The end of the calendar year is the time to tie loose ends, evaluate business strategy, and do housekeeping. NEXT shares a small business checklist to help navigate tax preparation, bookkeeping, financial analysis, business strategy, and more.
Locate, consolidate, and record all paper and digital receipts of business expenses for the past year to make sure you're caught up on bookkeeping.
Reconcile your accounts receivable to help ensure your accounts are clean and auditable. Review and clean up credits and debits to know what your customers owe.
Do the same for accounts payable. Make sure you understand your obligations and reconcile variances.
If you don't have a certified public accountant or tax preparer you work with regularly, consider hiring one to help you with end-of-year cleanup. They can also help set you up for success come tax season.
Also, if you're still using spreadsheets (or even paper files), consider switching to user-friendly bookkeeping apps and accounting software such as Quickbooks or Xero to help you track books, automate revenue and track expenses.
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Once you catch up on bookkeeping, figure out where you stand financially. Run financial reports to learn where your income came from, where you spent it, and where it's currently heading.
These reports should include:
These financial reports provide a head start on your taxes and reveal where you need to adjust to achieve your financial goals.
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Look at the landscape, set business goals for where you want to go, and create a plan to help you reach your goals. Pinpoint specific, measurable goals to help you stay focused.
For example, many business owners say they'd like to grow their business next year. But how, and through what means? Be specific. State that you'd like 15 more clients next year, or a move to a larger location by next summer, to allow for more accurate business planning.
This is also a good time to review your business operations. Do you need to hire more help? Should you renegotiate vendor contracts or research new suppliers? Is your pricing model still accurate, or do you need to adjust?
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Business insurance can help protect you from unexpected expenses after accidents or mistakes involving your business, employees, or customers. Ensure you have the right-sized coverage for your business and keep up to date to help protect your investment if something goes awry.
Small business insurance can cover a variety of incidents and situations:
If you're already insured, the end of the year is a great time to review and update your policy. For example, if you hired employees this year, you'll need to update your workers' comp insurance to reflect that.
If you don't have small business insurance:
If you already have small business insurance:
Losing control of employee, customer, vendor, or equipment data is the last thing you want. Cloud storage solutions manage all sorts of data and keep it accessible from anywhere. Organize all of your data into as few programs as possible, then back it up in case of a hard drive failure or a data breach.
Many backup options are available for small businesses, including Google Cloud or Dropbox.
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It's easy to neglect advertising and marketing for your small business when you're busy juggling everything. But know this: Consistent customer outreach is what helps you grow. It pays to promote the value of your products or services.
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Show your appreciation to employees and customers. Don't forget to take a break and recharge your batteries so you can start fresh in the new year.
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This story was produced by NEXT and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.