What should a Salt Lake City business give its CPA at year end?
A closed year that agrees with the bank. That means every account reconciled through December 31, a profit and loss and balance sheet run after December is closed, and the supporting lists your CPA will ask for anyway: payroll, contractors, equipment and loans. Hand those over together and the return starts from numbers someone has already checked.
| Item | What it shows your CPA | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Bank and card reconciliations | That the books agree with every statement | Your statements, matched in the books |
| Year-end profit and loss | Income and expenses for the whole year | The books, after December is closed |
| Year-end balance sheet | What the business owns and owes on December 31 | The books, after December is closed |
| Payroll totals | Wages paid and taxes withheld for the year | Your payroll system |
| Contractor payment list | Who you paid and how much, for Forms 1099-NEC | The books, by vendor |
| Equipment bought or sold | Dates, costs and what happened to each item | Purchase and sale invoices |
| Loan statements | The balance on December 31 and interest paid | Your lender's year-end statement |
| Last year's return | A starting point to compare against | Your own files |
Which year-end situation are you in?
Find your row and start before the year ends. The closing steps and the final reports land in January. A business with staff and new equipment will sit in more than one.
| Your situation | What to do before your CPA asks | Who usually does it |
|---|---|---|
| Books reconciled every month this year | Close December and run the year-end reports | You or your bookkeeper |
| Books current, but some accounts never reconciled | Reconcile the missing months, then close the year | You or your bookkeeper |
| Months behind, or books never really set up | Catch the books up before year end, not during tax season | A bookkeeper doing cleanup |
| You paid employees or contractors | Have payroll totals and the contractor list ready in early January | Your payroll provider or bookkeeper |
| You bought or sold equipment | List each item with its date and cost | You, from the invoices |
In the third row? Start catching up now, because a year rebuilt in March is rebuilt in a hurry. Catching up is the job of historical cleanup, one of the add-ons.
Why does reconciliation come before everything else?
Because every report on the list is only as good as the accounts underneath it. IRS Publication 583 says you should reconcile your checking account each month, and that doing it lets you verify how much money is in the account, make sure the books reflect every bank charge and the correct balance, and correct errors.
Do the same for every credit card and loan account. An unmatched card is where a duplicate expense or a missing refund hides. Reconciled monthly, December is one more month to close. Left alone, December is twelve.
What are the January dates for payroll and contractors?
The forms for your people come due at the turn of January into February. For contractors, the 1099-NEC deadline and who gets one are covered in our post on contractor and employee records, so start the contractor list from the books now.
For staff, the IRS general instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 give February 1, 2027 as the date to file 2026 Forms W-2 with the Social Security Administration. Utah's withholding page lists January 31 for the combined fourth quarter and annual withholding return, and says employers must also file all required W-2s electronically by January 31. Utah Publication 14 says anything due on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday is due the next business day, and January 31, 2027 is a Sunday, so for 2026 that works out to February 1, 2027 as well.
Ivory Balance Books offers 1099 filing and payroll as add-ons. Her services page says contractor payments are tracked all year and 1099s are filed before the January deadline.
What does Salt Lake County ask about your equipment?
If your business owns furniture, computers or machinery, the county wants a list too. The Salt Lake County Assessor's business personal property page says all non-exempt, tangible business personal property is valued and assessed every year, and that statements are mailed to county businesses on the tax rolls during January and February. Salt Lake City sits inside the county, so a city business with equipment can be filling one in during the same weeks as its W-2s and 1099s. Each statement asks about the year just ended.
The county's 2026 instructions for the personal property statement, the latest posted, asked businesses to list property acquired or disposed of during 2025, with the year acquired and the original cost. They set the exemption at a total taxable value of $30,100 or less, claimed by completing the statement or signing a certification on time. The statement that arrives in early 2027 will ask about 2026, so use the year, threshold and exemption steps printed on the one you receive.
That's the same list your CPA needs. The IRS page on what records to keep says asset records should show when and how you acquired each item, the purchase price, the cost of any improvements, how you used it, and when and how you disposed of it. Keep one equipment list in the books and it answers both. Whether you owe the county, and how your CPA treats each purchase, are their calls.
One more Salt Lake City receipt belongs in the year's file. The city's business page says all business licenses must be renewed annually, so keep each year's renewal receipt with the year's records. Our post on doing business in Salt Lake City from another Utah city covers how to record a second license against the right company.
How long should you keep what you hand over?
Longer than one tax season. The IRS page on how long to keep records says to keep records for 3 years in the general case, employment tax records for at least 4 years after the tax becomes due or is paid, whichever is later, and property records until the period of limitations expires for the year you dispose of the property.
So an equipment invoice can stay in the file for years after the equipment is gone.
When is it worth handing year end to a bookkeeper?
When the year has months nobody reconciled, or your CPA keeps sending the same questions back. Ivory Balance Books keeps the books and builds the handover, and your CPA takes it from there.
Based in South Jordan, Melanie Mathews keeps monthly bookkeeping for businesses that have outgrown the basics, with monthly financial reports by the 10th. At year end she puts together a year-end tax package for your CPA, with books kept in a state your CPA can open and file from. If you run more than one company, keep each one's records apart, which is why separate books for each LLC matter long before December. Her Salt Lake City page covers multi-entity bookkeeping for city businesses.
Want December closed before your CPA asks?
Book a complimentary discovery call with Melanie. It takes about fifteen minutes.
