It’s Almost Labor Day (as I write this) and.…...
As a bookkeeper, right before Labor Day, I start thinking about ramping things up, working a little faster, smarter, and more efficiently. No, this is not the time for me to take the last vacation of the summer. I don’t think about the last time I get to spend time at the pool or the beach or putting away my white slacks in bags to store for the winter.
Nope -- I think about the fact I have only four months to get all my clients up to date and get ready for tax season which will be here way sooner than I think. I think about the September 15th deadline for corporations and partnerships on extension, and the October 15th deadline for LLC’s and sole proprietorships. And this year, along with all of that, I am thinking about this podcast and making the time to write and record episodes to share with all of you.
So, when you were on your last vacation of the summer, I was working very hard getting things prepared, printing out reams of paperwork that has to get entered into the accounting databases, but also having good memories of the two vacations that I took this summer (for the first time in my adult life), in June and August. For me, it’s NOW that the real work begins. This is the time of the year that all the people who I have been trying to get in touch with the past month to only get voicemail and no call back, call me back and want their work done yesterday. My zoom will always be on and ready. And I will probably start to forget to eat lunch because I am too busy (my wife doesn’t want to hear that one!)
Phase One of the 2024 tax season is just starting for me as a bookkeeper. 5 10-hour workdays during the week, and on the weekends, I put on my podcast hat, which I really enjoy! But I’m not complaining! Really!
And I say this because you, as a business owner, or YOU, as a new or seasoned bookkeeper should have similar feelings about the end of the year. Here is a partial checklist of things to do in the next 4 months to prepare for tax season, if you are a bookkeeper, or a business owner.
- Go through all the subcontractors and make sure you have W-9 forms for all of them and then make sure that all information on the W-9 forms is entered into your accounting system.
- Bookkeepers: Make sure that all of the bank accounts, credit card accounts, and loan accounts are entered and reconciled without any transactions left over that can’t be accounted for.
- Business Owners: Start looking at and absorbing your profit and loss reports for the year if you haven’t been doing that monthly since January. Know your numbers, look at trends, see what months have higher sales and higher profit and which months of the year are lower. Analyze with or without your bookkeeper the amount of monthly money you need to keep the business open (rent, payroll, utilities, telephone, office supplies, etc.), and see if you can save money by moving to another supplier without losing quality.
- If you are the owner of a corporation, talk to your bookkeeper or accountant about adjusting your own salary higher or lower to adjust the profit of the company and your K1 that your tax preparer will give you when you get the final prepared tax return.
- Take a look at credit card debt and make a game plan between Labor Day and the end of the year. Try and figure out the best way to pay the balances down if you owe money to multiple credit cards. (Hint – this will be discussed as part of a live webinar in September)
- You can use a ‘white board’ like I do, to write all of this down and create your own checklist and make a game plan to do everything on the checklist by the middle of December.
- Schedule some meetings with your accountant or tax preparer right after October 15th to do some tax planning. Don’t wait until the last minute. Do it NOW.
- Get a new cell phone -- I usually get a new one in September, so I will be prepared to text what feels like 100,000 messages from Jan. – April of the following year without the phone malfunctioning, like I do by April 15th of every year 😊
- If you’re a bookkeeper, if the computer is showing any signs of wear and tear, I’d get a new one right around Labor Day when the sales are good! And get two fresh sets of batteries for the wireless mouse!
- Again, for bookkeepers -- get your eyes checked around Labor Day -- you’ll need to see well to fight the over-tiredness that you will have for the next 6 months, so make sure your eyeglasses are up to date! And as a bookkeeper if you have people coming to your office -- treat yourself to some new clothes so you can look your best during tax season! (I love my crisp white shirts!)
- (And-- if you are like me), get an extra half hour of sleep every night, have an extra half a cup of coffee every day, listen to slightly faster music than normal, talk a little faster, move a little faster, type a little faster, and have a little more focus than normal. For me, that’s the beginning of ramping it up for tax season, which is … (by the way) 4 full months from now.
This is the time of year for me to start to schedule webinars from October through March on subjects such as QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online, how to read financial reports and (My favorite) The Top 10 Small Business Tax tips, (that’s usually partially sponsored by the Small Business Administration of NYC), among others.
And by the way, now that I have this podcast, I will announce here when all of the webinars are scheduled. I’ll also be making short episodes on some weeks that the regular length episodes don’t go live to announce webinars that I do for others and how to sign up for them and some live LinkedIn webinars that I have planned to start in late September. And these short episodes will also include some quick tips for small businesses. So, stay tuned for that!
So, enjoy your Autumn knowing that I am inside working feverishly 10 hours a day to get everything done on schedule, correctly and completely (well, at least I try to do that, anyway)!
But seriously, reach out to me if you are a business owner who needs more advice about how to prepare for the end of the year, or if you are a bookkeeper who needs some other ideas about how to prepare for tax season, especially if it’s your first one!
And I might be kicking myself in the foot here, but I am accepting new clients -- so leave me voicemail on the website or email and we can have a conversation about what your specific needs are.
Happy Labor Day! (I hope you took the day off --- I did!) And why is it called ‘Labor Day’? It should be called ‘No Labor’ Day! But I digress.
I’ll be in your car speaker, or earbud soon -- so stay tuned! And as always, I really appreciate everyone who has subscribed and listens to each episode of this podcast as it comes out. I’m honored! I’m Paul Rosenblum.