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19 Nov Preparing for Year-End with Your Bookkeeper: A Practical Guide for Business Owners

Posted at 19:36h in Blog by

As the end of the calendar year approaches, business owners are often pulled in multiple directions. Between managing holiday demand, wrapping up open projects, addressing employee needs, and squeezing in some much-needed time off, it is easy for financial matters to take a back seat. However, if there is one priority that cannot afford to be delayed, it is preparing your financial records and reports with your bookkeeper.

Year-end is not about compliance or checking boxes for tax season. It is a pivotal opportunity to gain clarity, uncover insights, and start the new year with a solid financial foundation. Whether you are a small business owner juggling operations and administration, or leading a growing team with multiple revenue streams, what you do before December 31st has a direct impact on your success in the months that follow.

Start your year-end on the right foot! Read on for expert tips or connect with Siegel Solutions anytime. We’re here to help you close out the year with confidence and step into the next with clarity.

When year-end preparation is done well—with the support of your bookkeeper—it leads to:

  • Accurate financials that support clean tax filings
  • Clear visibility into your profitability and cash flow
  • Fewer surprises in January and beyond
  • Better budgeting and decision-making
  • Greater peace of mind for you and your team

 

At Siegel Solutions, we work with hundreds of business owners to ensure their year-end close is not only complete, but meaningful. We have seen how proper planning sets businesses up for confidence and clarity—and how a lack of preparation can create unnecessary stress, errors, and missed opportunities.

This article breaks down the key steps, explains their importance, outlines the consequences of inaction, and provides actionable insights to help you and your bookkeeper finish the year strong.

 

Adopt a Year-End Mindset

Year-end is more than just a deadline—it is a strategic moment to understand where your business stands. Shifting into a year-end mindset helps you see the bigger picture and use your financials as a tool for growth.

Why it matters: Without this mindset, businesses often delay important tasks, miss opportunities for planning, and enter the new year in a reactive, not initiative-taking, mode.

What happens if you skip it:

  • You scramble at the last minute to pull data together.
  • You overlook financial red flags or cash flow issues.
  • You miss opportunities to reduce taxable income.

 

Action Steps:

  • Book a planning session with your bookkeeper by early December
  • Outline your year-end goals and what insights you want to gain.
  • Ask your bookkeeper what they need from you to get started.

 

Build a Year-End Checklist and Timeline

Having a checklist and timeline ensures nothing falls through the cracks. It helps your team stay accountable, organized, and on track to meet all year-end requirements.

Why it matters: Without a plan, deadlines are missed, tasks are duplicated or forgotten, and important steps are left unfinished.

What happens if you skip it:

  • Missed payroll deadlines or tax filings.
  • Incomplete books and inaccurate reports
  • Chaos and confusion in January

 

Action Steps:

  • Collaborate with your bookkeeper to create a customized checklist.
  • Assign responsibilities and review deadlines with your team.
  • Use project management tools or shared calendars to stay on track.

 

Ensure Access to Source Documents

Incomplete or disorganized documentation is one of the biggest causes of year-end delays. Your bookkeeper needs access to everything to ensure your books are accurate.

Why it matters: Your bookkeeper cannot complete reconciliations, record transactions, or verify balances without documentation.

What happens if you skip it:

  • Incorrect or incomplete financials
  • Delayed tax filings and penalties
  • Missed expenses and deductions.

 

Action Steps:

  • Create a secure shared folder with organized files.
  • Audit your records and request missing documents now.
  • Let your bookkeeper know when everything is ready.

 

Reconcile and Review the Books

This is the core of the year-end close. Reconciliation ensures your books reflect reality and helps catch errors before they turn into big problems.

Why it matters: Reconciliations uncover discrepancies, prevent double-counting, and ensure your records match bank and credit statements.

What happens if you skip it:

  • Financial reports do not reflect true balances.
  • You may report inaccurate income or expenses.
  • Potential fraud or theft goes unnoticed.

 

Action Steps:

  • Review of your bookkeeper’s reconciliation reports.
  • Discuss open items, write-offs, or unusual transactions.
  • Approve adjustments and final entries.

 

Generate and Analyze Financial Statements

With complete reconciliation, it is time to generate and review your key financial reports. These reports provide the insight you need to understand performance.

Why it matters: These reports drive decisions, inform tax filings, and tell the story of your business performance.

What happens if you skip it:

  • You lack a clear view of profitability, debt, or cash flow.
  • You miss the chance to learn from past performance.
  • You start the new year without a financial roadmap.

Action Steps:

  • Meet with your bookkeeper to review each report.
  • Ask questions and take notes on key takeaways.
  • Use the reports to guide planning for the next year.

 

Plan for Tax Filing and Compliance

Accurate books make tax preparation easier and help you avoid surprises. Working ahead ensures you take full advantage of deductions and stay compliant.

Why it matters: Tax deadlines are fixed, and the IRS does not accept delays. Solid records lead to accurate returns and peace of mind.

What happens if you skip it:

  • Missed deadlines, fines, and penalties.
  • Inaccurate filings that will increase audit risk.
  • Scrambling to find documents in January.

 

Action Steps:

  • Share finalized financials with your CPA early.
  • Schedule a tax planning call before the end of the year
  • Discuss any large purchases or upcoming changes.

 

Strategize for the Coming Year

Clean, accurate data allows you to plan with purpose. Without it, you are setting goals based on assumptions, not facts.

Why it matters: Strategic planning requires reliable numbers to set goals, allocate resources, and project revenue.

What happens if you skip it:

  • You rely on outdated or inaccurate information.
  • You miss growth opportunities or spend ineffectively.
  • You start the year without clear direction.

 

Action Steps:

  • Create a draft budget and refine with your bookkeeper.
  • Discuss performance trends and improvement areas.
  • Use this strategy as a starting point for Q1.

 

Strengthen Internal Controls

Year-end is an exciting time to review how your financial systems operate. Strong controls reduce risk, improve accuracy, and protect your business.

Why it matters: Weak controls can lead to fraud, errors, and monetary loss. Good systems create accountability and confidence.

What happens if you skip it:

  • Fraud or theft goes unnoticed.
  • Errors multiply over time.
  • Financial tasks are not completed consistently.

 

Action Steps:

  • Hold a year-end audit or internal review.
  • Update policy documents and permissions.
  • Provide staff training on changes.

 

Communicating with Stakeholders

Sharing results and outlook with those who support your business builds trust and encourages alignment heading into the new year.

Why it matters: Investors, lenders, and partners expect transparency and clear reporting.

What happens if you skip it:

  • Misalignment of goals and expectations.
  • Hesitancy from investors or lenders.
  • Loss of confidence in your leadership.

 

Action Steps:

  • Create a one-page year-end summary.
  • Share dashboards or visuals during presentations.
  • Align leadership and key departments around goals.

 

Maintain Momentum

The benefits of year-end do not stop in December. Keep the momentum going with regular financial reviews and a consistent process for maintaining clean books year-round.

Why it matters: Ongoing financial hygiene helps you respond quickly to opportunities, spot issues early, and avoid year-end chaos next time.

What happens if you skip it:

  • You fall behind again.
  • Issues pile up and become harder to fix.
  • Financial decisions are made on outdated data.

 

Action Steps:

  • Schedule regular check-ins for the upcoming year.
  • Delegate roles for monthly financial tasks.
  • Set a reminder for quarterly financial reviews.

 

Let Us Close the Year Strong—Together

The steps you take before December 31st are more than administrative—they are foundational to your financial stability, tax efficiency, and long-term success. When you partner closely with your bookkeeper, you build systems that not only keep your books in order but help you understand and use your financial data to drive smart decisions.

Failing to prepare can lead to errors, missed opportunities, tax penalties, and a lot of unnecessary stress. But with a thoughtful, organized year-end process, you set your business up for clarity, growth, and peace of mind.

If you are feeling overwhelmed or unsure where to begin, do not hesitate to ask for help. At Siegel Solutions, our team is here to guide you through every step of the year-end process, from reconciliations and reports to tax prep and strategic planning. Whether you need a full-service team or just some extra support, we have your back.

Let us make this your smoothest year-end yet. Reach out to Siegel Solutions today—we are ready to help you close the year strong and start the new one with confidence.

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Sean McCaffery
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Sean McCaffery has more than 15 years of experience leading channel sales and cloud solutions in the US and Internationally. Sean has held leadership positions with Avaya in Europe growing the channel business with resellers and distributors in key countries driving double-digit growth. He then joined Rackspace Technology and was instrumental in developing sales growth strategies in cloud adoption for customers and partners. Most recently, he ran channels at Dizzion responsible for dynamically growing and expanding the partner ecosystem through SaaS-based VDI solutions before joining Intuit. Currently, he runs the QuickBooks Solution Provider Program supporting the strong business that solution providers and ISV partners have established as well as finding new opportunities to drive emerging mid-market growth together!

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Gabor Terebesi
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Gabor Terebesi is an Account Manager with the Payments Team of Intuit for over 15 years. He works in the partner division for Intuit payments to ensure Intuit partners along with any clients of theirs are in the most suitable and financially cost-effective solution accepting payments through eCommerce, QuickBooks, mobile payments, or any other options necessary for their business.

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Aimee Garneau
Manager of Accounting Services

Aimee joined Siegel in 2022 as the Accounting Manager overseeing the accounting and bookkeeping team. Aimee brings 18 years of experience with increased responsibility with privately and publicly held companies. Her experience lies with SaaS-based companies as well as in healthcare, consulting, education and nonprofits. Prior to joining Siegel, she held accounting leadership positions with Waban Projects, Elastic Path, Moltin, and Ned Davis Research. Aimee loves partnering with business owners to establish financial reporting and results that promote growth and expansion. When Aimee is not working, she loves spending time with her family and friends and exploring all New England has to offer. She is also an avid Red Sox fan and enjoys going to Fenway Park when she can.

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Jeffrey Siegel
CPA, CEO

Jeff has spent the last twenty years working providing solutions to emerging growth businesses. After graduating from Northeastern University, he spent five years working with two multinational CPA firms in an auditor capacity building a foundation for understanding how business work. He later went on to work in various controller and CFO roles before starting Siegel & Associates (previously Siegel Financial Group) in 2000. In those roles, he sold a company to ADP, raised funds for a major expansion of a large regional IVF clinic, and helped set up accounting and financial structures for dozens of companies. Since starting Siegel & Associates, Jeff has worked with hundreds of clients providing accounting system solutions. Those solutions include setting up QuickBooks in a single-user environment putting in QuickBooks Enterprise in a 30-user environment and integrating various add-ons including inventory, CRM, and e-commerce. He is a Certified Public Accountant, a QuickBooks Pro Advisor, a QuickBooks Advanced Pro Advisor, and an Intuit Solution Provider certified in Enterprise Solutions, Point of Sale & QuickBase. Jeff is also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer

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Lori Swartz
Client Solutions Advisor & Professional Services

After graduating from Boston University, Lori spent eight years working in various managerial positions for two national companies. In those positions, Lori developed the skills necessary to manage multiple projects, clients, and resources. She later went on to work for a management company that handled over 25 real estate properties with multiple tenants. Lori joined Siegel Solutions in 2003 as a client services manager where she utilized her skills developed to manage multiple clients and multiple staff. She recently moved into the client support manager role where she is responsible for meeting with and onboarding new clients, managing and maintaining our technology stack along with QuickBooks setups, conversions, training, and consulting.

In her free time, Lori enjoys spending time with her family. She loves to travel, music, and theater.

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Janet Jodoin
Bookkeeping Associate

Janet joined Siegel Solutions in May of 2022 as an Associate Bookkeeper. In her younger years, while raising her family, she completed her degree in Business and she spent 20 years in the trades as a custom designer. Janet also has 16 years in corporate management. Her strong team support, training, and development led her to support and manage Human Resources. Janet's desire to change careers has led her to return back to bookkeeping at Siegel Solutions. In Janet's free time she enjoys spending time with her growing family. Her personal favorite is creative landscaping in her yard. She also enjoys working alongside her partner in construction and remodeling.

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Tricia Gullage
Associate

Tricia Joined Siegel Solutions in 2022 as a bookkeeper and works with our clients to keep their day-to-day bookkeeping in order. Tricia has 12 years of bookkeeping experience working for a large construction company for 10 of those years handling all their accounting and Payroll. She met Jeff our CEO while working there and decided she wanted to join our team.

When not working Tricia enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She recently moved up to the lakes region in NH and loves going to concerts, enjoying her time boating and snowmobiling.

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Ed Jaworski
Professional Services

With over 21 years of corporate experience at PeopleSoft Consulting, Sun Life Financial, and KPMG, Ed brings a big business approach to small business solutions. Prior to joining Siegel Solutions in 2022, Ed helped small businesses get the most out of QuickBooks for 21 years as a co-founder of SMB Partners and the founder of Solutions for Office Software.

Ed is an Advanced Certified QuickBooks® ProAdvisor, a Certified QuickBooks® Point of Sale ProAdvisor, a Certified QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions ProAdvisor, and a Certified SOS Inventory Consultant. Ed holds an MS in Computer Information Systems from Bentley University and a BS in Business Administration from Northeastern University.

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Debby Mono
Firm Administrator

Prior to joining Siegel Solutions in March 2023, Debby had been working in administrative and executive assistant roles for many years in various fields. Her extensive background in these positions has provided her with a range of skills and knowledge that are valuable in her new role as a Firm Administrator. She graduated from Suffolk University with a Bachelor's Degree.

Outside of work, Debby can be found at football fields or dojos cheering for her sons. She also enjoys hikes with her dog, Sawyer, reading, sports, and live music. She and her husband also love to entertain family and friends.

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Letitia Cote
Senior Associate

Letitia has an accounting degree and has been working in the Accounting/Bookkeeping industry for over 25 years. Tish is also an Acumatica Business Consultant. Outside of work, Tish has 4 grown children and 5 grandchildren, she loves to ski, hike, bike, and be outdoors. Tish has worked with Jeff for over 10 years.

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Andrea Alencar
Associate

Andrea graduated from Bridgewater State with a Bachelor's degree in Accounting. Andrea joined Siegel Solutions in 2022. Andrea has gained accounting experience working in various industries including a CPA firm, legal, hospitality, and telecommunications. Before coming to Siegel Solutions Andrea previously worked as a bookkeeper and staff accountant.

Andrea has 4 kids which keep her busy. Outside of work, Andrea enjoys spending time with her kids, being outside, cooking, and going to softball/baseball games.

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Mike Derrico
IT

I started my career in 1983 when I designed and built a device to share a computer program, written by the president of a local bank and his son, running on an Apple Lisa computer. The device allowed the large and expensive Lisa's computer to be shared with bank employees. With this program, and with my device, we started a company to market this unique solution to banks. At this point, computer networks were just starting to be used in businesses. I transitioned my efforts to providing support for migrating banking terminal/mainframe functions to the emerging Personal Computer networking platform. For the next decade, I worked with, and beta tested, numerous technologies to integrate the banking functions from dumb terminals into the now smart desktop computers. After working with a few small consulting firms, I started my own company focusing on providing I.T. support to SMBs. More recently I am now doing the exact opposite by helping customers migrate their PC applications and data from their local computers to The Cloud. A few years ago, I joined Siegel Solutions to add my years of I.T. experience to their firm.

In my spare time, I like to travel, fly my drone and, most importantly, spend time with my family. I also still enjoy tinkering with technology.

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Pat Jaworski
Associate

After spending most of her corporate career in the insurance industry, Pat joined a QuickBooks consulting firm providing bookkeeping services to several small companies. Late in 2022, that firm merged with Siegel Solutions, Inc., bringing Pat and her clients to the group. She provides services to clients in a variety of industries: fitness, construction, beauty, equine care, and medical billing, to name a few. She enjoys supporting her clients by keeping their financial records in good shape and allowing them to focus on growing their respective businesses.

Pat resides in the 495/MetroWest area with her husband Ed, daughter Abby and Duffy, their lovable, energetic golden retriever.

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John Brakey Campos

Senior Account
Payroll Manager

John has been with Intuit for over 18 years, serving in a variety of roles across the organization. For the past 8+ years, he has focused on payroll and workforce management solutions, helping clients streamline operations and make informed decisions. John is passionate about working directly with customers to understand their unique needs and recommend the best solutions to support their teams.

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DeeAnna Keyes

Sales and Marketing Associate

DeeAnna Keyes, has been our Sales and Marketing Associate since December 2023. She brings a wealth of experience, having worked at Intuit with a focus on Quickbooks Online and Quickbooks Desktop. With a robust sales history and a license as a real estate agent in Virginia, DeeAnna is a versatile professional. Outside of work, she cherishes family moments, indulges in camping with friends, and finds joy in entertaining at home with her husband and four children.

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Janice Kats

Associate

Janice Kats graduated from Carl Sandburg College with an Associate Degree in Accounting in 1992 and has been working in the accounting field ever since in various jobs doing AR, AP, payroll, office management, and bookkeeping before joining Siegel Solutions in late 2023.

In 2022, she made the decision to branch out on her own and started her own bookkeeping business, working from home.

She is a mom to 3 grown children and a grandmother to 5 grandchildren and enjoys spending time with her husband and two dogs and following her grandchildren in all of their sports.

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Alyssa Bradford
Firm Manager

Alyssa Bradford joined Siegel Solutions as Firm Manager in March 2025, bringing with her a strong background in operations management and a hands-on, "boots on the ground" leadership style. Known for her excellent communication skills and practical approach to problem-solving, Alyssa plays a key role in driving efficiency and fostering team collaboration at the firm.

She is a graduate of the University of Hartford and lives in Franklin with her husband and son, where they enjoy making the most of nice weather together as a family. In her downtime, Alyssa enjoys HGTV and Food Network shows.

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Cynthia Moncayo-Mena
Associate

Cynthia joined Siegel Solutions in March 2025 as an Associate. She has a Bachelor's in Accounting from New Jersey City University and over 10 years of experience in accounting.
She is married with two children and enjoys reading and exploring new places to visit!

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Jermaine Sanders
Associate

Jermaine began his accounting career in 2017 after earning his Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from Emory & Henry College. With seven years of industry experience, he brings a solid background in financial analysis, business taxation, and small business accounting. Jermaine is a QuickBooks Online Certified ProAdvisor and is currently pursuing his CPA designation. He joined Siegel Solutions in the summer of 2025.

Outside of work, Jermaine leads an active lifestyle. He enjoys attending football and basketball games, hiking, biking, and spending quality time with family and friends. A fan of great music, he also enjoys relaxing to the sounds of jazz and practicing the trombone.

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Miya "Yiting" Guan
Accounting Co-Op

Miya joined Siegel Solutions this summer as a six-month Co-op. She is entering her senior year at Northeastern University and brings prior experience from a previous Co-op. In a short time, Miya has already proven to be a valuable asset to the team, thanks to her strong technical and financial skill set.

Originally from Shanghai, China, Miya has an older sister and a younger brother. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, hiking, and going to the movies.

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