Year-End Isn’t Done Until You Do This: 7 Overlooked Accounting Steps That Cost Firms Money

Year-end is supposed to feel like closure. But for a lot of mortgage brokers, real estate teams, and property management companies, it feels more like:

• “Did we miss something?”

• “Will my CPA have a million questions?”

• “If a regulator or lender asks for backup, are we really ready?”

  
  

You can have every bank account reconciled and still not be truly “year-end ready.”

In this post, I’m walking through 7 overlooked accounting steps that quietly cost firms money, time, and peace of mind — and how to tighten them up before you hand your books off to your CPA, lender, or regulator.

Who this is for

This guide is especially helpful if you:

• Run a mortgage brokerage, real estate team, or property management firm

• Use QuickBooks (Online or Desktop)

• Need to be audit-ready for NMLS, investors, state regulators, or HOAs/owners

• Want your CPA to say, “These books look great” — not send a three-page list of cleanup items

If that sounds like you, these are the last-mile steps that move you from “close enough” to “confident and ready.”

1. Lock your prior periods so nothing quietly changes

You can’t analyze your year if last month’s numbers are still moving.

Once you’ve finished November and December:

• Make sure all reconciliations are done

• Close the period in QuickBooks or at least set a closing date with a password

• Limit who can post back into closed periods

Why it matters:

• Your CPA can trust that reports you send in January still match what you’re seeing in March

• If a regulator requests a specific report “as of 12/31,” you’re not scrambling to explain why the numbers have changed

Quick check:If you pull a December 31 balance sheet today and again in two weeks, the balances should match. If they don’t, someone is changing prior-period data.

2. Reconcile every bank, escrow, and trust account — not just operating cash

Most firms are good about reconciling their main operating account. The trouble usually hides in:

• Escrow / trust accounts

• Security deposit accounts

• Reserve or impound accounts

• Dedicated accounts for owner funds (for PM companies)

At year-end, each of these should:

• Be fully reconciled through 12/31

• Tie out to a supporting schedule (e.g., who the funds belong to, per property or per loan)

• Have no unexplained “plug” entries to force a reconciliation

If your general ledger shows more in escrow than you actually hold at the bank, regulators and owners will notice — and they will ask questions.

3. Clear “temporary” and catch-all accounts that never got cleaned up

We’ve all seen them:

• “Ask My Accountant”

• “Suspense”

• “Uncategorized Expense/Income”

• “Owner Clearing”

• Old “opening balance equity” that never got resolved

These are fine during the year as temporary holding spots.They are not fine on a December 31 balance sheet.

Go through each of these and ask:

• Does this belong to a real expense account (e.g., licensing, professional fees, software)?

• Should this be moved to a loan, equity, or owner draw account?

• Is this a true error that needs to be reversed?

Your year-end financials should tell a clean story.A profit & loss full of “uncategorized” doesn’t just confuse your CPA — it also makes your firm look less organized to lenders, auditors, and owners.

4. Tie subledgers and external systems back to the general ledger

For mortgage, real estate, and property management firms, a lot of the real detail lives outside of QuickBooks:

• Loan origination systems (LOS)

• Rent roll or property management software

• Security deposit ledgers

• Owner statements

• Commission or fee-tracking spreadsheets

At year-end, the totals in those systems should match the control accounts in your general ledger.

For example:

• Total unpaid rents in your property management system→ ties to Accounts Receivable – Tenants in QuickBooks

• Total security deposits held per your deposit ledger→ ties to Security Deposits Payable

• Pipeline fees / commissions from LOS→ tie to Fee Income, Deferred Revenue, or other mapped accounts

If they don’t match:

• Document the difference

• Adjust the ledger or the subledger once you know which side is correct

• Fix any mapping issues so next year is cleaner

Regulators and auditors love this step. It shows you’re not just reconciling cash, but also reconciling what that cash represents.

5. Review one-time journal entries and “manual fixes”

Year-end often includes manual journal entries to:

• Reclassify owner draws and contributions

• Record depreciation or amortization

• True-up loan costs, prepaid expenses, or revenue cutoffs

• Fix weird balances from earlier in the year

Before you lock things down, take an hour to:

• Pull a list of journal entries from Q4 (especially December)

• Look for anything labeled “adjusting,” “plug,” “true-up,” or “fix”

• Confirm:

  • You know exactly why each entry was posted

  • It’s recorded to the right accounts

  • It has a short description in the memo field

    
    

If you can’t explain a year-end entry to your future self in two sentences, your CPA (or a regulator) definitely won’t understand it either.

6. Write down your assumptions for estimates, reserves, and write-offs

Some of your numbers are estimates by nature:

• Bad debt reserves

• Legal or professional fee accruals

• Bonus or commission accruals

• Repairs vs. capital improvements

• Pending write-offs

Before year-end is “done,” document:

• What you estimated

• How you calculated it (simple formula or logic is fine)

• Where you booked it in the ledger

This doesn’t need to be a fancy memo. Even a one-page Word or Google Doc called “2025 Year-End Assumptions” goes a long way.

Future benefit:

• Your CPA can understand and either agree with or adjust your assumptions

• If a regulator asks, you can show you weren’t guessing — you had a consistent, reasonable method

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7. Build a simple “year-end packet” for your CPA, lender, or regulator

This is where you really stand out as a professional, well-run firm.

Instead of just emailing a QuickBooks backup or a few PDFs, put together a small, organized packet that includes:

• Year-end balance sheet and P&L

• Trial balance if your CPA likes to work that way

• Bank and escrow reconciliation reports through 12/31

• Any subledger tie-out schedules (rent roll, escrow detail, LOS exports, etc.)

• Your year-end assumptions summary

• Notes on any big changes during the year:

  • New lines of business

  • Big loan or property sales

  • System migrations

  • Ownership changes

    
    

You’ll save yourself back-and-forth emails, avoid “fire drill” questions in March and April, and position your firm as a strong, well-controlled operation.

Want this as a one-page checklist?

If you’d like a fill-in-the-blank version of these steps that you can reuse every year, I’ve turned this into a simple:

“Year-End Accounting Sanity Check” — one-page checklist

You can keep it:

• In your year-end close folder

• As a recurring task list for your team

• As part of your “audit-ready” documentation for lenders and regulators

  
  

👉 [Click here to get the Year-End Accounting Sanity Check checklist.](You can turn this into your ManyChat / opt-in link later.)

Need help getting your books truly year-end ready?

If you’re staring at a long list of “we should probably clean that up” items, you don’t have to tackle it alone.

Greenkey Accounting partners with:

• Mortgage brokers

• Real estate firms

• Property management companies

  
  

to get their books clean, accurate, and audit-ready — and to build a monthly cadence that makes each future year-end easier than the last.

If you’d like a second set of eyes on your numbers:

• Schedule a quick discovery call, or

• Reply to your latest Greenkey Insights email with “Year-End Help” in the subject line

  
  

We’ll help you sort what’s urgent, what can wait, and where a few clean-up steps can save you a lot of headaches later.