Top 10 Bookkeeping Checklist Items For The Month Of December 2023

Revisit the Cash Position

Unexpected occurrences, such a sudden decline in sales or a global epidemic, might have an influence on your cash position. You can spot possible cash shortages and develop a strategy to deal with them by routinely assessing your cash status. This can entail raising revenue, reducing expenses, or looking for outside funding. Strong cash flow enables you to seize investment possibilities as they present themselves. You can swiftly decide whether to invest in new initiatives or possibilities by knowing how much cash you have on hand. You can also negotiate better terms by having cash on hand.

Updating your Accounting Program

Accounting software updates frequently involve modifications to ensure compliance with newly enacted tax and accounting standards. If you don’t update your accounting software, you run the danger of breaking the law and incurring penalties. You might need to combine your accounting software with other business programmes as your company expands and changes, such inventory control or customer relationship management (CRM) software. Your accounting software may need to be updated to ensure that it is compatible with other programmes, which could save you time and increase the accuracy of your data. Updates to software frequently include better technical support and customer service. Using the most recent version of your accounting software might assist ensure that you get the finest support from the software supplier if you run into any problems.

Record Sales and Expenditures

For efficient financial management, it is essential to keep track of sales and expenses. You may track your income and expenses and gain a comprehensive idea of your company’s financial situation by keeping reliable records. This can assist you in identifying areas for cost savings, choosing where to deploy resources, and making necessary budget adjustments. Tax compliance also depends on keeping track of purchases and expenditures. The data kept can be utilised to generate financial reports and tax returns as well as figure out how much tax is owing to the government. You can prevent potential fines or penalties for failing to comply with tax requirements by keeping accurate and current records. Additionally, it will assist you in measuring performance, accurately planning your business, and maintaining better investor connections.

Review Customer and Vendor Invoices

Checking customer and vendor invoices can assist guarantee timely payments. Late fees, interest charges, and strained business relationships can all be brought on by late payments. Regularly examining invoices will help you make sure that payments are made on time, which will help you preserve strong working relationships with your clients and suppliers. You can make accurate estimates and budgets by reviewing the invoices from your customers and vendors. You can see trends, make plans for the future’s spending, and project revenue by evaluating the data. Examining invoices from clients and suppliers can help stop fraud. By looking for discrepancies in bills, you can spot possible fraud that could harm your company’s finances and reputation, such issuing phoney invoices or double billing.

Reconcile Your Records

You may develop precise estimates and budgets by reconciling your financial information. You can find trends and patterns that might help you with budgeting and forecasting by looking at the cash flow and expenses of your company. Making wise judgements about recruiting, investing, and other business activities can be aided by this. The process of reconciling your records is crucial to sound financial management. You can make wise decisions about the financial health of your company by making sure that your financial data is correct. This can assist you in finding areas where you can cut costs, maximising your cash flow, and positioning your company for long-term success. Maintaining accuracy in your data is crucial for tax compliance. For the purpose of producing tax returns and answering questions from tax authorities, accurate financial records are required.

Sales Tax Returns

Also, businesses can get a more realistic picture of their financial status by filing sales tax on a monthly basis. Business owners can find patterns and trends in their sales activity by evaluating sales tax data on a monthly basis. These patterns and trends can then be used to guide their financial planning and budgeting decisions. Monthly sales tax filing might assist lower the possibility of mistakes and discrepancies in tax reporting. Regularly examining sales tax data allows organizations to identify errors early and fix them before they grow into larger issues. Also, businesses can keep better records of their sales activities by filing sales tax on a regular basis. Businesses can stay organized and make sure they have the supporting paperwork they need for taxation process by tracking sales data on a monthly basis.

Review Your Inventory

Taking a look at your inventory might also aid in improving your sales projections. You may predict future demand and modify your production and ordering plans by evaluating your inventory levels to find trends and patterns in your sales. By confirming that you have the products your customers want in stock and ready to ship, reviewing your inventory can help you provide better customer service. You can do this to shorten lead times, increase order fulfilment rates, and improve customer satisfaction in general.

Record Credit Cards Transactions

Making ensuring your financial records accurately represent the financial health of your company by separating credit card transactions from other transactions will help. In addition to giving you a clearer image of your financial performance, this can make it simpler to track your earnings, costs, and revenues. It can be much simpler to file taxes if you keep track of credit card transactions separately. You may quickly and readily identify deductible spending by keeping a separate record of all credit card transactions, which lowers the possibility of mistakes in your tax returns. It can be easier to spot and stop fraud if you separate credit card transactions. You may instantly see any unapproved or dubious purchases and take steps to stop fraud by keeping track of each credit card transaction separately.

Review Debt Accounts

You can manage your cash flow more effectively by keeping an eye on your debt accounts. You need to make sure you have enough money on hand to cover your monthly debt payments if you have a significant debt load. If you don’t have enough money on hand, you might need to make budget changes or take other actions to keep from going into default on your debt. You can spot possible concerns before they develop into significant issues by keeping an eye on your debt accounts. For instance, you might need to renegotiate the conditions of your debt or take other measures to avoid default if you see that you are frequently making late payments. You can incur penalties, fees, and other costs if you skip a payment or fall behind on a loan.

Review WIP Reports

You may manage your cash flow more skillfully by using WIP reports. You can forecast your cash flow and predict when you will likely receive payments by monitoring the status of your initiatives. By pointing out any cost overruns or places where expenses can be cut, WIP reports can help you keep costs under control. You may take corrective action to prevent cost overruns and increase your profitability by spotting these problems early on. Finally, you may raise customer happiness by using WIP reports. You can communicate with your clients more effectively and make sure they are happy with the way their projects are going by keeping track of their progress.

The checklist ends here. These are some essential items you can include in your checklist which will help you manage and track your bookkeeping. We hope you found these useful. Happy bookkeeping.