What Your CPA Needs at Year End: The 2026 Checklist

Your CPA needs four things at year end: books reconciled through December 31, the year's reports, a list of what you bought and sold, and answers to the questions they ask every January about meals, vehicles, owner pay, contractors, and the estimates you paid. Send them together, in one package, by mid-January. Everything below is the checklist with the reason for each item, and there is a free printable version to tick off as you go.

Why the package matters more than the return

A CPA prepares your return from what you give them. When what you give them is a login and a promise, they spend the first hours reconciling accounts, finding the personal charges on the business card, and emailing you about a $4,800 payment labeled "transfer." Those hours are billable, and they are the least valuable hours a CPA can spend on you.

When the books are closed and the questions are answered before the first email, the CPA's time goes to the judgments: how to depreciate the new truck, whether your S-corp salary is reasonable, which deductions apply. That is what the fee should buy.

When to send it

Mid-January for a calendar-year business. Most firms work returns roughly in the order complete packages arrive. A package that lands in mid-January gets looked at in February. One that lands in March, for an S-corp or partnership return due March 15, 2027, is often extended.

1. Books closed through December 31

Closed means reconciled, not "mostly categorized."

• Every bank account reconciled to the December statement, including savings and any account opened or closed during the year. The difference is zero.
• Every credit card reconciled to the balance owed on the December statement. Personal charges on a business card are owner draws, not expenses.
• Every loan tied to the lender's December 31 balance, with each payment split into principal and interest. When your books and the lender disagree, the lender is right.
• Nothing left in "uncategorized" or "ask my accountant." Each of those is a question your CPA will bill you to answer.
• Customer deposits still held as deposits. Money collected for work not finished by December 31 is a liability, not this year's revenue.
• December checks that cleared in January recorded in December. They belong to the year you wrote them, and they count toward that year's contractor totals.

If the books are behind, start with the bookkeeping cleanup checklist. Reconciliation comes first because every number after it depends on it.

2. The reports

• Profit and loss for the full year, with the prior year beside it. A line that doubled is a question. Answer it in a sentence before it is asked.
• Balance sheet at December 31. Cash on it should equal the reconciled bank balances to the penny.
• General ledger or trial balance, as a spreadsheet. Your CPA will sort and filter it; a PDF makes them retype it.
• Last year's return, only if you changed CPAs. The new one needs the depreciation schedule and any carryforwards in it.

3. The questions your CPA asks every year

These are the same every January. Answer them with your books' numbers instead of from memory.

The two that cost owners the most are owner pay and vehicles. An S-corp owner who took distributions and no salary has a reasonable-compensation problem the CPA has to solve on a deadline. An owner with no mileage log has a vehicle deduction the CPA has to estimate conservatively.

4. Equipment, vehicles and loans

Your job is the list. The CPA's job is the method.

• Everything you bought that lasts more than a year: the invoice, the price, and the date it was placed in service.
• Everything you sold, scrapped, traded in, or lost, with the date and what you received, including an insurance payout.
• The agreement for each new vehicle or equipment loan.

With the list, the CPA chooses between Section 179 expensing (a $2,560,000 limit for 2026), 100% bonus depreciation (now permanent for property acquired after January 19, 2025), and regular depreciation. Those choices interact with your income, your state, and your plans for next year, which is why they are the CPA's call and not a bookkeeping entry.

5. Payroll

• The year-end payroll summary from your provider: W-2 totals, the four 941s, the 940, and state unemployment returns.
• Payroll on the books that matches it. Wages, employer taxes and benefits on the P&L should equal the provider's totals. A difference is a question on the return, and usually a misposted tax payment.

6. Contractors and 1099s

The threshold changed. For payments made in 2026, the 1099-NEC and most 1099-MISC boxes start at $2,000 per payee for the year, not $600. Details are in the 1099 threshold for 2026.

• A W-9 from every contractor you paid, collected in December, before you need it.
• Each contractor's total, by how you paid. Card and PayPal payments are reported by the processor on a 1099-K, so they come out of your total. Checks, ACH, cash and Zelle stay in.
• Who crossed $2,000. Corporations generally do not get a 1099; attorneys and medical providers still do.
• Who files, and whether they can. Filing goes through the IRS's free IRIS portal, which needs a Transmitter Control Code. The IRS says to allow up to 45 days for one, so decide who files in October or November.

The 1099 vendor tracker totals each contractor and flags who crosses $2,000.

7. Sales tax

Each period's return and the payment that matches it. If you collect in more than one city or state, the report by jurisdiction. Sales tax collected is a liability, not revenue; if it was booked as income, the CPA will move it.

8. Estimated taxes paid

The date, amount and account for every federal and state estimate. Flag any paid from a personal account, because the CPA cannot see those in the business books and will otherwise miss them. If you are still deciding what the fourth payment should be, quarterly estimated taxes walks through the safe harbor, and how much to set aside for taxes covers the reserve for next year.

9. Texas businesses

Two more items. Last year's total revenue, against the franchise tax no-tax-due threshold, decides which report is due in May; see Texas franchise tax for small businesses. And what the business owned on January 1, at cost, decides whether you owe a business personal property rendition by April 15 under the new $125,000 exemption; see the Texas rendition and the $125,000 exemption.

What a clean package saves

No CPA publishes a rate card for "books arrived reconciled," so there is no honest percentage to quote. The reasoning is simpler than a statistic. Every item above is either something the CPA does for you at their rate or something you do once at yours. Reconciliations, receipt hunts, payroll tie-outs and the standing questions are mechanical. The return still needs the CPA. The cleanup does not.

The other saving is time. A complete package in January is a return in February or March. A package in pieces is an extension, and an extension extends the filing, not the payment.

How Poof does this

Poof's Books → Taxes maps your year to the lines of Schedule C or Form 1120-S, confirmed once and tied to the books' net income, answers the questions above with your books' figures, and builds the year-end package as one PDF with the balance sheet, the asset roll-forward, payroll and sales tax. It keeps the calendar of every deadline and who files each one. Poof prepares and reminds; your CPA prepares the return, and you or your CPA file and pay.

General information, not tax advice; your CPA has the final word.

*Written by Austin Semple, a former controller: three years in audit, seven running the books for small businesses, and the founder of Poof. Poof builds the year-end package for your CPA from books a person has approved entry by entry. Start a 30-day trial, no card required.*