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Year-end guide for QuickBooks Online

by Intuit59 Updated 1 week ago

Learn how to close your previous financial year and prepare for the new one in QuickBooks Online.

Review your books, run reports, and prepare your tax returns with your accountant. This helps you balance financial transactions and get your business ready for the coming year.

Check when your accounting period starts.

  1. Go to Settings Settings gear icon. and select Account and settings.
  2. Select Advanced.
  3. In the Accounting section, select the pencil icon ✎.
  4. Select the First month of financial year ▼ dropdown, then select the month where you start your financial year.
  5. Select Save, then select Done.

Make sure your customer’s info is up to date.

  1. Go to Reports (Take me there).
  2. In the Find report by name ▼ dropdown, select Accounts receivable ageing summary or Accounts receivable ageing detail.
    Note: These reports are only available in QuickBooks Online Advanced, Plus, and Essentials.
  3. Review the report and check for outstanding balances.
    Note: If you find outstanding balances, create and send a statement to the customer.

Clear any outstanding bank deposits from your deposit queue. Record and create bank deposits if there are still payments in the undeposited funds account. This helps you record all your payments in the correct bank register. 

Note: QuickBooks includes undeposited funds in the income. You still need to move the funds to the bank register that receives the payments or deposits.

Review your supplier account balances and check if you have any outstanding bills.

  1. Go to Reports (Take me there).
  2. In the Find report by name ▼ dropdown, select Accounts payable ageing summary or Accounts payable ageing detail.
    Note: These reports are only available in QuickBooks Online Advanced, Plus and Essentials.
  3. Review the report, then identify the outstanding bills.
    Note: You can make bill payments to settle any outstanding bills to your suppliers.

Run reports to identify issues and check for discrepancies. Here's how.

  1. Go to Reports (Take me there), then select Management reports.
  2. Select Create management report, then enter a name in the Management report name field. 
  3. Fill out info as needed.
  4. Select Reports and charts
  5. Enter Balance Sheet in the Report ▼ dropdown. Then, select a period from the Report period field.
    Note: If the Report period field is not visible, select the pencil icon Image of the edit icon..
  6. In the Add ▼ dropdown, select Report
  7. Enter Profit and Loss in the Report ▼ dropdown. Then, select a period from the Report period field. 
    Note: If the Report period field is not visible, select the pencil icon Image of the edit icon..
  8. Select Save and Close.

You can check and run other reports as needed. You can also create a management report to see how much you’ve made.

If needed, your accountant can help you distribute retained earnings among partners.

Your accountant can help you with your year-end process. If you haven’t invited them yet, you can add your accountant to QuickBooks Online. This lets them prepare and file taxes on your behalf.

If needed, your accountant can review your accounts and reclassify transactions. They can also manage your transactions to help you organise your books.

After you review all of your financial data, you can close your books for the year-end. This prevents unwanted changes that may affect your reports before filing your taxes.

QuickBooks Online EssentialsQuickBooks Online PlusQuickBooks Online Simple Start

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