Year-End is Coming: 9 Questions to Ask About Your Accounting

The end of the year will be here before you know it. Now is the perfect time to pause and ask a few important questions about your accounting operations. Are your books up to date? Are there cleanup projects that will take longer than expected if you wait? Is your team getting the most out of your systems, especially when things speed up in January?

Year-end is more than a deadline to “get entries posted.” It’s a chance to see where your accounting really stands, identify problems early, and fix them now so your year-end close and the start of the new year will go more smoothly and be less stressful.

Use the questions below to start a conversation with your team and, ideally, with your advisors.

Is your accounting up to date and do you trust your numbers?

Before year-end arrives, take a close look at where things stand with your accounting. Ask yourself:

Are the books current, or are there transactions that still need to be posted?
Are transactions being recorded in the right month?
Do the “holding” accounts on your balance sheet (prepaid expenses, unpaid bills you’ve accrued, deposits, clearing accounts) match what’s actually going on in your business or do they carry inconsistencies from earlier months?

If something feels off, don’t wait, year-end is the time to address it. Waiting until the week before close is often how small problems become large ones.

Do you need an accounting cleanup? Start now.

Accounting cleanup doesn’t have to mean redoing everything. Often, it’s a handful of specific fixes:

Correcting coding errors and reclassifying transactions
Matching up bank and credit card transactions that don’t line up with your books
Following up on open AR and AP items that look out of place
Making sure credits, refunds, and adjustments were applied correctly
Confirming you can back up the balances in key accounts

The earlier you start, the more time you give your team to find out why something went wrong instead of just patching symptoms. This also helps you produce year-end reporting that you can trust.

Review manual processes. Can they be automated?

Many organizations rely on manual steps that worked when you had fewer transactions. But even when your team is diligent, as your business grows, manual processes can slow you down and increase the likelihood of mistakes, especially during busy periods.

Ask yourself these questions:

Where are you typing in data that could be captured automatically?
Are bills or invoices being keyed into the accounting system one-by-one?
Are approvals happening through email threads, with no clear record of who said yes?
Are you tracking customer invoices in spreadsheets rather than through a structured AR workflow?
Are recurring transactions handled the same way every time?

Year-end is a smart time to identify what’s repetitive and what is error-prone. That’s where automation tends to cut down on rework and mistakes and ensure a more predictable close.

Are you using all of the available features of your accounting software?

Most businesses use only a portion of what their accounting software offers. Sometimes a feature is there but not set up correctly. Other times, nobody has been trained on how to use it.

Ask internally:

Is your team actually using the software the way it was designed?
Are you using features like approval workflows, recurring transactions, automated reminders, and standard templates?
Are you looking at reports throughout the year, not just at year-end?
Are integrations (if you have them) working correctly?
Are users entering data the same way and following established rules?

A software “refresh” doesn’t necessarily require new tools. It can be as simple as reconfiguring workflows, improving settings, and ensuring your team is fully utilizing the system’s capabilities.

Would a new app help?

If you still have manual steps after reviewing your software features and internal workflows, a new app may help. These tools can:

Capture customer invoice information and make collecting payments easier
Bring in vendor bills, route them for approval and get payments ready faster
Store your backup documents correctly so audit retrieval is quick
Automated syncing of information between your systems to reduce duplicate entry
Flag issues before they impact your close or reports

The key is timing. Many employers are tempted to add tools mid-year, which can create rework if workflows change halfway through. Year-end gives you a reason to plan now. Your advisor can help you compare options, set things up properly, make sure your data transfers correctly and get your team ready.

Do your checks and balances still match how you work?

Internal controls are simply the safeguards that employers use to protect accuracy, compliance, and consistency. Year-end tends to show where the gaps are.

Consider:

Are approvals documented and sent to the correct person (not just implied)?
Are different people handling different steps or are responsibilities blending together due to staffing constraints?
Do you know who can enter, change, and approve important transactions?
Are there clear rules for coding, cost centers, and account setup?

Also ask whether your current approval processes are sustainable during close. If your close depends on last-minute “catch-ups” or manual approvals, it’s a sign it’s time to take another look.

Are internal processes written down and are the instructions current?

When procedures aren’t documented, the knowledge lives in people’s heads. That becomes a problem when deadlines hit and someone is out sick, leaves or gets pulled away.

This is a great time to ask yourself:

Do you have written procedures for your regular accounting tasks?
Does everyone know the close schedule and who is responsible for what?
Is there documentation for how to handle exceptions?
Could a new hire or temporary staff member pick up the instructions and follow them?

If not, consider creating a simple year-end checklist. Even a basic one can save hours and reduce confusion when timelines are short.

Does your team need more training?

Sometimes the issue isn’t the software, it’s how it’s being used. Training can improve compliance and accuracy, especially around:

Coding and documenting transactions correctly
Best practices for approvals, backups, and audit trails
Avoiding data entry errors
How to run and understand reports on customer invoices, vendor bills and bank reconciliations
How to use automation features effectively

If year-end is approaching and you know certain tasks are being handled inconsistently, consider targeted training now before things get busy.

Get Ready Now So January 1st isn’t Chaotic

One of the best reasons to prepare now is setting your team up for a smoother early-year close. If you plan for upgrades or workflow changes with proper testing and training, you can step into January with improvements that support faster AR/AP processing, cleaner documentation, and fewer manual steps.

The Bottom Line

As we approach year-end, ask yourself the questions that matter:

Is my accounting up to date?
Do I need cleanup and can I start now?
What manual tasks could be improved or automated?
Am I taking full advantage of my current accounting software features?
Do my internal controls still fit how we work?
Are our processes documented and are our staff trained appropriately?
Would an additional app streamline and automate AR/AP and other recurring workflows?