A smaller company does not get a shorter year. It gets the same public dates and fewer people to chase them. We refuse to open with the whole year. We open with one month you can point at, and we close that month against the bank.
A tangled month gets named piece by piece, the deposit, the bill, or the wage that will not tie. A missing receipt stays missing until you have it. We would rather hand you a month with a hole than a month we filled in from memory.
When that month ties, the next one is easier to name. The year is just those months in order. That is the whole method, and it is slow on purpose.
The fair and the May report
The Music Hall at Fair Park is where we go when a show is on, the same as you. The State Fair fills those grounds for 24 days, starting the last Friday in September, and we enjoy that stretch with the rest of the city. We still go to those grounds when the fair is on, and the books for this one company do not pause for those 24 days.
Fair week does not rewrite the franchise calendar. 15 May stays the due date for that report, whether the hall has a show that week or the grounds are quiet.
If the company owes no franchise tax, the report is still filed. We build it from the months we closed, not from a guess about the year the fair was crowded.
Statements you can hand someone
After the month ties we prepare the statements and the short reports an owner actually reads. One page for cash. One page for what is owed. One page for what the month did. We label each one in ordinary words.
If a number moved because a customer paid late, the statement says so. We do not smooth a late week into a normal week. The person reading it should be able to ask one question and get one answer.
Those statements are also what the return stands on later. The filing reads those same statements. If a month was wrong, we correct that month before a number is copied onto the return.
The first packet
Start with the bank lines for the month you want named, plus the bills you already know you paid, and a note if anyone is on a payroll. Payroll setup can begin in that same month when it is not already done.
Bring the month even when the folder is a mess. If last year is still open too, say that, and we will tell you whether the open month or the old year should come first.
A call is only a conversation. Nothing is engaged until a written scope names the month. Until that page exists, the dates and the questions are yours to read, and you can close the tab.
A company can run a whole year of deposits, even with a truck on the lot, and still have no month anyone has closed. We start by naming one month. One company is enough. We do not wait for a second location before that month is worth closing.
Name the month to open
One month is enough to start. Say if payday is not set up yet.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.
