This template simplifies QuickBooks cleanup by laying out the process for your team in one central place. When used well, your team will become faster, more accurate, and more efficient at reviewing and cleaning up your client’s financial data. The checklist is actionable because the tasks were created using the procedures of experienced accounting and bookkeeping professionals. An accounting spreadsheet template is a spreadsheet that outlines the steps that make up (or conditions to be met to complete) an accounting process. In this article, we share 10 accounting checklist templates to help you optimize your accounting processes at scale.

• Between getting work done and keeping track of what’s being done, manual tasks can overwhelm even the best accounting teams.
• If you’re still unsure, check the official IRS website for additional information, or consult with a tax professional.
• When you enter new transactions into the Transactions sheet you must Refresh the pivot table otherwise it won’t show the new information.

Tax Preparer Checklist Template for Clients

The template lists example cash receipts, payments, operating expenses, and additional costs. Use this template to review each item and determine the overall month-end cash position for each time period. The excel cash book is the simplest and easiest way to start recording and tracking your business income and expenses and bank balance, for your day to day bank accounts. Once you’ve recorded transactions and classified them under the correct accounts, you can consolidate them into an income statement. This reports your revenue, expenses, and net income over a specific period.

The Tax Calculator in Excel is designed to estimate the amount accounting spreadsheet of tax an individual or business owes. For instance, an individual can input their income, deductions, and applicable tax rates into the calculator. This is useful for budgeting, financial planning, and ensuring compliance with tax regulations.

Time Value of Money

A simple expense report is helpful to keep track of business expenses for an individual, department, project, or company, and provides a quick way to document and track expense details. You can require that your team submit monthly expense reports or as the expenses are accrued. Use this expense report template to quickly input specific expense details and obtain approvals as needed. It’s a straightforward, single-page dashboard with five interactive charts – perfect for financial analysis on the go. You’ll find a breakdown of revenue distribution by customer or product and key data from your income and profit and loss statements (invoice status, net earnings, etc.).

Although Excel can perform calculations, it lacks key accounting software features like automated journal entries and inventory management. As your business expands and transactions increase, these limitations can significantly impact your accounting processes. Data shows a declining reliance on spreadsheets for small business accounting as businesses recognize the need for more robust solutions. For instance, Intuit’s Small Business Insights highlights how spreadsheet usage is decreasing over time, indicating a shift towards dedicated accounting software. As your firm grows and you take on more clients, your bookkeeping processes will evolve. That’s why it’s important to keep your templates updated to match these changes.

This general ledger template helps you maintain accurate financial records while comparing actual spending against budgeted amounts. This cash flow template helps you monitor money moving in and out of your bank account. Perfect for entrepreneurs who need to track business transactions and maintain healthy cash reserves.

Whether you’re a self-employed professional or managing a small business, this guide will help you create an organized system for tracking your financial transactions. The industries that arguably use Excel the most are finance and accounting, but it’s useful to all industries, such as project management and marketing. Excel use in the finance industry spans from analyzing financial statements to tracking cash flow and creating financial projections.

Managing Transactions

For each vendor service, record the expense by debiting the corresponding account (trash expense, consulting expense, repair expense, etc.). Then record a liability by crediting payable to show the amount owed on your balance sheet. Credit card expenses should be tracked separately for easy reconciliation.

Monthly Bank Reconciliation Template

Make twelve copies of the original income statement, one for each month in the year. The info in the copy of the income statement template you downloaded is only there as a placeholder. If you’re planning to do your small business accounting with Excel, this is one of those times. We’ll show you how, using Bench’s Income Statement Excel Template to get started. Using your accounting or bookkeeping Excel templates in Financial Cents enables you to create work directly from your accounting spreadsheet templates.

• The Payment Calculator in Excel is used to determine the number of periodic payments for loans or other financial obligations.
• It helps you understand how much you owe at any point in the loan term and how your payments contribute to reducing the total debt.
• This template outlines essential monthly tasks, such as reconciling accounts, reviewing financial statements, categorizing transactions, and preparing reports.
• Make sure your plan shows clear steps and objectives, including how you will monitor success and progress.
• This helps bookkeeping teams collaborate and get work done efficiently.

Make sure they understand key functions like formulas, data validation, and shortcuts that can speed up their workflow. If you update a template or introduce a new one, walk them through the changes so everyone stays on the same page. If your team isn’t familiar with to use them, they’ll make mistakes which will affect their efficiency. Take the time to train your team on how to use these templates properly.

If you manually type anything into the Totals or Bank Balance columns you will over-type the formulas and the totals will be messed up. There is a page of quick tips notes to get you started fast with your bookkeeping. Clickon the blue button above – the template will download direct to your device. Clicking the button below will download the template directly to your device.

This template ensures accurate financial reporting by ensuring that your team does not forget to collect relevant information from your monthly bookkeeping clients. It also helps them remember every step needed to complete the monthly bookkeeping process. A Tracker in Excel is a spreadsheet used to record and monitor various types of data over time. For example, a sales manager might use a tracker to record daily sales figures, tracking progress towards sales targets. The tracker typically includes columns for dates, data points (like sales figures), and possibly calculated fields for totals or averages.

Switching to accounting software is a strategic investment that can save you time, reduce errors, and provide valuable insights into your business’s finances. While Excel can be a helpful tool for very basic bookkeeping, accounting software is essential for businesses that are serious about managing their finances effectively. To get started with basic bookkeeping in Excel, our free 2025 Excel accounting template can help you track your income and expenses. You can use it to record all your income and expense transactions from any source like your bank accounts, credit cards or cash.

If anything noteworthy happens during the work, it can be added to the notes section. This helps bookkeeping teams collaborate and get work done efficiently. Using this template to create projects for your team gives you visibility into your payroll projects. The template gives your team one place to go for up-to-date AP information. It is designed with formulas that calculate your client’s paid and unpaid bills. Double Entry Bookkeeping is here to provide you with free online information to help you learn and understand bookkeeping and introductory accounting.

It’s likely that you’ll make it back through team efficiency and revenue impact – our case studies offer plenty of proof. You shouldn’t have to start from scratch each time you automate a reporting task. To save time, establish standardized procedures for the repetitive elements of automation. You should also develop a clear, unified vision for how reports should look and how often they should be updated. This will ensure consistency and accuracy when sharing reports with stakeholders. This simple document guides you through some questions to help you figure out how to determine what is and is not an acceptable business expense, and how to categorize it.

Use the cash flow tab to record transactions and monitor your cash balance. Once you’ve recorded your transactions, you will also be able to consolidate those transactions into the balance sheet. Your balance sheet will report the assets, liabilities, and equity of your business at that specific point of time. Streamline your bookkeeping workflow by integrating your templates with accounting software.

Once you’ve proven your value to a potential client, it’s time to get into the specifics. Remember, the purpose of this document is to give clients an honest idea of what to expect, so try to be as transparent as possible about costs, timelines, and fees. In this section, you will outline how your accounting firm can help your prospect overcome their specific challenges. While nice high-level value statements and buzzwords might be OK for your marketing material, they aren’t appropriate for a proposal letter—you must be specific.