With so much going on for every client, it can be hard to stay on top of everything. In the past, I had a strict process that I developed to close out client files monthly. Now, we have a feature and I try to use the month-end review tool to finish specific tasks in each clients’ QuickBooks Online accounts every month.

The month-end review tool focuses on common yet tricky bookkeeping areas: incomplete transactions, reconciliations, and account balances. It lists vital tasks to tie up loose ends and prioritize work quickly. You can even create your custom tasks to review. Note: I found that using this area of QuickBooks does not work very well. See the video for some of the issues I ran into. This is a good tool if you are just starting out. It will show you where you need to be looking and it does call out areas in the files that need attention.

Late December is the 2nd best time of the year to do a month-end review for all of your clients.

How is this performed?

• Navigate to your client’s QuickBooks Online account.
• Select Month-end review from the left toolbar. You can also select Accountant Tools and then Month-end review.
• Select edit next to the date to review a different month. By default, month-end reviews are for the previous month.
• Tasks are divided into three sections: Transaction review tab, Account reconciliation, and Final review tabs.

Transactions review

The Transaction review tab shows transactions with missing or incorrect information. My favorite is missing payee names; unfortunately, my experience is there is a bunch of clicking and glitchiness there.

QuickBooks will flag uncategorized transactions and unapplied payments too. These are the typical things that you see in a messy QuickBooks file.

If data is missing, you’ll see a blank line in the column. Select a transaction to open it and make corrections.

Reconciliation

Reconcile bank accounts and other accounts on the balance sheet. Move on to the Account reconciliation tab. The reconciliation window lists accounts you need to reconcile. I also like to use the report options tab inside the accountant’s briefcase at the top center of the screen. That gives you a high-level overview of what needs to be reconciled and when it was last reconciled.

Once everything is clean and reconciled, it’s time to review what’s left behind uncleared. Outstanding transactions appear in the Unaccepted and Unreconciled columns. Review this item and determine if they are duplicate transactions or transactions that need addressing, like a stale check.

Examples of accounts that need reconciliation other than bank accounts: credit cards, loan, advanced client cost account, trust liability account.

Final Review

Review financial statements, i.e., balance sheet and profit and loss.

Check account balance issues; are there any negative numbers that stick out? Are there any accounts on either sheet that don’t have an account number? I know this is a small detail, but it shows your professionalism. I also like to compare periods. I want to compare last year to this year and notice if there’s anything striking that looks like an odd balance. That way, you can dive in and see if something was miscategorized.

Since we work with law firms, trust accounting should always be kept up to date. Make sure that you have the proper three-way bank reconciliation and that you’re saving it in the cloud month over month. See Lucky Number 3? | Three-way Trust Reconciliation for what a three-way bank reconciliation is.

Click and save that you’ve completed the month-end review. You can quickly check the status of current month-end reviews for each of your clients:

• In QuickBooks Online Accountant, go to the Clients menu at the top left of the initial login screen
• Select the Bookkeeping tab.
• Review the status of the Month-end review column.
• Select the icon in the Month-end review column to see which tasks are finished or open.

My very last step is to go to the reclassification tool. I opened it up for the time period I was reviewing and sorted the lists by vendor or customer name. That way, I can see at a high level what needs to be moved, and I can fly through this task rather quickly.

Links to the apps I use:

• Keeper More automated interactive tool for cleaning the books
•  Truly for reimbursable employee expenses in lieu of petty cash

As we all know, it is our accounting busy season in January, and in February, we get many inquiries and leads. Doing this at this time of the year will help you get your books in order and make January a much easier month. I always like to take care of my current clients first. They’ve been paying me for the entire year.

Proper books will help you pay the right amount of taxes that are due. None of us want to pay extra taxes. I’ve seen many files where clients will not book their income correctly and double it up. I hope this article helps you know how to review your own records. If you are an attorney or work at a law firm and you’re so busy that you don’t know if you’ll have time to make sure your books are accurate, it’s a service we provide.

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