Bookkeeping Cleanup Help which year was filed
The return for last year already went in, and the file still shows that year open. The first question is not which month looks messy. It is which year already left as a return.
A filed year is a record, not a draft
Once the return is in, the software is no longer the place to rewrite history.
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Owners often open last year because a category looks wrong and want the entries changed so this year starts clean. That edit does not change the return that was already sent. It creates a second story. One story is what the agency has. The other is what the file says after a quiet rewrite. Those two stories are how a later question becomes expensive.
What we write down instead is a list. Which bank totals the return used. Which payroll reports it used. Which asset list it carried. The list is the bridge. The year itself stays as filed. If an amended return is truly needed, that is a separate decision with its own letter, not a cleanup shortcut.
The first unfiled year is where entries can still move
Cleanup that can change the numbers begins the month after the filed year ends.
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If 2024 was filed and 2025 was not, January of the unfiled year is the door. Money that belongs to the filed year and only showed up late is noted, not poured backward through a locked period. Money that belongs to the open year is coded in the open year, with a document beside it.
People mix the two because a receipt from December appears in a January feed. The feed date is not the same fact as the year the cost belongs to. We say which fact we are using, and we keep both dates visible so the return preparer is not guessing in March.
What to bring to that conversation
The return, the depreciation schedule if there is one, and the month you believe is current.
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You do not need a perfect file to answer the question. A copy of the last return that was filed, even a PDF, tells us the year. If you are unsure whether it was accepted, say so. Unsure is a real answer. Not knowing the year is an answer we can use. We would rather start from unsure than from a year that was only drafted and never sent.
Bring the question to the same call as the bank question on the next page. The year and the bank together decide whether a month can close. One without the other is a tour of the software.
If this is the month you are in
If you know the year, say it. If the year is unknown, say that instead.
Tell us which month is open
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.