Details can slip through the cracks if your job responsibilities include more than managing bookkeeping. Even when you’re thorough with monthly reviews, payroll tax deadlines, aging receivables, and other quarterly tasks can get lost in the shuffle. When you get to that pile of work, it has grown into a significant time drain.
Saving Time with a Standardized Bookkeeping Checklist
Instead of a last-minute scramble to uncover what you may have missed over the past several months, a structured quarterly bookkeeping checklist helps you efficiently catch high-impact details.
The Risk of Skipping a Checklist
Overlooked tax deadlines can trigger penalties and interest charges, and aging receivables become increasingly difficult to collect the longer you ignore them.
An organized checklist helps you pay attention to expense categorization, tax details, employee data, and other important information about operations that can become an expensive burden if left unchecked.
What to Review Every Quarter
You have daily, weekly, and monthly routines to stay on top of things, but many financial details—often those with quarterly deadlines—depend on an accurate quarterly review to ensure your records reflect your company’s true performance. (Filing schedules can vary by state and industry, so confirm whether your reports follow monthly, quarterly, or annual timelines.)
Include the following quarterly bookkeeping tasks in your checklist every quarter:
- Accounts receivable and accounts payable: Review your AR aging report to identify customers who are consistently late with their payments or who have invoices approaching write-off status. Check accounts payable for missed early payment discounts, and verify that large outstanding balances match the vendor statements.
- Tax preparation and compliance: Gather all of your documentation for quarterly tax filings, including estimated tax payments and state unemployment reports. Verify sales tax collected matches what you've remitted, and review contractor payments so you’re ready for annual 1099 filings.
- Account reconciliation: Ensure that your bank account, credit card, and payment processor financials match your accounting program records for the quarter. This is your opportunity to review unreconciled transactions and resolve discrepancies before they compound into larger problems.
- Expense categorization: Review and correct any miscategorized expenses from the past three months to ensure accurate financial reporting and tax deductions. Check that large purchases have proper documentation and recurring expenses like subscriptions are consistently classified.
- Payroll compliance: Verify you have everything to meet quarterly wage reporting requirements. Be sure that you’ve made all of your payroll tax deposits on time. Review benefits reconciliation, confirm worker classification compliance, and prepare any required state or federal payroll reports.
- Budget vs. actual performance: Compare your projected revenue and expenses against actual performance to identify trends and variances. Pay close attention to seasonal patterns, unexpected cost increases, or revenue opportunities you might have missed.
- Profit and loss statement review: Review your quarterly P&L for accuracy. You want to analyze trends compared to previous quarters and also compare this quarter to the same period last year. Verify that income and expenses are properly categorized and identify any unusual fluctuations that deserve a closer look.
- Cash flow analysis: Analyze your cash position and payment timing to understand how money flows through your business throughout the quarter. Review how quickly customers pay compared to your terms and identify any seasonal cash flow patterns.
What to Automate
Not every bookkeeping task deserves manual attention during quarterly reviews. Some routine processes can be automated or eliminated entirely, freeing you to focus on the analysis and decision-making that’s needed most.
Using automated processes to your advantage saves time—in fact, it’s pretty essential if you’re aiming for a checklist you can complete in minutes—while eliminating the human errors that stem from exhaustive, repetitive tasks.
Following a bookkeeping checklist for your small business empowers you to shift from data entry to data analysis, transforming overwhelming quarterly reviews into manageable business checkpoints.
Save time and use it strategically by automating the following:
- Invoice follow-ups
- Reminder emails
- Email responses
- Payment reminders
- Due date and overdue account tracking
- Payment-to-invoice matching
- Bank statement reconciliation
- Customer payment method updates
How Chargezoom Helps
Chargezoom’s intelligent automation works with your existing accounting software setup, including QuickBooks and NetSuite, to handle invoice follow-ups automatically, sending payment reminders based on your schedule.
When payments arrive, they’re instantly matched to correct invoices and synced to your accounting platform in real-time, eliminating manual data entry and simplifying your quarterly reconciliation process. This means quarterly reviews shift from data entry to data interpretation.
Then you’re free to review trends and make decisions based on quality data. Integrating Chargezoom into your accounting platform maintains up-to-date records throughout the quarter, leaving you with less catch-up work and more time for the analysis that actually improves your business performance.
Compliance Triggers and AR Red Flags
Some compliance requirements and AR warning signs demand immediate attention when they surface. Keep your eye on the following to avoid costly mistakes.
Quarterly Compliance
Estimated tax payments come with strict deadlines, and the Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return, Form 941, has to be filed every quarter. It requires the withholding of accurate payroll taxes and employer contributions. Late filings trigger penalties regardless of additional taxes owed.
State unemployment insurance payments and reports are due every quarter in most states, with rates increasing in many cases when you miss deadlines.
Worker classification reviews are critical for compliance. Be sure to keep up with any new contractors or changed employee roles, since misclassification can result in back taxes, interest, and penalties.
AR Warning Signs
It’s important to avoid the common mistake of overlooking aging unpaid invoices. Any invoices that have been aging for 60+ days are a signal of collection problems that need immediate attention before they become write-offs.
Customers who consistently pay late may be facing their own cash flow issues, but it could also be a sign of dissatisfaction with the services or terms. It’s important to uncover the “why” behind these payment patterns. Similarly, pay attention to changes in payment patterns, like reliable customers suddenly paying late over several months.
If customers are going through financial distress, you may be able to renegotiate small payment installments to avoid collection problems or complete write-offs.
Streamline Your Quarterly Reviews with Chargezoom
When you implement effective automations by integrating Chargezoom with your accounting platform, an ultra-fast (under an hour) quarterly review can become your new reality.
Trade in the hours spent reconciling payments and chasing down invoices, and turn that time into valuable strategic review.
Try Chargezoom today to reclaim your time with automated processes and improved data intelligence.
