal work, scoped to a fixed fee after a discovery call rather than a flat published rate. The price depends on transaction volume, number of accounts, how many contractors need 1099s, and how far the file is from clean — a file kept current all year closes far faster than one that was never reconciled. See pricing for how engagements are structured; you get a written fixed-fee scope before any work begins. To scope yours against the deadlines, speak with an advisor at (877) 751-5575.
My books are months behind. Can you still close the year?
Yes, but the year-end close assumes a substantially reconciled file. If the books are months behind, the first step is catching the periods up and reconciling them before the annual close can lock the year. We’ll assess the gap on the discovery call and scope the catch-up and close together, so you get a realistic timeline against the 1099 and filing deadlines rather than a rushed, incomplete close.