Mid-year Bookkeeping Thoughts

For many small businesses, the middle of the year is also the middle of the tax year. If your fiscal year is different than the calendar year, save this article until your mid-year rolls around.

Mid-year is a great time to catch up on things that have fallen through the cracks, or are likely to. Has your organization changed any operating procedures that accounting is “waiting to see” how to handle? Any new accounts or products that have just been going into a “Miscellaneous” category? This is the type of stuff that’s easy to overlook, once a temporary place has been designated, but will slow down your year-end process and closing procedures. Or, worse yet, get forgotten till after the books are closed.

Scan over your mid-year Profit and Loss report to see if anything unusual catches your eye. Often, by now there will be enough of whatever was new and unusual to determine how it should actually be handled. In addition, you may discover procedural coding errors that can be corrected before they become ingrained or burdensome to fix.

Mid-year can also be an excellent time to pilot new processes. Been thinking about changing workflow through the accounting office, or the way other departments deliver information to accounting? If there isn’t much else going on accounting-wise, it can be easy to plan and test some new ideas. Of course, if other departments are in their busy time, this idea may have to wait.

In any case, enjoy the summer while it’s here!

For more information regarding our bookkeeping services, contact Diana (925) 603-3229 x301, or email at diana@bigdogcomputing.com.