by DanielleReese | Dec 7, 2021 | Accounting, Bookkeeping, Strategic Planning, Year End Accounting
Year-end guide: December 2021
It’s a good idea to perform certain year-end tasks with your financial records at the end of the calendar year. Some of the tasks are just good financial housekeeping, while others are required by the government.
Fortunately, you can spread the tasks over the period from December to February.
The following sections outline information about the tasks to perform in each month, as well as employee-related tasks for the end of the year.
December tasks
December is a good time to tie up loose ends for the closing year, to make profit distributions, and to start preparing for tax time with your accountant.
Create and send customer statements
The end of the year is a good time to remind your customers of any outstanding balances that they owe to you, or to send them a statement of their activity throughout the year.
Make distributions
It’s not mandatory, but you can choose to distribute profits (also known as Retained Earnings) to the owners or partners at the end of the year.
Prepare for taxes
Many small business owners use an accountant, especially at tax time.
If you haven’t already done so, now is a good time to give your accountant access to your QuickBooks Online company so they can review your financial reports and other data, and even make any necessary changes before the end of the year.
January tasks
January is when you should reconcile your accounts, prepare summary reports, and (optionally) close your books for the previous calendar year.
If you haven’t already done so, it’s also a good time to get in touch with your accountant and talk about preparing for tax time.
Reconcile your accounts
At the end of the year, and when you prepare your taxes, you’ll want to have the most up-to-date and correct information in your financial reports. Reconciling can help ensure that.
When you reconcile an account, you compare the beginning balance and transactions listed in your QuickBooks Online company file with your monthly bank or credit card statements to make sure they match. Reconciling is like balancing a chequebook, as you review your bank statement to make sure it matches the amounts you recorded in your cheque register.
The process helps to ensure that important financial reports, like your Balance Sheet, are accurate.
Reconciling can seem intimidating if you haven’t done it before, or if you haven’t done it for a while if we can be of assistance please get in touch
Run Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss reports
The start of the new year is the natural time to run reports and evaluate how your business performed over the previous year.
Running reports is also an essential part of preparing for taxes.
The two most important reports that you and your accountant will need are the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss reports, and it’s a good idea to run these reports at the beginning of the year. Make sure the date range in the Transaction Date field for these reports covers the year you’re reporting on.
February tasks
The bulk of your year-end work should be complete by February, with just a task or two to finish up and prepare for taxes.
Prepare for taxes
An accountant is a valuable resource, especially at tax time. If you don’t have one or are looking for a change give us a call
Payroll – Do you have employees?
If you have employees (not independent consultants or contractors), there are additional tasks you should complete at the end of the year, along with additional government forms to file and deadlines to meet.
- If you use standard QuickBooks Online Payroll, you can access information about year-end payroll tasks in QuickBooks Online by selecting Employees from the left menu, and then selecting Payroll year-end guide.
- If you use a different payroll provider, it’s important that you consult them for items and forms to complete for the end of the year.
Review these important direct deposit cut-off dates as you plan your year-end payroll work.
| Payroll date | Approve payroll by |
| December 24, 2021 | December 22, 2021 |
| December 25, 2021 | N/A on holiday |
| December 26, 2021 | N/A on holiday |
| December 27, 2021 | N/A on holiday |
| December 28, 2021 | N/A on holiday |
| December 29, 2021 | December 23, 2021 |
| December 30, 2021 | December 24, 2021 |
| December 31, 2021 | December 29, 2021 |
| January 1, 2022 | N/A on holiday |
| January 3, 2022 | N/A on holiday |
| January 4, 2022 | December 30, 2021 |
| January 5, 2022 | December 31, 2021 |
Other dates to remember
As you work through your year-end plan, don’t forget these important dates for your T4 and RL-1 forms.
- January 4, 2022- Electronic filing options are available online with Canada Revenue Agency and Revenu Québec.
- February 28, 2022- The deadline to export your T4 file and submit T4s and RL-1s with CRA and Revenue Quebec. You also must provide your employees a copy for their own records, which they use to do their personal income tax.
by DanielleReese | Nov 14, 2021 | Accounting, Bookkeeping, Budgeting, Strategic Planning
Task Based Budgeting in Organizations
Task based budgeting is not brand-new. As early as 1990, some companies in nations like the USA as well as Australia executed this brand-new budgeting program to change the recognized as well as old approach of budgeting, the “line thing budgeting.”
Task based budgeting is a technique of budgeting in which tasks that sustain
expenses in each feature of a company are developed as well as connections are specified in between tasks. This details is after that utilized to choose just how much source must be designated to every task.
To put it simply, task based budgeting is budgeting, preparation as well as regulating by tasks as opposed to price components of a company. For individuals of this budgeting program, they declare that it involves everybody in considering just how they can much better develop worth for company. It creates a versatile spending plan based upon task workload that is not as stiff as journal of the line product budgeting that pre-identifies prices even though that expense might not serve in any way.
Activity-based budgeting is just arranged sound judgment. A lot more especially, task based budgeting is a method for improving the precision of monetary projections as well as boosting administration understanding. When automated, task based budgeting can quickly as well as precisely generate monetary strategies and also versions based upon differing degrees of quantity presumptions.
Task based budgeting likewise can remove a lot of the laborious operate in standard budgeting. Task based budgeting examines the solutions or items to be created, what tasks are called for to generate those services or products, as well as what sources require to be allocated to do those tasks. Put simply, task based budgeting is the opposite of the activity-based setting you back procedure to create monetary strategies as well as budget plans.
With the introduction of effective and also low-cost data source systems, task based budgeting is enabling companies to decrease expenses, much better use sources, and also attain tactical purposes.
The Australian National Audit Office has actually recognized the benefits of task based budgeting:
The Advantages
– Output expenses are sustained by a routine of set you back tasks
– Opportunities to take a look at job procedures
– Identifies non value-adding tasks that can be removed
– Basis of an efficiency dimension system as well as straight web link in between calculated
objectives as well as functional truths
– Enables expense accounts to be taken care of
– Accurate setting you back information for functional administration
– Costs are clear, workable as well as easy to understand
Drawbacks
– Activity meaning might come to be as well thorough as well as the version might come to be tough and also intricate to keep
– Underestimation of the job of gathering task motorist information
– Implementation might be thought about a monetary administration “trend” and also there wants dedication from functional supervisors
Task Based Budgeting Disadvantages
– Usually needs acquiring Activity Based Budgeting software program
– Requires training of all supervisors consisting of budgeting division
– Requires individuals to truly comprehend what drives their spending plan
– Eliminates justification that task quantity transformed since it makes noticeable quantity modifications
– Requires everybody to approximate or accumulate task quantity
By comprehending just how sources are changed right into solutions or items, as well as by focusing on the price of tasks, task based budgeting assists an organization to acquire a greater understanding of just how prices act in their company as well as which tasks develop considerable quantities of expense. Organizations can after that start to regulate their expenses based intangible tasks as opposed to reasonably uninformative basic journal or expense centre reports.
In various other words, task based budgeting is budgeting, preparation as well as managing by tasks instead than price aspects of a company. It establishes a versatile budget plan based on task job tons that is not as stiff as journal of the line product budgeting that pre-identifies expenses even though that price might not be of usage at all.
When automated, task based budgeting can quickly as well as precisely generate economic strategies as well as designs based on differing degrees of quantity presumptions.
Task based budgeting likewise can get rid of a lot of the laborious job in conventional budgeting. Task based budgeting evaluates the solutions or items to be generated, what tasks are called for to generate those items or solutions, and also what sources require to be allocated to carry out those tasks.
by DanielleReese | Oct 21, 2021 | Accounting, Bookkeeping, Fact Sheet
Did you know we do both!
–Bookkeeping vs. Accounting–
If you’re a small business owner, you might be wondering if you need to get a bookkeeper or an accountant – or both.
And now that you understand the need for bookkeeping, you’re might be wondering, “How does it differ from accounting?”
Good question.
The words “bookkeeper” and “accountant” are often used interchangeably. However, there are some key differences that determine the main responsibilities of each role.
–Bookkeeping is a Subset of Accounting–
An accountant, professional bookkeeper, or an employee of the business can do your bookkeeping.
If you’ve just started a business, chances are you’ll be doing the bookkeeping yourself.
This is no bad thing. When launching a new business venture, it’s crucial that you have an intimate grasp of your financial situation. What better way than to do the bookkeeping yourself?
Essentially, bookkeepers take care of the day-to-day financial work.
They keep detailed and accurate financial accounts and use this financial clarity to help make informed business decisions.
–Accountants are Financial Experts–
Accountants are usually qualified, registered members of a statutory association. So they often have titles like CPA (Certified Public Accountant) or CA (Chartered Accountants).
That’s how they can charge the big bucks.
These experts will use the accounts provided by the bookkeeper. They focus on analyzing the transactions to provide financial advice.
They’ll also use the information in the accounts to file tax returns and other reports.
Whereas bookkeepers handle the day-to-day financial tasks, accountants often step in on a quarterly basis to provide advice and make adjustments.
