Small-Business Records Checklist for Central Texas

A year-end checklist for a small business is really a records checklist: the papers and reports a bookkeeper or tax preparer needs in hand before any work starts. What goes on a return, which expenses count and which filings a business owes are rules and decisions this guide leaves to the IRS, the Texas Comptroller and whoever prepares the return, with the official pages linked below. What it covers is the folder: the business's identity papers, licenses, accounts, an asset list, the IRS business account, and county property renditions.

Moreno Financial Services prepares tax returns and keeps books for small businesses across Central Texas. Our monthly bookkeeping starts at $600/mo, and if someone else prepares your return, we send them reports they can work from.

The business's identity file

Start with the papers that say what the business is. For the employer identification number, the IRS Business Tax Account now lets a business download its EIN verification notice. Formation and ownership papers belong here too.

The SBA describes internal business requirements as records for your own record keeping, which you might need when you decide to sell your business or if a legal action is taken against it. For LLCs, it says they are generally advised to maintain an updated operating agreement, issue membership shares, record all membership interest transfers, and hold annual meetings, and it notes that corporations have the strictest internal requirements. That is general SBA guidance, and what applies to a particular entity is outside this guide.

Licenses and permits, kept current

The SBA's advice is to maintain any licenses, permits, or certificates your business received from your state, city, or county. A copy of each one in the folder, with a note of where it renews, makes that easy to check at a glance. State licenses and permits are listed in the Office of the Texas Governor's Texas Business Licenses and Permits Guide, linked below, and the same page notes that licenses and permits can be needed at the federal, state and local level.

Accounts and statements

Keep a list of each account the business banks, borrows or takes payments through, with each month's statements beside it. The monthly check that ties those statements to the books is walked through in our guide to monthly bank reconciliation.

An asset list from the books

Equipment, vehicles and other property the business owns get their own list, drawn from the books, with the purchase paperwork for each item and the sale paperwork once it is gone. What records for business assets should show is on the IRS recordkeeping page, linked below, and how any of it is treated on a return is a question for whoever prepares it. The list simply keeps each item and its paperwork in one place.

The IRS Business Tax Account

The IRS Business Tax Account is a records source in its own right. The IRS lists tax transcripts, the EIN verification letter, tax compliance reports, and notices and letters from the IRS among what the account can show. Who can register, and how much each person sees, depends on the business type and the person's role in it, and the IRS notes the account isn't yet available for limited liability companies that file as sole proprietors. The conditions are on the IRS page linked below.

County business personal property renditions

Appraisal districts in all three counties take business personal property renditions. Coryell CAD describes a rendition as simply a form that provides the appraisal district with the description, location, cost and acquisition dates for personal property that you own, and says that to determine original cost, you refer to your accounting records, such as original journal entries and account ledgers. That is one more place, beyond the income tax return, where an asset list kept in the books gets used.

Bell CAD's Business Personal Property department maintains personal property accounts and offers an online rendition. Lampasas CAD takes renditions by mail to its post office box, by email, or at the drop box at its building at 109 E 5th Street in Lampasas; emailed renditions must be legible, PDF is preferred, and photos of the form are not accepted. Who has to render, when, and what happens otherwise are on each district's website, linked below.

Year-end business records folder

A folder that holds these pieces is ready for a bookkeeper or preparer:

• The EIN verification notice and the business's formation and ownership papers
• For an LLC, the current operating agreement and membership records
• A copy of every current license, permit and certificate, with where each renews
• Each account the business banks, borrows or takes payments through, with the year's statements
• An asset list from the books, with the purchase and sale paperwork for each item
• The profit and loss report and balance sheet from the books
• Copies of any payroll, sales tax or county rendition filings made during the year

Rules that live elsewhere

Rules on employment taxes at the IRS, unemployment tax at the Texas Workforce Commission, franchise tax at the Texas Comptroller, and how long to keep records at the IRS stay on those official pages. Our guide to storing tax records and getting copies covers keeping records safe and replacing a lost copy, and sales tax paperwork has its own guide to sales tax records for Texas sellers.