How to Prep Your Books for a Smooth Year-End (Without the Stress)

Year-end doesn’t have to feel chaotic — but for many mortgage brokers, real-estate teams, and property management companies, December often turns into a scramble. Reports pile up. Licensing requests show up at the worst time. And the books need to be ready for owners, lenders, and regulators all at once.

The good news? A stress-free year-end is absolutely possible when November is used strategically. Here’s how we guide clients through a clean, predictable, audit-ready close.

1. Start With Your Reconciliations

This is non-negotiable. Before you move on to budgeting, tax prep, or forecasting, your core reconciliations must be complete:

• Bank & credit card accounts

• Escrow / trust accounts

• Undeposited funds

• Loan pipeline or rent roll tie-outs

If your reconciliations aren’t current, everything else becomes guesswork.

2. Clean Up Intercompany & Due-To/Due-From Balances

Mortgage brokers with multiple branches and property managers with multiple entities often let these balances pile up.

Regulators hate messy intercompany records — and so do CPAs.

Each entity or branch should show:

• Balanced due-to/due-from

• No unexplained aging

• No negative cash masking other accounts

If these are out of alignment now, December is the worst time to fix them. Do it in November.

3. Confirm Your Licensing & Registration Status

Before the holiday rush, take 10 minutes to verify:

• NMLS status

• Company license renewals

• Branch renewals

• County-level rental licenses

• Local business tax receipts

• State annual renewals

A single “Not in Good Standing” notice can delay closings, onboarding, and trust account approvals.

4. Prepare or Update Your Supporting Schedules

Regulators increasingly ask for supporting schedules that match your GL. The most common:

• Accrual schedules

• Bad-debt reserves

• Escrow/trust reconciliations

• Prepaids and amortizations

• Write-offs and adjustments

A simple one- to two-line explanation on each schedule can save hours during an audit.

5. Compare Your Q4 Forecast to Actuals

Year-end success isn’t just about closing the books — it’s also about making informed decisions.

Run a variance check on:

• Revenue

• Expenses

• Payroll

• Owner distributions

• Marketing spend

• Maintenance and turnover costs (for PM firms)

With a month left in the year, there’s time to correct course — but not if you wait until January.

6. Organize Your Documents Now

If your firm is ever asked for:

• Bank statements

• Escrow statements

• Loan-level reports

• Rent roll exports

• Vendor invoices

• Licensing confirmations

…you should be able to retrieve them in under 60 seconds.

Create a simple shared folder structure labeled by month and entity. Your future self will thank you.

7. Get Help Before It’s Urgent

If you’re already feeling the pressure, you don’t need to do this alone.

We help firms:

• Clean up backlogged reconciliations

• Implement better month-end workflows

• Prepare regulator-ready tie-outs

• Organize intercompany activity

• Build forecasting and budgeting tools

  
  

A smooth year-end starts long before December. A 15-minute discovery call can save you days of stress.

👉 Book a call: https://calendly.com/info-greenkeyaccounting

Final Thoughts

Hiring a professional bookkeeping company isn’t just an expense—it’s an investment in financial clarity, efficiency, and long-term savings. By preventing errors, maximizing tax deductions, and freeing up your time, outsourced bookkeeping often pays for itself many times over.