I’ve been in business a long time now, from retail to service to ag, and I’ve learned some things about wrapping up one year and getting ready for the next. Some of it I learned the hard way! Whether you run your business on paper, desktop software, mobile or cloud services, there are common tasks […]

I’ve been in business a long time now, from retail to service to ag, and I’ve learned some things about wrapping up one year and getting ready for the next. Some of it I learned the hard way!

Whether you run your business on paper, desktop software, mobile or cloud services, there are common tasks that need doing at year-end. Here’s your checklist.

Must do Jan 1

These are the ones you can’t easily do later, so you don’t want to put them off.

The good news: these are the easy ones.

Count your inventory.

If you sell or make products, take an inventory of all products and raw materials on hand at the turn of the year. You need the value of what it cost you. If you use a point-of-sale (POS) system, write down the end of year inventory total on January 1.

Why you have to write it down: Most POS systems only keep a running (current) inventory total. If you forget to write it down now, you’ll have to figure backwards from all purchases and sales since Jan 1. Trust me, this is not a fun job.

When I managed a liquor store, we took advantage of being closed on New Year’s Day to do a full count of our inventory and correct our POS records. It didn’t take long with one person counting, and one running the laptop to make corrections.

Record end of year mileage.

If you use your vehicle for business, write down your mileage at the end of the year. This provides an important baseline for your mileage records all year long. I always put this on my online calendar so I can find it easily.

Get these done during January

These are the tasks that need to be done soon, but don’t have to happen on January 1. But don’t let it slide, or you’ll pay for it with rushed days during tax filing season.

How to get this done: Right now, commit time on each Friday during January to work through the checklist until you’re all finished.

1. Financial Data

Backup accounting data in two formats.

Yes, this applies whether you use paper records, software, app or a cloud service. Every data service is subject to being interrupted at the worst possible time or even closing down with no warning.

Hot tip: Do an export of the data in your accounting system’s backup format and then also in CSV. So if you use Quickbooks, let it back up in the special .qbw format, then do another backup in CSV.

Run accounting reports in PDF.

Run year-end financial reports as PDFs. If you need this data in a few years from now, it will be easy to look at a PDF report that shows the answer in an easy-to-read fo