Books-Current Checklist.

Get your bookkeeping caught up and reconciled to your bank, so every other number in this pathway rests on something real. If this is beyond you or your staff, this checklist also tells you when to bring in help.

First in See Your True Financial Position, before you try to produce a statement. Work down the list and check each when it is true.

Catch up and reconcile

Every bank and credit card account is reconciled to its statement through last month.

Every transaction is recorded and categorized, not sitting in a pile to enter later.

Money you are owed is recorded, so it does not vanish from view.

Money you owe is recorded, so no bill is a surprise.

Payroll and any loans are recorded and current.

Confirm what you can trust

The cash balance in your books matches your actual bank balance to the dollar.

You can name which numbers are solid and which are still estimates.

The date the books are current through

The honesty test

If bringing the books current is beyond what you or your staff can reasonably do, because the records are too far behind or too tangled, that is a job for a bookkeeper or a nonprofit accountant. Hiring that help is the right move, not a failure. Getting help does not mean handing away your responsibility to understand the result; whoever does the bookkeeping, you still read it.

We can bring current ourselves

We need paid help for

Precedes the Core Financial Statements Guide, which needs current books to work.

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