Checking Reconciliation

September 20 2025

5 Powerful Steps to Organize Your Finances This Fall (Before Year-End Hits)

Marti DenUyl Accounting, Bookkeeping Tips, Finance Management Bank Reconciliation, Checking Reconciliation, Credit Card Reconciliation, Financial Organization, Profit & Loss, Receipt Organization, Tax Planning

By the time fall rolls around, most businesses have a good sense of how the year is shaping up. That makes it the perfect time to clean up your books, catch mistakes, and prepare for the final push before year-end.

Here are five practical steps you can take this fall to get financially organized.

Reconcile Your Accounts

Reconciliation is one of the simplest but most powerful ways to ensure your records are accurate. By comparing your bank and credit card statements to what’s in your accounting system, you can quickly catch errors, spot fraudulent charges, and make sure no transactions are missing.

Doing this monthly also keeps surprises at bay. Think of reconciliation as the financial equivalent of checking the map before you continue down the road, you’ll always know exactly where you stand.

Clear Old Invoices & Bills

Unpaid invoices and overdue bills clutter up your books and skew your cash flow picture. Take time to run an Accounts Receivable report and follow up with customers who still owe you. If an invoice is truly uncollectible, consider writing it off so your records reflect reality.

On the vendor side, clear up any unpaid bills. Even if they’re small, leaving them open can cause confusion later. A clean slate makes it easier to see what’s really outstanding and what’s already been taken care of.

Review Profit & Loss by Month

One of the best reports in accounting software is the Profit & Loss by month. Instead of looking at one big number for the year, you can see your business’s financial story month by month.

This report reveals seasonal trends, shows when expenses creep up, and highlights which months are most profitable. For example, if you notice higher expenses every September, you can plan better next year. Reviewing this now gives you valuable insights before heading into year-end.

Organize Receipts & Documents

Receipts and supporting documents are more than just clutter, they’re proof you’ll need if you want to maximize deductions and stay compliant at tax time.

Fall is the time to gather, scan, and organize them. You can use apps that sync with your accounting system or create simple digital folders to store everything. The key is consistency: once your system is in place, make it a habit to add receipts regularly. Future you will thank present you for not waiting until April.

Plan for Year-End Taxes Now

Many tax-saving moves, like contributing to retirement accounts, adjusting estimated payments, or accelerating certain expenses, must be done before December 31. Waiting until tax season means it’s often too late.

Take time now to connect with your accountant or advisor. They can help you evaluate where you stand and identify opportunities to save. A little planning in the fall often translates to significant benefits when tax time rolls around.

Wrapping It Up

Fall is more than pumpkin spice and cozy sweatshirts (though I love both!), it’s the ideal season to prepare your finances for year-end. By reconciling accounts, clearing old invoices and bills, reviewing monthly profit and loss, organizing receipts, and planning ahead for taxes, you’ll head into the new year with confidence and clarity.

Start small, pick one step today. Each action you take now is one less headache later, and your future self will be grateful when tax season feels less like a scramble and more like a breeze.

December 16 2021

Account Reconciliation in QuickBooks Desktop

Marti DenUyl Bookkeeping Tips, QuickBooks Desktop Account Reconciliation, Checking Reconciliation, Credit Card Reconciliation, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Help

The account reconciliation feature is an important tool to make sure banking and credit card/loan transactions are entered into QuickBooks.

We strongly recommend that you make account reconciliation a monthly habit. Doing so has numerous benefits:

Have confidence that your bank balance in QuickBooks is accurate.
Match payments to invoices.
Make sure that your bill payments are entered.
Catch errors sooner.
Detect unauthorized access to your accounts.

Before you attempt a reconciliation using QuickBooks, there are actions you can take ahead of time to minimize the time required and make the process less frantic and frustrating. Here are some tips.

Match your bank/credit card accounts with QuickBooks accounts.

If you are new to QuickBooks and/or you have not set up accounts that mirror all of your bank and credit card accounts, you’ll need to do so. Here’s how:

Open the Company menu and select Chart of Accounts. Click the down arrow next to Account in the lower left corner and select New. This window will open:

*QuickBooks needs one account for each bank account or credit card you plan to reconcile.*

You are going to want to reconcile your checking account(s), so select Bank and click Continue. Complete the fields on the screen that opens and save the account.

Be sure that your QuickBooks transactions are up to date

If you have connected your QuickBooks file to your online bank, this will be easier. You will want to enter any cleared transactions from your statement that are missing in QuickBooks. If you have not set up a link to your financial institution, we recommend that you do so. Otherwise, you will have to sign on to your online bank account and locate each cleared transaction for each account. (We can help you with this step if you are unsure how).

The reconciliation process

Reconciling an account in QuickBooks is similar to the way you used to do it using a paper statement and your checkbook register. You will be matching the transactions from one to the other and clicking the ones that correspond. When you have finished, QuickBooks should show a $0.00 difference between the two.

This is the most difficult step in reconciling: ending up with a zero difference. If you don’t, begin to troubleshoot your deposits/checks and charges totals at the bottom of the reconciliation window to your totals on your bank statement. If both balances are off, you will have to go through each item to determine what is missing, entered twice or not entered correctly in QuickBooks. If you still cannot determine the difference, reach out to us for help.

Remember to enter interest earned and service fee amounts.

*QuickBooks will prompt you, but don’t forget to enter any **Service Charges** or **Interest Earned**.*

They will probably seem like small amounts, but your reconciliation will not work if you do not enter any interest earned or bank service charges. These fields will appear at the bottom of the window when you open the Banking menu and select Reconcile.

Once you have gone through a reconciliation successfully, the next ones should be easier. Doing it for the first time can be a challenge. We can help you through the process. If you would rather, we can even take over your reconciliation chores completely. We are here when you need us.