How to Prepare Your Books for Tax Season
A tax season bookkeeping checklist for reconciling accounts, reviewing payroll and sales tax, cleaning up transactions, and sending clean reports to your tax preparer — with specific guidance for landscaping and lawn care companies.
This guide covers bookkeeping preparation — organizing and reconciling your records. Tax advice, tax strategy, and filing should come from a licensed CPA or tax professional.
Short answer
Prepare books for tax season by reconciling bank and credit card accounts, reviewing uncategorized transactions, loans, payroll, sales tax, owner activity, 1099 vendor information, and sending clean P&L and balance sheet reports to your tax preparer.
Checklist
- Reconcile all bank accounts through December 31.
- Reconcile all credit cards through December 31.
- Clear uncategorized and Ask My Accountant transactions.
- Review owner draws and contributions.
- Review loan balances and interest paid.
- Review payroll records and confirm W2 amounts.
- Review sales tax filings and confirm they match the books.
- Collect W9 information for any vendor paid over $600.
- Run a final P&L and balance sheet.
- Send clean reports to the tax preparer before their deadline.
Common mistakes
- Sending unreconciled reports to the accountant.
- Leaving Ask My Accountant or uncategorized balances unresolved.
- Recording loan proceeds as income.
- Treating owner draws as operating expenses.
- Forgetting subcontractor W9s or 1099s until January.
- Not matching sales tax filings to the books before sending reports.
Examples for service businesses
- A landscaping company should review equipment, fuel, payroll, materials, and sales tax records before tax time.
- A tree service with subcontractors should confirm 1099 details and confirm job deposits were recorded correctly.
- A lawn care company should verify credit card payments were not double-counted as fuel or supply expenses.
Clean reports are the goal
Tax preparers need organized records and reports that tie back to real accounts. The IRS recordkeeping guidance emphasizes clear income and expense records that support tax return items.
A bookkeeper's job is to get your QuickBooks file reconciled and accurate so the reports your accountant or CPA receives actually reflect what happened in the business. Clean input means fewer questions, fewer delays, and a lower chance of amended returns.
What landscaping books need before tax time
Landscaping and lawn care companies have a few year-end bookkeeping tasks that come up more often than with other service businesses.
- Equipment purchases — confirm whether any equipment bought during the year was expensed or capitalized, and have purchase invoices ready for your accountant
- Fuel card reconciliation — make sure the annual total from fuel cards matches QuickBooks and there are no duplicate entries from paying the card bill
- Seasonal payroll — verify that all crew members are on payroll correctly, W2 amounts are accurate, and any 1099 subcontractors have W9s on file
- Sales tax — if you charged sales tax on any taxable landscaping services or materials, confirm filings match the books before your accountant sees them
- Job deposits — review whether any large deposits received at year end are income or deferred revenue, and flag the question for your tax preparer
- Vehicle and trailer depreciation — have a list of all vehicles, trailers, and large equipment with purchase dates and costs ready for your accountant
When to start and what order to do it in
Start reconciling as early as November or December for the prior months, so you only have the last month or two left when January arrives. The worst position is starting January 1 with 12 months of unreconciled transactions.
Order matters: reconcile accounts first, then clear uncategorized transactions, then review owner activity, then run reports. Trying to review reports before reconciliation is done just creates work twice.
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