A year of financial statements is only as complete as the statements it is built from. This is the checklist, in the order people usually get it wrong.
Every account
Every bank account, credit card, loan and line of credit the business used during the period, including ones that were opened or closed partway through and ones you only used a few times. An account that is left out leaves a hole in the Balance Sheet and, usually, transfers on the other accounts that cannot be matched. If the business paid for things from a personal card, that card is a business account for the months it was used that way.
Every month
Twelve statements per account for a calendar year; however many it takes for any other period. The months must be continuous: each statement’s ending balance is the next one’s beginning balance, and that chain is the proof that nothing was missed. Watch the edges. A credit card that closes on the 15th needs the statement that covers the first half of January and the one that covers the second half of December, which is thirteen statements for one calendar year.
As PDFs or exports from the bank’s website
Download the statement the bank produced as a PDF, not a photo or a scan, which can be misread. The PDF carries the printed beginning and ending balances that make the proof possible. A CSV, Excel or QBO/QFX/OFX export works too, but it rarely carries those balances, so you type the account’s balance at the start and end of the year yourself. Most banks keep a year or two online and some keep seven; a month that has dropped off the website can be requested from the bank.
What counts as an account
One bank account, one credit card, or one loan is one account. A credit card with two cardholders is still one account. A credit union statement that lists checking and share savings on the same PDF is two accounts; the statement is simply uploaded once and covers both. Rekonix Lite prices by account: $49.99 covers two, each additional one is $15.
When a month is missing
Get it from the bank. If the account is closed and the bank cannot produce it, the year can still be built, but the missing month has to be reconstructed from the surrounding balances and whatever records exist, and the statements should say so.
What you do not need
Receipts, invoices, a chart of accounts, bookkeeping software, or a prior year’s books. The opening balances come from the first statements. You will be asked for exactly two things the statements cannot tell anyone: who the checks with no printed payee were for, and what you took out as owner draws, and only for the lines where it matters.
The quick version
- List every account the business touched in the period.
- Download each month’s PDF statement for each one, including the edge months.
- Check the chain: each ending balance is the next beginning balance.
- Upload them all. If one is missing, get it before you build anything.