The Firms That Start Year-End Close in October Sleep in January

The fastest way to make January miserable is to treat December 31 as the starting line for year-end close.

By then, the calendar is full, vendors are harder to reach, team members are taking time off, and every unresolved item has become urgent. October gives a property-management firm something January cannot: room to investigate.

Begin with 1099 readiness. Identify the vendors who may require a form, then confirm that the company has the right legal name, address, tax classification, and a completed Form W-9. Waiting until forms are due to discover missing information creates unnecessary chasing.

Next, look for old items that have been quietly carried forward:

- Checks that have not cleared.

- Deposits that are still unresolved.

- Uncategorized or miscoded transactions.

- Owner and tenant balances that do not make sense.

- Bank reconciliations that are incomplete.

- Reports that show different answers for the same money.

The goal is not to fix an entire year in one sitting. Use one forkful at a time. Pick one category each week, name the person responsible, and document the resolution.

A practical October sequence could be:

Week 1: vendor records and W-9 gaps.

Week 2: bank reconciliations and old outstanding items.

Week 3: owner and tenant balance questions.

Week 4: account coding and report review.

By November, the team is correcting known issues instead of discovering them. By December, the close becomes confirmation rather than cleanup. And in January, tax reporting is a process — not a scavenger hunt. A short weekly review also keeps one unresolved item from disappearing into the next deadline.

The firms that start in October sleep in January. They are not necessarily working more. They are giving each question enough time to receive a correct answer.

Want a focused starting point for year-end cleanup? We do ours quarterly for our clients so we get to enjoy the full scale of 4th quarter holidays with the rest of the team!

SCOREE Services LLC