As the leaves are starting to fall, and families in our corner of NC are preparing mountain drives to see the changing colors, the narrative of our books is starting to reach the concluding point of the year. In my office, my current project is almost scary to say out loud, so I'll write it instead. I started my first book this summer, and am working with my editor to come out with a comprehensive guide to new business owners looking to start their own business, filled with memories of my own pitfalls and successes. I'm not going to pretend it is all roses, and I'm not someone who glosses over failures to make myself look like a constant success, but I am a believer in sharing our successes and failures for the greater good.

We have some concerning factors in the economy, and as I write this we are on the verge of a government shutdown, not to mention are coming off what my financial planner friend and many in the industry dub "the September curse" and believe me, my portfolio is showing it. All I can say is, yay dividends, while we wait for things to even out. Consumer spending is starting to increase for the holidays, and retailers everywhere are preparing for the yearly surge of holiday shoppers. I'm on the fence about recession, and while I know that a correction is required, and is usually one of the results of quantitative tightening, my expectation is that any correction is mild, and that as a country we will pull through together. After all, if we made it through the Covid Recession, this one should be a walk in the park (wow, I hope that ages well). I feel empathy for our clients that finance most customer purchases, and with the housing situation I think a resolution is due. Prices tend to fall slower than they rise, so I'm waiting and watching.

For retailers, summer is usually the best time to roll out new software, and while we are approaching Black Friday, there is still time. We work with multiple POS and E-Commerce systems, such as Heartland and Shopify. If you found yourself struggling with sales tax this year (all our retail readers yell YES), we can work with you to solve those issues as well through automation, the darling buzzword almost as popular as AI.

For many other industries, such as construction or landscaping, you may be starting to slow down a tad. As a professional services organization, we are just launching into busy season.

No matter what industry you are in, if you are on a calendar fiscal year (adjust appropriately if not), then there are some things we are working on that I highly encourage our readers to do in order to take stock of 2023 and to prepare for 2024. All of the below is based on QuickBooks Online, so if you use QuickBooks Desktop, please use the resources at the end of this post. If you need to speak to our team about changing platforms, visit us here.

1. Watch my year end preparation video. https://youtu.be/I_ldXrjWKVQ?si=P4_TcPYnFdvZ5pbr

2. Make sure all Balance Sheet accounts are reconciled to date, and that the Uncleared Transactions section on your Reconciliation Reports shows nothing surprising, and especially nothing from 2022. If you have trouble, schedule training with our team here.

3. Make sure that you have reviewed the first 3 quarters or 9 months worth of payroll, sales, and other tax returns, and make sure they tie into your books.

4. Review your reports from 2022. Double check them against your tax returns. Some things won't match completely if they are not fully deductible, but you want to pay close attention to your Balance Sheet Reconciliations and other schedules that tie into your previous returns. If they are off, there is still time to fix it, then lock your books just like I go through in this video.

5. Work on your Strategic Plan and Budgets. Pro tip: a lot of professionals will call this your business plan, but in reality a business plan is typically for your launch, while a strategic plan is for successive years. The terms can be interchangeable, however. You get the point. This isn't a scary process. Using software like LivePlan will make it so easy you think you are writing a book report, and you can use this document for financing, consultants, and in general to help yourself stay on target for 2024. I love LivePlan because it provides benchmarking data, which is quite literally possibly the main reason I switched from my old paper Word doc plan I used for 10 years prior. If you don't have LivePlan and don't feel you need benchmarking data or the other features it offers, you can use the Budget function in QuickBooks Online. If you need help with LivePlan, email me.

6. Call your CPA, tax preparer and/or advisor. Yes, I know it's not March and you aren't in a panic yet, but at Certum we like to live by the "no chaos" rule. Calling them now, once you've done the above steps, will allow them to take a look at your books, double check your steps, and will allow you to be in and out before the spring rush. Additionally, it gives you time to plan big tax decisions that are time sensitive. After all, do you really want your tax preparer to be doing your taxes off of a double shift and while lacking sleep? (Not me!) Personally, I am reviewing ours and am pre-loading our tax return, because I'm that girl, but you don't need to go that far.

7. Plan any software changes. It's an unwritten rule in our industry that term changes are always easier for payroll service swaps, and January 1 is always our most popular payroll switch period. Accounting software is similar, however both of these come with our seasonal rush. Starting now, after you've completed all this wonderful cleanup, is an ideal time to start identifying your new software, if needed, and to start loading historical data, if needed. Schedule a meeting with our team if you'd like to discuss options from a DIY perspective or with our help. (Psss.... our Q&A's are free once you watch our very long very detailed demos).

8. Not required, but helpful. I always try to review our documentation at year end along with our HR person, attorney, etc, to take stock of any changes in law or just to give them an update. A lot changes during the year, and being able to reflect while the leaves fall and I sip my cocoa is one of the best feelings ever.