Prepare your landscape company for year-end close in Aspire

At this time every year, we look back at how things have transpired for our business. We review our budgets and financial statements compared to what we projected for this past year. 

Aspire has become an essential tool for reviewing your business and planning for the future. Use those reports in the system, look at your opportunities, and assess where you did well and where you can improve. Take the time to analyze and plan.

In preparation for the new year, it’s time to clear out the old and plan for the future. 

Your tax/accounting firm typically looks at what will be needed to complete your financial statements.  They will send out a checklist of items they require to finalize the financials and file your annual tax returns.

With Aspire, you have a checklist for monthly review, which you can use for the year-end close. We call it the EOM Checklist—and we have two versions, one for SAS accounting and one for SAAS. We present it to clients during implementation and invite you to download it from our Knowledge Base. In the newest version, we provide hyperlinks to brief refresher videos explaining the benefits and how-tos of each task. 

For your final close of the year, we suggest going through the EOM Checklist as if you were cleaning out your closets for the last time to make way for the new.

Here's how we recommend moving through the year-end close process.

Purchase Receipts

1. Review all Purchase Receipts in ‘New’ status.  If there has been something on the list for quite a while, maybe it’s time to remove it from the list.

2. Take a close look at your ‘Received’ list and review these questions:

• Too many items on your ‘Received’ list?

• Did you receive the vendor invoice?

• Was a duplicate purchase receipt created for the vendor invoice?

• Are there outstanding items that have lingered on the list? Perhaps it’s time to make a decision on them.

3. True up your ‘Approved’ Purchase Receipts for the year and ensure that the Vendor Bills match the Approved Purchase Receipts for the year.

Work Ticket Lists

1. Review and clean up your Work Ticket lists
2. Decide how to resolve open and scheduled tickets, as well as any tickets requiring additional information.
3. Cancel any tickets that aren’t valid.

Inventory

1. Decide if you need to take a physical inventory count.

2. Implement the necessary adjustments to your inventory in Aspire.

3. Balance your inventory in Aspire with the Inventory Holding Accounts on your balance sheet.

4. Ensure that the ‘Extra’ costs have been credited from your Inventory Holding Accounts and expensed on your P&L.

Accounts Receivable

1. Reconcile the Deposits/Payments in Aspire with your Accounting System.

2. Be sure to reconcile the Invoices and Credit Memos in Aspire with the EOM Report Revenue Tab.

3. Reconcile your Accounts Receivable ‘Aspire System’ customer with the Accounts Receivable in Aspire. 

Retainage

*for clients who withhold retainage from progress invoices only.

1. Reconcile the Retainage in Aspire with your balance sheet account where you book retainage.

Over/Under

1. Look at your Over/Under for the entire time you have been in Aspire.

2. Make sure to reconcile it to the account on your balance sheet where you book the monthly Over/Under if you enter Earned Revenue in your accounting system.

3. Drill into your Over/Under number on the EOM Report, and take care of any outstanding items. 

4. Reconcile, reconcile, reconcile.

Revenue Variance

1. Review Revenue Variance closely at the end of the year.

2. Adjust your revenue accordingly and reconcile again.

Going through the EOM Checklist (SAS, SAAS) every month will eliminate the possibility of errors, catch any mistakes before it’s too late, and facilitate a more efficient year-end close.

Pro tip: Closing December with the EOM Checklist in Aspire will be like closing any other month of the year.

If you need additional help closing out your year, you can find more information on the Knowledge Base by searching for 'EOM.'

Happy New Year!