The end of the year is busy with the holidays, family obligations, and looming tax obligations. Taking some time to tie up the loose ends of the business year will help set you up for success for the coming year. Let’s take a look at some of the steps you can take to wrap up your year with a big red bow!
Get Organized
The IRS offers a records retention schedule. Business owners should take time annually to organize their files and purge old documents. Ideally, you should store items by year with the exception of those documents the IRS suggests keeping permanently. This way, you can also go through your boxes from past years and purge documents that are due for destruction. Taking time to organize and purge your files will set you up for a clean start to the New Year.
Assess Equipment Needs
Spending your profits on equipment or furniture will help decrease your tax liability for that year. Take a look at your equipment. Do your employees need new laptops, desk chairs, software? There are great deals to be had at the end of the year which could end up saving you money in the long run.
Find Places to Save Money
Year-end is a great time to evaluate your spending for that year. Look at your spending on office supplies, utilities, or even subscriptions to see if there’s anything you can cut back on in the coming year. You may be spending money on magazines that nobody reads or purchased software that is rarely used. Even if you outsource your bookkeeping, it’s a good idea to look over these items yourself on an annual basis.
Reward Employees
Show your employees you care! You can do this through bonuses, buying lunch for them, having an in-office party, holding a catered party off-site, or simply buying gift cards. Take the time to thank them for their time, energy, and efforts in growing your business. A small hand-written note in a card will go a long way to encouraging employee loyalty.
Count Your Inventory
We encourage our clients who keep inventory to do a count more than once per year. As a small business, you can very easily fall victim to theft if you aren’t watching your inventory closely. Some of our clients with high inventory turnover conduct monthly counts of their inventory. This way, they can look for patterns of loss to determine if theft is occurring. Getting your inventory up to date is very important for your tax preparation efforts.
Check Your Website and Social Media
Go to your website and check every single link. Try sending yourself a message from the “Contact Us” page. Call the listed phone number to make sure it works. Make sure your hours of operation and listed holidays are up to date. This is often the first thing new members see and it doesn’t look good if your web page is full of outdated information and broken links.
Verify Vendor Information
Now is the time to look through your vendors and update any old or missing information. Take a moment to look at inactive vendors and decide if rekindling a relationship with them is worth it. If not, purge your system of inactive vendors for a cleaner list going forward.
Set New Goals
The is the perfect time to evaluate your current goals and set new ones for the coming year. Employees feel included and a bigger part of the organization when goals that were met throughout the year are shared with them. Use your financial statements, customer feedback, and team input to set new goals. While it’s a given that we are discussing financial goals, we suggest you also make room to evaluate professional and client goals, too. It’s also a good idea to set Key Performance Measurements for your team and have them set personal and professional goals for themselves, too.
