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Month-End Close Checklist Guide for 2023

Month-End Close Reminders/Considerations

  1. Bank Reconciliation:
    • Reconcile payroll bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and other Balance Sheet accounts to ensure accuracy.
  2. Accruals and Prepayments:
    • Review and adjust any accrued liabilities or prepaid expenses.
    • For Employers: Verify that employee benefits and vacation accruals are accurate.
  3. Inventory, if applicable:
    • Perform a physical inventory count and adjust for any write-offs.
  4. Fixed Assets:
    • Verify that fixed assets are properly reflected on the Balance Sheet.
    • Book accumulated depreciation.
    • Expense any small asset purchases per the company’s capitalization policy.
  5. Accounts Receivable and Payable:
    • Review and clean up aging reports; write off uncollectible client invoices.
  6. For Employers – Review Payroll:
    • Ensure all employee hours are accurately recorded.
    • Verify that all pay rates, deductions, and benefits are up to date.
    • Confirm payroll taxes have been calculated correctly.
    • Review and reconcile all employee expense reports and ensure proper documentation for any reimbursements.
  7. Financial Statement Preparation:
    • Prepare monthly income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
    • Ensure all payroll-related accounts are properly reflected.

If you need further details or have questions, please contact your Linkenheimer CPA.

By |2023-11-15T17:21:13+00:00November 15th, 2023|business|0 Comments

Choosing a Business Entity: Which Way To Go?

If you’re planning to start a business or thinking about changing your business entity, you need to determine what will work best for you. Should you operate as a C corporation or a pass-through entity such as a sole-proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC) or S corporation? There are many issues to consider.

Currently, the corporate federal income tax is imposed at a flat 21% rate, while individual federal income tax rates currently begin at 10% and go up to 37%. The difference in rates can be alleviated by the qualified business income (QBI) deduction that’s available to eligible pass-through entity owners that are individuals, and some estates and trusts.

Individual rate caveats: The QBI deduction is scheduled to end in 2026, unless Congress acts to extend it, while the 21% corporate rate is not scheduled to expire. Also, noncorporate taxpayers with modified adjusted gross incomes above certain levels are subject to an additional 3.8% tax on net investment income.

Organizing a business as a C corporation instead of a pass-through entity may reduce the current federal income tax on the business’s income. The corporation can still pay reasonable compensation to the shareholders and pay interest on loans […]

By |2023-11-06T18:05:35+00:00November 6th, 2023|business, entity|0 Comments

New Per Diem Business Travel Rates Kicked in on October 1

Are employees at your business traveling and frustrated about documenting expenses? Or perhaps you’re annoyed at the time and energy that goes into reviewing business travel expenses. There may be a way to simplify the reimbursement of these expenses. In Notice 2023-68, the IRS announced the fiscal 2024 special “per diem” rates that became effective October 1, 2023. Taxpayers can use these rates to substantiate the amount of expenses for lodging, meals and incidentals when traveling away from home. (Taxpayers in the transportation industry can use a special transportation industry rate.)

Basics of the method

A simplified alternative to tracking actual business travel expenses is to use the “high-low” per diem method. This method provides fixed travel per diems. The amounts, provided by the IRS, vary from locality to locality.

Under the high-low method, the IRS establishes an annual flat rate for certain areas with higher costs of living. All locations within the continental United States that aren’t listed as “high-cost” […]

By |2023-11-03T19:56:54+00:00November 3rd, 2023|business, travel|0 Comments

Tech Tuesday: Microsoft Lens, A Game-Changer for Business and Accounting

In today’s digital age, the transition from physical to digital documents is inevitable. Whether we talk about business contracts, receipts, or tax documents, the ability to quickly digitize and share documents is a necessity. Enter Microsoft Lens, a mobile application designed to scan, enhance, and digitize a wide array of documents. For business environments and especially for accounting firms, Microsoft Lens has the potential to revolutionize the way documents are handled.

What is Microsoft Lens?

Originally known as Office Lens, Microsoft Lens is a mobile application developed by Microsoft. It’s essentially an intelligent camera app that allows users to capture, clean up, and convert images of whiteboards, notes, and documents into readable and editable formats, such as Word, PowerPoint, PDF, and more.

Benefits in a Business Environment:

1. Digital Transformation: Physical paperwork can be cumbersome and a potential data security liability. By using Microsoft Lens, businesses can quickly transform paper documents into digital assets, making them easy to store, share, secure and access from anywhere.

2. Collaboration: Captured documents can be easily integrated with Microsoft’s suite of products, such as OneDrive, Outlook, Teams, Word, or PowerPoint. This ensures a smooth workflow, as colleagues can instantly access and […]

By |2023-10-31T17:38:39+00:00October 31st, 2023|business, Tech|0 Comments

What Types of Expenses Can’t Be Written Off By Your Business?

If you read the Internal Revenue Code (and you probably don’t want to!), you may be surprised to find that most business deductions aren’t specifically listed. For example, the tax law doesn’t explicitly state that you can deduct office supplies and certain other expenses. Some expenses are detailed in the tax code, but the general rule is contained in the first sentence of Section 162, which states you can write off “all the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business.”

Basic definitions

In general, an expense is ordinary if it’s considered common or customary in the particular trade or business. For example, insurance premiums to protect a store would be an ordinary business expense in the retail industry.

A necessary expense is defined as one that’s helpful or appropriate. For example, let’s say a car dealership purchases an automated external defibrillator. It may not be necessary for the operation of the business, but it might be helpful and appropriate if an employee or customer suffers cardiac arrest.

It’s possible for an ordinary expense to be unnecessary — but, in order to be deductible, an expense […]

By |2023-10-02T19:14:38+00:00October 2nd, 2023|business, deductions, expensing|0 Comments
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