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The year-end accounting checklist.
A free, ordered checklist that gets your books year-end-ready: reconcile every account through December 31, review how the year was categorized, book depreciation and accruals, confirm payroll and W-2s, prepare 1099s by January 31, finalize the financials, then assemble a clean handoff package for your CPA. One honest caveat up front — we get the books ready; your CPA files the income-tax return. Independent firm, not affiliated with Intuit Inc.
A year-end accounting checklist is the ordered set of close tasks that makes your books accurate and final for the year before they go to your CPA: reconcile every bank, credit-card, and loan account through December 31; review how transactions were categorized; book year-end adjustments (depreciation, accruals, prepaids, and corrections); confirm payroll and W-2s; prepare and file 1099s by January 31; finalize the profit-and-loss and balance sheet; and assemble a clean handoff package. The point is books that tie out — so your CPA can file from them efficiently instead of billing hourly to fix the bookkeeping first. Important: we get the books year-end-ready; your CPA files your income-tax return — we do not.
Reference maintained by the Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor team at TechBrot Inc., an independent firm — not Intuit, and not a tax-filing service. We prepare the books; your CPA files the return. Not affiliated with Intuit Inc.
Year-end, in five questions.
What is a year-end accounting checklist?
An ordered set of close tasks that gets your books accurate and final for the year before they go to your CPA: reconcile every account through December 31, review how transactions were categorized, book year-end adjustments (depreciation, accruals, and corrections), confirm payroll and W-2s, prepare 1099s, finalize the financial statements, then assemble a clean handoff package. The goal is books that tie out and a CPA who can file from them without re-doing the bookkeeping.
Does a year-end checklist mean you file my taxes?
No. We get the books year-end-ready — reconciled, adjusted, and finalized — and hand a clean package to your CPA or tax preparer. Your CPA files your income-tax return; we do not. What this checklist prevents is the far more expensive problem: a CPA billing hourly to clean up messy books before they can file. 1099s (a payer filing, due January 31) are a separate task this checklist does cover.
What does a business need to do at year-end?
Reconcile all bank, credit-card, and loan accounts through December 31; review the chart of accounts and how transactions were categorized; record year-end adjustments (depreciation, accruals, prepaids, and corrections); confirm payroll is complete and W-2s are ready; prepare and file 1099-NEC forms by January 31; finalize the profit-and-loss and balance sheet; and assemble the documentation your CPA needs to prepare the return.
When are year-end accounting tasks due?
Reconciliations and adjustments should be finished as soon as the year closes so the books are final before the CPA starts. The hard external deadline most owners hit first is January 31 — the date W-2s go to employees and 1099-NEC forms go to contractors and the IRS. The income-tax return deadlines that follow are your CPA’s to manage; clean books just make them painless.
Can a ProAdvisor firm get my books ready for my CPA?
Yes — that is exactly the operational work an independent Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor firm does. We run the close, reconcile and adjust the books, prepare 1099s, finalize the statements, and deliver a tidy handoff package so your CPA can file efficiently. We are not Intuit and we do not file your income-tax return; that stays with your CPA or tax preparer.
What “year-end” really means for the books.
Year-end is the point where a running set of books has to become a final set of books. Through the year, bookkeeping keeps the day-to-day current; at year-end you reconcile every account to its December statement, review how the whole year was categorized, and add the accrual-side entries the daily work doesn’t capture — depreciation, accruals, prepaids, and corrections. Then you confirm payroll and W-2s, prepare 1099s, and finalize the financial statements so the numbers actually tie out.
Here’s the honest line that this whole checklist sits behind: getting the books year-end-ready is not the same as filing your taxes. We — an independent ProAdvisor firm — finalize the books and hand a clean package to your CPA or tax preparer, who files your income-tax return. We don’t file it. What a good year-end close prevents is the expensive version of January: a CPA billing hourly to clean up messy bookkeeping before they can even start the return. Clean books make that bill small. The one piece that is a filing on this list — the 1099-NEC — is a payer filing due January 31, separate from your income-tax return, and the checklist covers it.
What year-end requires.
Six things have to be true for the books to be year-end-ready. The numbered checklist below works through them in order.
Requirement 01 · Every account reconciled through December 31
Year-end starts with reconciliation: every bank, credit-card, and loan account matched to its December statement so the ending balances in QuickBooks equal the real-world balances. Books that don’t reconcile can’t be finalized — and a CPA can’t file from numbers that don’t tie to the bank.
Requirement 02 · Categorizations reviewed and corrected
A year of transactions has to be reviewed for how it was categorized — miscoded expenses, transfers booked as income, owner draws mixed with business spending, and anything parked in “Ask My Accountant.” Categories drive the financials and the tax return, so this review is where accuracy is won or lost.
Requirement 03 · Year-end adjustments booked
The accrual-side entries that the daily bookkeeping doesn’t capture: depreciation on fixed assets, accrued expenses and revenue, prepaid expenses, loan-interest splits, and any correcting journal entries. These adjustments turn a running ledger into a true year-end picture.
Requirement 04 · Payroll and W-2s confirmed
Payroll for the year must be complete and reconciled — wages, taxes, and benefits agreeing between the payroll system and the books — so that W-2s are accurate before they go to employees. Payroll errors caught in January are far cheaper than ones discovered after filing.
Requirement 05 · 1099s prepared for the January 31 deadline
Contractor payments have to be totaled, W-9s confirmed, and 1099-NEC forms prepared and filed by January 31. This is a payer filing — separate from your income-tax return — and missing the deadline carries per-form penalties, so it sits early on the checklist.
Requirement 06 · Financials finalized and the CPA package assembled
Once everything ties, the profit-and-loss and balance sheet are finalized and the supporting documentation is gathered into a clean handoff package. That package is what lets your CPA file the return efficiently — without billing hourly to redo the bookkeeping first.
The year-end checklist, in order.
Seven steps. Work them top to bottom — each depends on the one before. The hard external deadline most owners hit first is January 31, for W-2s and 1099s.
Reconcile every account through December 31
Match each bank, credit-card, and loan account to its December statement so the QuickBooks ending balance equals the statement balance. Resolve any uncleared or stale transactions. Nothing else on the list is final until the accounts reconcile, so this is step one.
Review and correct categorizations
Go through the year’s transactions for miscategorized expenses, transfers booked as income, personal spending mixed in, and anything left in “Ask My Accountant” or uncategorized. Fix the coding so the financials and the eventual tax return reflect reality.
Book depreciation, accruals, and adjustments
Record the year-end journal entries the daily bookkeeping misses: depreciation on fixed assets, accrued and prepaid expenses, accrued revenue, loan-interest splits, and any correcting entries. Coordinate depreciation method and amounts with your CPA where needed.
Confirm payroll and W-2s
Verify that payroll for the year is complete and that wages, taxes, and benefits agree between the payroll system and the books. Confirm employee details so W-2s are accurate before they go out by the January 31 deadline.
Prepare and file 1099s by January 31
Total payments to contractors, confirm a valid W-9 for each, and prepare and file 1099-NEC forms by January 31 — to the recipients and the IRS. This is a payer filing, separate from your income-tax return, and the deadline is firm.
Finalize the financial statements
With everything reconciled and adjusted, finalize the year-end profit-and-loss and balance sheet, then review them for anything that still looks off — negative balances, accounts that shouldn’t carry a balance, or swings that need explaining. Lock the period once it ties.
Assemble the CPA handoff package
Gather the finalized statements, reconciliations, adjusting entries, payroll and 1099 summaries, and supporting documentation into one clean package for your CPA or tax preparer. They file the income-tax return from it — we don’t file it — and a tidy package keeps their fee down.
When to get help before year-end.
The books don’t reconcile or are months behind
If accounts won’t tie to the bank, or bookkeeping is weeks or months behind heading into year-end, the checklist can’t simply be worked through — the books need a catch-up and cleanup first. That’s a scoped project, not a year-end pass, and it’s far cheaper to fix before the CPA is waiting.
Your CPA keeps sending the books back
If your CPA bills hourly to fix the bookkeeping every year before they can file — or returns the file with questions — the close isn’t producing CPA-ready books. Getting an independent ProAdvisor firm to run the year-end close turns that recurring hourly cleanup into a clean handoff.
Payroll, 1099s, or adjustments feel out of reach
If confirming payroll and W-2s, preparing 1099s by January 31, or booking depreciation and accruals is beyond what you want to handle in-house, that’s the right moment to bring in help — before the January 31 deadline forces a rush and before errors reach the return.
Want the close handled instead of run yourself?
A Certified ProAdvisor firm runs the whole year-end checklist and hands your CPA a clean package — reconciled, adjusted, 1099s prepared, financials finalized. Free file review first; cleanup runs $1,500–$15,000+ if the books are behind. We get the books ready; your CPA files the return. Independent firm.
A Certified ProAdvisor gets the books CPA-ready — your CPA files.
Running a year-end close well is operational accounting work: reconciling every account to December, reviewing a year of categorizations, booking depreciation and accruals, confirming payroll and W-2s, preparing 1099s for the January 31 deadline, and finalizing financials that tie out. A Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor with active Online and Desktop certifications does that against a written scope and assembles a clean handoff package. The line we hold honestly: we prepare the books; your CPA or tax preparer files the income-tax return — we don’t. Independent firm, not Intuit, not affiliated with Intuit Inc.
Free
checklist here, and a free file review before we scope any work
Books-ready
we finalize the books for your CPA — your CPA files the return
Independent
Certified ProAdvisor firm — not Intuit, not your tax preparer
What people ask about year-end.
Do you file my income-tax return as part of the year-end checklist?
Is this checklist really free?
What accounts do I reconcile at year-end?
When are 1099s and W-2s due?
What are year-end adjusting entries?
My bookkeeping is behind — can I still do year-end?
Can you get my books ready for my CPA?
Do I still need a CPA if you do my year-end books?
Want the close handled, not just the checklist?
Hand the year-end close to a Certified ProAdvisor firm.
If you’d rather not run the close in-house — or the books are behind and won’t reconcile — an independent ProAdvisor firm runs the whole checklist for you and delivers a CPA-ready handoff package. Start with the free file review; if the books need catch-up first, a cleanup runs $1,500–$15,000+ depending on how far behind, always quoted as a written scope. We get the books ready; your CPA files the return.