The Ultimate Small Business Bookkeeping Checklists

Bookkeeping can feel endless sometimes, can’t it? Between managing receipts, categorizing your bank transactions, sending out customer invoices, and QuickBooks notifications, it’s easy to feel like you’re always behind. It’s that task you carry from one week’s to-do list to the next… and the next…

Well, the good news is: it doesn’t have to be that way. With a simple checklist and a routine, you can stay on top of your numbers without letting them take over your life.

This post gives you the highlights of a solid bookkeeping routine — daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks to think about — so you can keep your books clean and your stress low.

Daily Tasks

• Save receipts (digitally is fine — no more shoeboxes full of paper receipts).

  Fun fact: Most accounting systems nowadays, like QBO, allow you to attach your receipts directly in the system.

• Send invoices as soon as the work is done. This is easier said than done sometimes, but work on making this the goal!

  ✨ This prevents a pile-up and helps keep your cash flow moving.

Weekly Tasks

• Categorize transactions in QuickBooks Online.

• Review open invoices and send reminders to your customers.

• Pay any outstanding bills to vendors.

Monthly Tasks

• Check for duplicate or missing entries..

• Reconcile bank and credit card accounts.

• Review your Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet.

  👉 Think of this as proofreading your numbers before they trip you up later.

• Pay yourself (because yes, you should!).

  ✨ Whether it’s through payroll or you take an owner draw, just don’t forget to do it.

Annual Tasks

• Review your year-end financial reports.

• Review your tax situation and gather documents.

• Meet with your tax accountant, if you are working with one.

  ✨ And I highly recommend it! Even I don’t prepare and file my taxes each year, I have my own tax accountant that I work with.

The Big Picture
When you break it down into small, regular steps, bookkeeping eventually stops being overwhelming and starts being just another part of your business routine — like marketing or client work.

The goal here is to prevent a build-up of work, because that’s when it starts to feel like too much. And yep, you guessed it… when we put it off it only gets 100x worse (naturally). Then we just continue in this vicious cycle: knowing it needs to get done, feeling overwhelmed because there’s SO much to do and it’s confusing, putting it off, and then watching that workload grow even bigger.

That’s why a checklist matters — it helps break the cycle.

Looking for a detailed checklist in a ready-to-use format? I’ve created printable and digital checklists you can keep by your side (or create the steps as Tasks within your QBO file). Grab them here and make bookkeeping one less thing to stress about.

Good luck out there! You’ve got this.

💛 YAS