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Important Monthly Bookkeeping Tasks You May Have Missed

There are certainly other tasks that may need to be performed. These are the ones our support technicians and trainers commonly see missed.

Software Updates

  • Keep your software updated. Please check for updates and run them.
  • Set permissions to update.
  • Put someone in charge of updating on the last Friday of each month (for example)
  • Check for new Custom Data Views (CDVs). These are not included in the Total Office Manager updates.
  • Check for Schedule Board updates. These are not included in the Total Office Manager updates.
  • Check user security. New features and CDVs may not have permission set.

Check the Company File Information

In the File Properties tab:

  • Check First and Last Transaction Date
  • Check GL Balanced

In the Database Stats tab:

  • Click Run Database Maintenance (non-hosted only)

Check Customer Billing (invoicing)

  1. Be sure that you have been billing your customers and that you are billing for jobs properly.
  2. Do you received equipment that you can bill a customer or job for?
  3. Have you reached a milestone on a job that you can bill for (progress invoicing).
  4. Have you accidently underbilled a customer or job? How would anyone know if you have not invoiced the entire amount? What if someone made a mistake creating the invoice and it was less than the amount you are expecting?
  5. When invoicing for jobs, always have an estimate and create your invoices from that estimate. The invoice will show you how much of the estimate has been billed (invoiced to the customer) and how much is left. Check this against what you think it should be.
  6. Go to Reports > Contacts & Jobs > Jobs. Look at the various reports available to help you with billing.
    • Use the “Reimbursables” report to view labor and items purchased for a job but are not yet invoiced.
    • Use the “Progress Billing – Estimates vs. Billed” report to see what estimates need invoices created. This report will also show you if you have not billed for the entire amount of the estimate. Important: All jobs should start with an estimate.
    • Use the “Estimate Over Under Details” Custom Data View (CDV) to see where you stand with each job. This report will also show you if you have not billed for the entire amount of the estimate.
    • Look at the “Purchase Orders by Customer:Jobs” report to see if any billable items or sub-contracting services that have been ordered but not received.
    • Check any other report that might be of value. Be sure to check the list of Custom Data Views for helpful reports and information.

Check Your Aging Reports

  • Click Reports | Company | Purchasing | A/P Aging.
  • Check to make sure that you are not late paying bills.
  • Click Reports | Sales | A/R Aging
  • Be sure that you are collecting your money and stay on top of collections.
  • Are there any invoices that you thought were paid but have balances?

Convert Mobile Invoices

  • Open the Invoice list and filter for Mobile Invoices.
  • Open, inspect, Save & Close

Handle Undeposited Funds

  • We recommend that you Group with Other Undeposited Funds
  • Be sure that all payments have been deposited.
  • Click Banking | Make Deposit.
  • Click the Payments button.

Locate Missing Records or Data Selections

There may be times were invoices and other records are created but do not have certain information that you need or required added to them. For example, you may have invoices , bills, credit card charges, and work orders that don’t have a department selected.

Be sure to check the list of Custom Data Views for helpful reports and information. There are several CDVs that begin with the word “Missing”. These might help you locate missing records.

Perform Reconciliations

  • Bank Reconciliation
  • Credit Card Reconciliation
  • Print Reconciliation Reports or save as PDFs.
  • Also look for credit card or ACH payments that did not go through.
  • Both done by a trusted outsider such as outside accountant or family member.

Bank Reconciliation Reports Are Not Static

The Bank Reconciliation Report name includes the date that was selected in the Statement Date field when the Bank Rec was performed. It adds that name to the report name. Example: “Cash in Bank – Savings Account (12/31/2023).” When the report is saved, it accurately represents everything that a user selected, didn’t select, entered, etc., during that bank rec. If changes are made to records contained on that bank rec report, the report will be different. If records are deleted, amounts are changed, etc., the report will no longer be correct.

Saved bank and credit card reconciliation reports are not static, any more than your income statement and balance sheet reports are static. They are all subject to change depending on whether any of the related transactions are modified after the reconciliation. If you run the reports at a later time, they will contain any changes made to related transactions or records (if any).

We recommend that you print PDF versions of your bank and credit card reconciliation reports. That way, you will have a static report as to exactly what was reconciled.

Set a new Cutoff Date after you reconcile and “close the books” for that period. This will prevent others from changing transactions that were cleared. Go to Preferences > Cutoff Date > Company Preferences.

Check for Non-Converted Item Receipts

  • Click Vendor > Item Receipts.
  • Make sure that you do not have any item receipts that you were not expecting.

Check for Invoices with No Serial Numbers

  • Click Customers | Customer:Job List.
  • Set the Quick Filter to show invoices with serial items sold but no serial number selected.
  • Be sure you have selected serial numbers.

Update Retail Pricing

  • The retail price of your items do not change automatically. As the price you pay for items changes, you should update your retail price accordingly. This task is fast and easy.
  • Click Company | Update Retail Price

Perform Database Checkup

  • Click Tools | Utilities | Database Checkup
  • These are the two most important.
  • Missing GJ Entries
  • Out of Balance Transactions
  • Next, run all others

Check for Inactive Warehouses with Items

If you inactivate a warehouse, please be sure to make sure it does not have any inventory in it. The Total Qty (Qty. On-Hand) should be 0.00. You should not have any items in the negative either.

From the Warehouse List, you can right click on the Warehouse and click View Inventory List. Click Show All, so that you can see any items that are inactive.

Check for Inactive Items Not Equal to Zero

Open the Invoice Item List and click the Inactive filter. Be sure that the Total Qty. is zero and that you have none in the negative.

Update Cutoff Date

  • Click Edit | Preferences | Cutoff Date | Company Preferences
  • Update the Cutoff Date (if needed).
  • Update the “Warn If Transactions are” (if needed).

Check for Duplicates

There are many records that can get duplicated but here are the top ones to look for.

  • Check for duplicate customers. Use the Merge Contacts feature to locate, merge, and remove duplicated customers and jobs.
  • 7lCheck for duplicated accounts in the Chart of Accounts. Use the Merge COA feature to locate, merge, and remove duplicated accounts.

Appointments, Reminders, and Phone Messages

  • Check these for items that may have been missed during the month.
  • Look for unread phone messages.
  • Look for reminders and appointments that have not been completed.

For the IT Professional (for non-hosted only)

  • IMPORTANT: Be sure you are backing up your SQL Server Database(s)
  • Be sure you can restore your backups.
  • Be sure that you have setup daily database maintenance according to known best practices.