Year-End Accounting Checklist: Close Your 2025 Books with Confidence

As the year wraps up, it’s time to make sure your books are clean, accurate, and ready for tax season. Year-end accounting doesn’t have to be stressful. With the right checklist and tools, you can finish strong and start the new year with clarity and confidence. 

Key Steps to Close the Books

A thorough year-end close ensures your financial records accurately reflect your business performance. Follow these steps to complete the process smoothly:

1. Reconcile Accounts: Match every bank, credit card, and loan account to its statement. Confirm that all deposits and payments have cleared.
2. Review Outstanding Invoices and Bills: Follow up on unpaid invoices and make sure all customer and vendor bills are recorded before closing the books.
3. Verify Payroll Records: Ensure all wages, taxes, and benefits have been recorded accurately and reconcile them against your payroll reports.
4. Count and Value Inventory: Update stock quantities and make any necessary adjustments for shrinkage, obsolescence, or year-end valuation.
5. Record Depreciation and Adjustments: Post any year-end journal entries for depreciation, amortization, or accruals.
6. Update Loan Balances and Interest: Confirm balances with lenders and record accrued interest.
7. Back Up Your Data: Save copies of your company file and reports before making final adjustments.

Taking time to review each step ensures your books are accurate, complete, and compliant before year-end. 

Reconcile, Report, Review

Once all transactions are entered, it’s time to review your financial health:

• Reconcile: Double-check that all balances match your supporting documents and bank statements.
• Report: Generate key financial reports like the Profit & Loss Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement, plus receivables and payables aging. These help you see how your business performed over the year.
• Review: Look for discrepancies, unusual transactions, or trends that might affect your upcoming year’s budget or tax filings.

This process not only prepares you for tax season but also gives you valuable insight into your business’s performance and opportunities for improvement.

Helpful Reports and Tools in AccountEdge

AccountEdge includes everything you need to complete your year-end close efficiently and accurately:

• Reconciliation Tools: Quickly match transactions to bank and credit card statements. Consider adding Bank Feeds to your subscription to make capturing and reconciling transactions faster and reduce errors.
• Comprehensive Reporting: Generate Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, and General Ledger reports instantly.
• Inventory and Payroll Management: Update inventory valuations, track payroll liabilities, and prepare W-2 and 1099 forms.
• Backup and Archiving Tools: Safeguard your year-end data with built-in backup functions.
• Financial Review Made Simple: Use customizable reports to compare this year’s results with previous years for a complete financial picture.

With these built-in tools, AccountEdge takes the complexity out of closing your books, helping you save time, reduce errors, and start the new fiscal year on solid ground.