CPA Dallas Alternative.One open month, handed over in June.
Picture a June handover with a July 20th sales-tax date still ahead. The first thing we do is close that open month, so the 20th has a month that matches the bank.
Name the open month
What stays with the old firm is the work they already finished, and any invoice for that finished work. What moves is the month the bank has not agreed with yet, plus the return that still has to describe January through December.
The month that actually moves
Say the handover lands in June and the sales-tax report for June is due on July 20th. We start with that one month. Deposits, card batches, and the bills still uncoded are the whole of the first week. We do not reopen a spring month the bank already matches just because the call happened in warm weather.
The old firm keeps the statements they signed off and the fee for those months. We do not ask them to reprint January. If a number in a closed month is wrong, the repair is one conversation, and then that month stays put. The July 20th report does not need a second copy of March.
Payroll follows the same split. A provider that already runs payday stays where it is. We set payroll up only when none is running, and after that setup you run payday. A June call is a poor reason to open a second payroll login.
What you can still choose after you call
October is when a draw, a piece of equipment, and a quiet close can still be timed on purpose. We would rather have that talk while the year is open. Once the return is only a record, those choices can be described and they can no longer be moved.
Dallas charges a 9 percent hotel occupancy tax on net room revenue, and we watch that extra report the same weeks you do when a property rents rooms. The invoice for the stay still belongs to the month of the stay, even when the guest leaves the following week. A shop that changed help in August keeps January's deposits on the same return. What changes is who finishes the months the bank has not agreed with yet.
The months you already trust stay history. We do not retell the spring in a second set of statements. If a repair is needed, it happens once. After that, those months stay put, and next spring's return still describes the whole year. Read how that one return is built when you want the filing side of the same year.
Two piles, and they are not the same shape
We sort the year into two piles, and the piles do not look like a checklist. One pile is months the bank already matches. We leave that pile alone. The other pile is months that only looked finished because a balance was forced. That pile is opened once, repaired, and closed again. You can see which pile a month belongs in by setting the statement beside the deposits.
A gap has a shape. Sometimes the software export simply stops. Sometimes the cash number was typed until it matched. Sometimes a sales tax report for one month never went out, and the state's copy is blank where the deposits are not. We name the shape before we touch the month. Guessing a single cause for every gap is how a repair gets redone.
Two things are easy to forget on the day you call. One is the payroll provider you already use. The other is the PDF of last year's return. You do not need every paper receipt when the bank and the software already tell one story. Say so if a statement is missing. We would rather hear that than invent the month.
Payday keeps the provider it has
If a provider is already paying people, leave that provider in place. We set payroll up only when none is running. After that setup, you run payday. We do not start running payday, and we do not open another payroll provider because the call landed in warm weather.
A second payroll login, opened only because help changed, leaves two sets of filings for one W-2 season. Keep the provider that already runs. If setup is still ahead of you, write down the first payday you want.
What the state's copy already holds
Where a sales tax report already agreed with the deposits, the state's copy can stay. Estimated payments already sent remain money the year has paid. Once the May franchise filing has gone in, that state form is finished. If it never went, May still owns the due date, and calling later does not wipe the calendar. Bring the copy you kept, or tell us no copy exists.
April and May are when most tornadoes reach this city, and a roofer plans that same spring window we do. After a storm week we start pricing what a replaced roof would still have left on a depreciation schedule. The storm does not choose the day a month closes. That day is the day cash matches the bank. A storm job gets separate books only when it is a separate company.
On the winters the highways ice, we are in the same slow traffic you are. The card batch from the day before still belongs with the sale's month. A closed road is weather, not a receipt. The shops that stayed open still have to meet the bank. The 20th still wants the month those batches belong to. The dates themselves live on the dates page.
What the first week actually produces
On the first conversation you name the newest statement you would sign, the software the company already uses, and whether the return belongs in the scope. Talking does not open the work. Both sides sign a scope first. That paper spells out which months are included and what they will cost. If the request is really a signed audit, say that on the call. The disclosures page already writes the boundary, and no month is opened until that is clear.
The first week then produces statements for the loose months and a short note on what moved. Dallas ISD's school calendar is the one a lot of family businesses already live by, and we plan a payday around a long break the same way you do. A Monday deposit from the weekend before that break still belongs in the weekend's month. The school calendar does not change the close. The bank does.
Tell us which month agrees
Name the newest statement you would sign. The reply names which later months are still loose.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.