What to Do if Your Accounting Records Are Outdated or Screwed Up
Can you believe it’s March already?!
If you haven’t done so yet, if the business you own is not incorporated, these are items that should have been dealt with back in January:
*send out your W9’s to your clients who paid you more than $600 in 2019
*request W9’s from non-incorporated vendors to whom you paid more than $600 in 2019
*send 1099’s to vendors to whom you paid more than $600 in 2019
*receive 1099’s from any clients or entities who paid you more than $600 in 2019.
If you’re going through this process and realize that your accounting records (like Quickbooks) are not in great shape (or if you had to scramble desperately to get this all done by the deadline), you may want to take this opportunity to straighten everything out.
This spring is a great opportunity to do this. You can do it before you submit your tax information to your CPA or accountant, or after your CPA or accountant completes your taxes. Your choice will depend on what you and your CPA determine will work best for both of you.
A client of mine realized that she could either spend dozens of hours trying to figure out what adjustments to make – and how to make them – or she could hire a pro to do this within a couple of hours. When she asked me who to use, this was my response to her:
“I recommend to my clients that they check with their own CPAs first because they usually have an in-house bookkeeper who is familiar with the client’s needs and will do consulting or tutoring or QuickBooks work for a lower hourly rate than the CPA. Or, your CPA can refer you to a bookkeeper they know will be good for your specific needs. If you have decent accounting software skills, but are just unsure of what fixes need to be made, you can ask your CPA to schedule a consultation session with you. Bring in your list of questions and concerns so that your CPA can advise you on what changes to make. You can also request that your accountant notate during the tax calculating process any advised changes that you should make so that you’re set for the upcoming year.”
I usually have a 30-minute Q&A / summarize-the-year session with my CPA when I hand over my records. Once he’s completed my return, we have a 30-minute debrief and recommendations session based on what’s occurred and what plans I have for the upcoming year.
While it’s important to be mindful about your expenses, your time can most likely be better spent on working billable hours than fretting over how to relabel QuickBooks categories. If you can, outsource this project to someone who can do it much faster.