Your Ultimate Bookkeeping Checklist: Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Year End

In business, staying on top of your finances is central to your success. However, 60% of small business owners feel they lack accounting knowledge, often leading to inaccurate records, missed deadlines, and unnecessary stress.

A well-crafted bookkeeping checklist simplifies this process by offering a structured approach to everyday financial tasks.

This article will show how a detailed checklist can simplify bookkeeping, solve common financial problems, and promote business growth.

TL;DR - Bookkeeping Checklist

If you’re short on time, we’ve prepared a summary of the ultimate bookkeeping checklist for your business:

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Our tool is simple to use, so you don’t need in-depth accounting knowledge. What’s more, Link My Books simplifies your payouts by breaking down everything from sales to taxes, providing a clearer view of your profitability and ROI.   

That way, you can focus on scaling your business while keeping your finances in order. Sign up for a free 30-day trial with Link My Books and transform how you handle your finances. 

What is a Bookkeeping Checklist?

A bookkeeping checklist is a tool you can use to ensure that necessary accounting tasks are completed accurately. 

These checklists typically outline daily, weekly, monthly, and year-end tasks in managing financial records.

Importance of Having a Checklist for Bookkeepers

With numerous financial tasks, a bookkeeping checklist will help you stay organized and ensure nothing gets overlooked. 

Here are other reasons why a checklist may be essential:

• Ensures accuracy: Following a checklist reduces the likelihood of bookkeeping errors, leading to more accurate financial records.
• Maintains consistency: Regularly following a bookkeeping checklist ensures that each task is done the same way every time.
• Prioritizes workload: Checklists help bookkeepers focus on the critical tasks first, ensuring that deadlines are met.
• Supports compliance: Bookkeepers can ensure that all financial regulations and requirements are met by following a checklist.

Ultimate Bookkeeping Checklist

Whether you’re a seasoned business owner or an up-and-coming entrepreneur, maintaining a bookkeeping checklist can make or break your venture. 

This checklist covers everything from the simplest daily transactions to the most complex year-end reports.

Daily Bookkeeping Checklist

Effectively managing your finances begins with a few daily tasks. This checklist provides the steps to keep your books accurate and run your business smoothly:

• Determine your available cash: Start your day by checking your bank balances and petty cash to ensure you have enough liquidity to cover daily operations and unforeseen expenses.

By closely monitoring your cash reserves, you can grow your cash flow more effectively and avoid pitfalls.

• Track daily expenses and income: Make it a habit to record all sales, payments received, bills, and other outflows for the day.

Monitoring these daily transactions gives you a clearer picture of your business’s financial situation, helping you spot trends and manage budgets.

• Record bank transactions: Ensure that every transaction processed through your business account is recorded accurately. These transactions include deposits, withdrawals, and transfers.
• Categorize your transactions: Properly categorizing your transactions makes a huge difference in financial reporting. 

These categories may include sales, payroll, marketing, and more. By doing so, you can make tax time less stressful and learn more about how your money is being spent.

• Monitor upcoming deadlines: Remember your financial deadlines, such as invoice due dates, loan payments, or tax filings.

Regularly reviewing them ensures you stay on top of your obligations, avoid late fines, and maintain good relationships with vendors, creditors, and tax authorities.

Weekly Bookkeeping Checklist

Besides accomplishing your daily bookkeeping tasks, you must tick these boxes in your weekly checklist:

• Inventory review: About 43% of small business owners do not review their inventory, resulting in potential discrepancies between physical stock and recorded inventory.

An inventory review will involve checking stock counts, identifying slow-moving items, and ensuring what’s recorded in your inventory matches what’s on your books. 

• Accounts payable: Review and manage your accounts payable to stay on top of what your business owes.

This task includes verifying bills from vendors and ensuring their accuracy. Other accounts payable forms involve paying for digital services, like hosting or software subscriptions.

• Accounts receivable: Ensure all customer payments, especially large orders, have been received.

Monitoring your accounts receivable will also include tracking payment gateways to ensure transactions are processed correctly and following up on any late payments or chargebacks.

• Process payroll: Verify the number of hours employees or freelancers worked, manage any contractor payments, and handle any deductions. Also, consider payments to remote workers or service providers in different locations.

Monthly Bookkeeping Checklist

In addition to your weekly bookkeeping tasks, ensure that you cover these monthly essentials:

• Process tax obligations: Review and process your tax obligations at the end of each month. This step includes setting aside the correct amount for income tax, sales tax, and any other relevant taxes your business may owe.
• Prepare financial statements: At the end of each month, generate financial statements such as your P&L statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. 

These reports offer a financial glimpse into your business and help you track your performance over time.

• Month-end close: The month-end close process is vital for maintaining clean and accurate records and ensuring the reliability of your financial reports. 

This process typically involves reconciling your bank accounts, reviewing all entries for accuracy, and closing out the books for the month.

• Update your bookkeeping software: With 75% of bookkeeping tasks automated by bookkeeping software, it’s crucial to keep your tools up to date.

Updating your software ensures that you gain access to the latest features, security updates, and other enhancements. Neglecting these updates can sometimes lead to compatibility or security issues. 

Year-End Bookkeeping Checklist

Wrapping up your bookkeeping tasks for the year ensures that your records are accurate and ready for the new year. 

Here’s a checklist to guide you through this process:

• Prepare tax documents: Taxes can be complex, so gather all necessary documents, invoices, and financial statements to ensure a smooth and accurate tax filing.
• Finish inventory inspection: Conduct a thorough inventory inspection to ensure there are no discrepancies.

Discrepancies in inventory will affect how you calculate your cost of goods sold (COGS). Take this as an opportunity to identify slow-moving or obsolete stock items you may need to write off.

• Reconcile all accounts: Ensure that your bank, credit card, and loan accounts are reconciled by the end of the year. Compare your financial records with your bank statements to verify that everything is accurate and properly recorded.
• Review next year’s plans: Like setting a personal New Year’s Resolution, you must set financial goals for the following year. This includes setting a budget, forecasting revenues, and planning significant investments or operations.

Best Practices to Maintain the Checklist Above

Think of your checklist as a guide to keeping your finances on track. 

These strategies help you stay organized and efficient, which allows you to grow your business:

1. Keep it updated: Regularly review and update your checklist to reflect changes in your business processes or financial regulations. This will ensure that your checklist remains relevant and effective.
2. Prioritize tasks: Organize your checklist according to their urgency. That way, you can focus on the most critical items first.
3. Stay flexible: As your business scales, a checklist that has worked previously may not be effective today. Being open to change helps you adapt to challenges and seize new opportunities.
4. Break down tasks: Some tasks may seem overwhelming when accomplished independently, but breaking these big tasks into smaller ones makes it easier to stay organized.
5. Use digital accounting tools: If you haven’t been doing so, using a bookkeeping tool or a digital checklist app can make this much easier. These tools sometimes allow you to automate reminders, helping you complete your bookkeeping tasks on time.

Link My Books is a robust accounting solution that automates many of these tasks. It automatically applies correct information, such as tax rates specific to each country.

Our tool also ensures you don’t overpay VAT and tracks the cost of goods sold (COGS) accurately, all of which provide a clearer picture of your finances.

Connect with our team at Link My Books to learn how we can help you achieve accurate, hassle-free bookkeeping.

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Our tool does all the heavy lifting by automating the bookkeeping process, including applying correct tax rates. It’s also a huge time-saver, cutting down your bookkeeping activities to just 6 hours per month!

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

In this section, we’ll address common questions about managing your financial records through bookkeeping.

What Are the Basic Requirements for Bookkeeping?

Basic requirements for bookkeeping include accurate record-keeping, organized documentation, regular reconciliation, and compliance with financial regulations.

How Often Should the Bookkeeping Checklist Be Updated?

Ultimately, the frequency with which the checklist should be revised depends on your business size. As a starting point, you can update the checklist annually.

However, you must also be flexible and update your checklist should any business or regulatory changes arise.

What Should Be Included in Bookkeeping?

Typical bookkeeping services cover a wide range of financial tasks, including:

• Sending invoices
• Cash flow management
• Preparing financial statements
• Tax preparation and compliance
• Recording and categorizing transactions
• Managing accounts payable and receivable.

Conclusion

Every business needs a bookkeeping checklist to organize financial records and ensure smooth operations. Completing these tasks throughout the year can help keep your business on the right path.

Link My Books can assist you in automating your bookkeeping process. Our tool integrates seamlessly with your sales channels and accounting platforms, automating the bookkeeping process from start to finish.

Plus, it ensures the accurate application of tax rates, prevents VAT overpayments, and provides more insight into your finances.

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