Virtual CFOThe month that has to close
The dashboard says the month is fine and the bank says otherwise. A decision priced on an open month is a guess. We say so before anyone treats the guess as a plan.
Start the closeWhat tied actually means
The bank statement, the check register, and the books are made to say the same thing. The gaps are usually bank charges, deposits the statement has not caught, and checks still out. We name each gap. A plug account is not how the month gets called done.
Then we look at the taxes that were supposed to be paid, the bills still open, the invoices customers still owe, and the owner's draws kept in their own account. Drafts for sales tax and for payroll tax have to equal the amounts that actually left the bank. A mismatch means the month is still open, whatever the screen claims.
Cash or accrual, and then stay there
A business picks a method and stays with it. Under the cash method, income lands when it is received. Under the accrual method, income lands when it is earned, and expenses land when they are incurred. Switching because a month looks kinder is how a year becomes a fight.
A shop that carries inventory generally uses accrual for purchases and sales, with a small business exception that belongs in the current IRS procedure, not in a remembered dollar. We will not print an old cap as if it were this year's rule.
Payday is set up, then someone else runs it
Payroll on this site means setup. Registrations, the provider you already want to use, pay items, and a deposit calendar. After that, the provider runs payday. We do not process payroll, and we do not describe ourselves as the people who push the button on Friday.
What an owner takes has to be chosen on purpose. For an owner who works in an S corporation, the wage is one of the choices that gets easier in October than in April. It belongs in the same hour as the close, because the books have to be able to carry it.
A scattered week, same close.
Picture the receipts spread across the kitchen table after a week that would not sit still. We know that pile. Every owner who has watched a week come apart already knows the feeling.
A messy week does not postpone the close. The day we named is still the day the bank will accept. If a rough week scatters the receipts, that week gets rewritten on the weeks page once the month is tied.
Which month is still open
Name the newest month you would defend. The reply names whatever the tie is still missing.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.