Written by Tosif Hanif, CPA, ACCA, ACFE, MSc — Director, Accounting and Finance, Wall Tax Pro, Mississauga.
Good bookkeeping is a rhythm, not an event. Businesses that follow a simple recurring routine spend far less at year-end and make better decisions in between. Here is the checklist we give new bookkeeping clients in Mississauga.
Every week
Fifteen minutes a week prevents most of the year-end clean-up.
- Capture receipts and supplier invoices while you still remember the context
- Issue invoices for completed work rather than batching them monthly
- Review the bank feed for uncategorized or duplicated transactions
- Check which customer payments have landed
Every month
The monthly close is where the books become reliable enough to act on.
- Reconcile every bank and credit card account to the statement
- Review accounts receivable aging and chase anything over 30 days
- Confirm payroll has been posted and remitted
- Review the income statement against the prior month and ask why anything moved
Every quarter
Quarterly work catches the items that are expensive to fix later.
- Reconcile the HST account and file the return if you are a quarterly filer
- Check tax instalments against expected profit for the year
- Review gross margin by service or product line
- Confirm loan, lease and credit balances agree to lender statements
Every year
A tidy year-end file is the difference between a routine return and an expensive one.
- Count and value inventory if you carry it
- Write off genuinely uncollectible receivables with documentation
- Prepare T4s, T4As and T5s before their deadlines
- Hand a reconciled, documented file to your accountant for the corporate return
When to hand it over
If the checklist keeps slipping, outsourcing usually costs less than the clean-up it prevents. Wall Tax Pro runs monthly bookkeeping for businesses across Mississauga and the GTA, with the same team preparing the year-end filing. Call 647-297-4793 or book a consultation.
Need help with this in Mississauga?
Wall Tax Pro provides professional tax, accounting, bookkeeping and advisory support for clients in Mississauga, across Canada, and for US filers. Call 647-297-4793 or send us a message.
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