How can a Fractional Accountant Help with Year-End?

These last few years have created unprecedented demands for the accounting and finance teams of small companies (and larger ones, too!). As a result, we have seen many clients come to us looking for assistance in getting their accounting tasks caught up to enable both internal and external reporting.
 
Let’s take a look at what kinds of requirements exist this year and who should be responsible for meeting them!

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​Understanding What’s Required 
As always, there are many year-end requirements that your business should be aware of as the end of its fiscal year approaches. These include, but are not limited to:

• Income tax returns
• State Department of Revenue returns
• Possible audits (financial, IRS, state employment security)
• Account reconciliations
• Budgeting
• Cash flow planning

 
In a lot of cases the end of the year sneaks up on business leaders. Suddenly, they have the realization that there are many uncompleted tasks on their year-end list that must be done before the year can be truly closed out. Will you have enough time and bandwidth to complete these tasks? Or do you need to bring in help to get everything across the finish line?
 
Even when routine year-end requirements are on track to be met unexpected needs can still arise, like PBC (prepared by client) requests that will come from your auditor and inventory verifications for your bankers and other lenders. Are you ready to complete and submit those forms? If you are a non-profit, have you evaluated/categorized your expenditures for the IRS Form 990 submission?

Access the Year-End Tax Planning Guide!

Assigning Roles 
Sometimes, there are honest and sincere questions about relative roles and responsibilities in an accounting department. Sometimes, the roles are just not clearly defined. But in the end, it comes down to gaining clarity on who does what, when, and how. Are the tasks and role responsibilities clearly defined and documented? What are the obstacles to getting it all done? Limited resources and time are the usual culprits!
 
There are clearly many special tasks that are required to close out your fiscal year. A Fractional (part-time resource) can be a great help during the close out of a fiscal year to complete outstanding tasks and enable you to start the new year from a position of strength, instead of having to play catch-up. It is a much better solution than hiring more staff on to your payroll, only to have them run out of work sometime early in Q1 of the new year.

Reducing Errors 
Unfortunately, even when you have enough staff, working with solid processes, errors can still occur. Macy’s gave us a very public example of this ugly truth back in November when they disclosed that an accounting error dating back to 2021 resulted in them hiding $154M in expenses and delaying Q3 earnings reporting. The employee that was determined to be responsible apparently committed the act intentionally and is no longer employed by Macy’s. However, we have seen clients with similar expense errors that are simple mistakes – miscategorized expenses, the byproduct of too much work and too little time, or the result of bad processes. Are your staff equipped to do their best work?
 
Having the right accounting policies and procedures in place and sufficient financial oversight are such critical components of a well-run organization! Leaning on a fractional accountant offers the kind of separation that improves internal controls to help reduce the likelihood of not only malfeasance but also unintentional errors.

Finding a Fractional Resource 
Over the years, we’ve helped hundreds of clients navigate the rough waters of year-end close. Our accounting consultants bring many years’ worth of experience to every role. They are adept at learning new systems and processes as well as filling in accounting gaps. When you need year-end help, our team of fractional accountants has the bandwidth and expertise to come alongside your organization to partner for success. Contact us to find out more today!
 
About the Author
Kurt Maass – Practice Manager, CFO Selections

​Kurt Maass is a versatile and accomplished executive with 30+ years of experience in finance, accounting, and operations roles.  He has worked extensively in the wireless, landline telecom, ecommerce, manufacturing and energy conservation sectors, including serving as divisional and public company VP-Finance and CFO, in addition to public accounting firm experience. He brings a unique perspective from working with both very large companies (managing operational and capital budgets in excess of $2B annually) as well as very small early-stage start-ups, where he has actively participated in multiple equity and debt financing rounds. Kurt is very successful at implementing cost control measures while designing and streamlining processes that allow businesses to thrive.

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