AMA: Champions Edition! | Join this thread 12/15 from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. PT

I need help to get payroll corrections done. It has been 2 months and they have not done it.

Hi Champions, 

A really common question we see around the end of the year is from folks who aren't sure what forms they need, and when.

How can different business owners determine what forms they need, and when? 

...BTW....This is awesome!  Thanks for everything you do to support small business owners and entrepreneurs 🙌

👉 Your experience is so valuable! 👈

What (if any) mistakes have you made during year-end preparations in your career which have impacted the way you do it now? If you could pass one lesson on to someone closing their books for the first time, or an accountant approaching this for the first time, what would it be? :) 

Hello Champions, Thank you in advance for your guidance. Are there special forms needed to report COVID temporary lay-offs and pandemic-related losses?

What kind of forms for year end?  Like financials?  Profit and loss, payroll reports, W2's, 1099's?

My blog has a bunch of info, more coming on what to do at year-end.  For law firms but much of it is the same.  

These may help.  They are from before I niched my practice.  But follow me. More yummy stuff to come!

https://www.artesanibookkeeping.com/year-end-processes-for-quickbooks-online-part-1/ and there are 3 parts total.  The look of qbo may be different now but the premise of the info is the same.

Lynda

My biggest mistake (not really a big mistake but a "I forget") is that I forget to do a white paper for the tax professional.  They love to see reconciled accounts.  Then add to a spreadsheet (using Google sheets and overlay it on the spreadsheet) the validating source doc.

I get asked all the time by the tax pros for the payroll tax returns but they are right in QBO tax people. LOOK!  And don't ask me to email them.  Sensitive info there.

I am creating a google form checklist-style coming out on my future blog post for a list of year-end things to remember.

Lynda 

Lynda

I see a question above about Payroll corrections, and we also see this one come up a lot around this time of year. 

Do you have any recommendations when it comes to fixing payroll errors from months' past? 

Great point @SteveChase  and the 1099 NEC is an old form resurrected!  And from what I heard (and correct me if I am wrong), the auto extension to Feb. is now gone.   So Jan 31 is a hard date.  Start getting clients thinking of this NOW.

:)

Good afternoon.

I would like to see if someone is able to help me with this matter.

We have QuickBooks for years but we only used it to write checks.

All the bank accounts and CC are linked, but we didn't control this entries.

Starting on January/2021, we will use QuickBooks as it should be.

I would like to know what should I do to close the previous years in a way we can start the next year correctly.

Thank you in advance for the assistance

A common mistake people make in QBO is to forget to check all the unreviewed bank feeds. One thing many don't realize is if they delete a transaction that was either added or matched from the bank feeds is that it goes right back to the bank feeds review section. An easy mistake to make is that there might have been some that have auto add rules on them. There are times when you might be dealing with duplicates and you legitimately need to check the box on the bank feeds to the left of the transaction(s) to exclude them. But if you don't take care of the ones needing to be excluded right away they might end up being added right back to your register on accident or by the auto rules after you click the update button.

The best way to ensure you have no duplicates added is to reconcile the last month of the year. Look for any uncleared transactions that don't belong. If you are reconciling a credit card then you want to reconcile the statement date that spills into January to be safe you have covered all the December transactions.

It is wise to click the gear icon then click account and settings. From there click Advanced then click the "Close the Books" on Dec 31st after you are ready to prevent unwanted changes to your books for transactions dated on or before the close date.

Hello again, Statistics show that small businesses are disproportionately audited. How can I make sure that my records are adequate if I ever find myself in that situation? Thank you for your advice. 

Will I need to add all the pending transactions that are on the banking feed and after reconcile all the previous months, in order to be able to start January?

We have pending transaction since 2017, so I would like to see the best way to move forward and start correctly the next year.

Thank you all for joining us today for the Champions AMA! We hope you gained some valuable advice and insights. :)

We're closed for new questions at this time but to anyone that hasn't received an answer yet, stay tuned. We'll be circling back with answers soon!

Hi @Luisa Nogueira,

There are a couple of options, depending on which QuickBooks product you are using. For QuickBooks Online, if you want to keep the same QuickBooks company file, you will want to reconcile as much as possible and be sure to Close your books. You can create a journal entry for each account as a closing balance dated December 31st, 2020, and mark them reconciled. That way you will start recording in January with the opening balances matching December's closing balances. 

Or, 

You can get a new subscription:

• Export Accounts List and Import to the new account
• Enter the Opening Balance of each account.
• Mark all Opening Balances as reconciled.

Once you have exported all the information, you can close the original account. You will have access to all reports and lists for 18 months.

If you have QuickBooks Desktop, let me know and I can give you similar options. 

Take care!