With a few days to recover, I expect that all of you have recovered from New Year’s Eve celebrations…hydrated and consumed mass quantities of your favorite pain reliever, if necessary. And if you didn’t have to resort to excess water or Advil…or a massive overly fatty breakfast at Waffle House!…congratulations! The next step is to make sure your small business doesn’t have a “hangover” after the year-end.
To that end, we thought of a few things that you can do to help yourself today…and in the months to come…
Schedule An Appointment With Your Accountant
Because you’re a small business owner, you have an accountant, right? If you’ve answered “No” then skip to the end where there’s a phone number…give us a call and let’s get something started.
Whether your accounting firm is Southern Payroll & Bookkeeping or one any of the others out there, you really need to start off the year talking to the person who keeps your books. Why? Because they will have thought of everything else you need to do already! You’ve employed financial professionals to make sure your books are right and you’ve stayed in compliance with tax codes for your company and employees. If anything is amiss, they are likely to know before you do and they can tell you what needs to be done to make it right before things get out of hand and cost you a ton of money all at once.
Make Sure Employee Info Is Correct
With all the people buying houses in the last year, it would actually be a surprise if not a single employee of yours moved. Did you get their new address in your system? Because you’ll need that sooner rather than later…you legally have to send out W2 forms by January 31. Yes, the post office will probably forward them, but you really should have the correct addresses whenever possible.
That includes former employees, too! How many did you fire or let walk away? Did you get forwarding addresses for them? If you can get those, it’s not a bad idea to do so. The more information you have that’s correct, the less something comes back to bite you later for some unforeseen reason.
Gather Documentation
You’ll have plenty of docs to gather for year-end, especially if you didn’t take our advice above and keep an accounting firm on retainer. Make sure you have the correct forms for W2 employees, 1099 contractors, employment taxes, and all the other items that come with various and sundry governing bodies who will be expecting paperwork, money, or both.
Making sure all your docs are in order might also be a good way to make sure you…
Pay Your Estimated Taxes
Yeah, those are due for the 4th quarter, aren’t they? As always…better to estimate higher than lower…and always better to send something rather than send nothing. And if you paid a good accountant throughout the year, they can probably give you a pretty good idea of what you should send.
Plan Ahead
No matter how the previous year went for you, the beginning of the new year is time to clean the slate, look ahead, and make plans for the coming months. This may sound like a broken record, but…this is another reason to sit down with your accountant…tell them what your goals are and see if they can help you get there.
If you own a small business and need help with any of above, please call us today to see how we can help: 423-207-2497
