Quarterly bookkeeping checklist for small business (2026)

The job

A quarterly close for a US shop under ~50 is not an audit. It is: every bank and card reconciled, income and fees mapped (especially payouts), sales tax you actually owe listed, payroll deposits and 941-class filings you can prove, and a P&L you would hand a CPA without apologizing. When to leave spreadsheets is the first fork. Year-end payroll checklist is January. This page is the 90-day habit. We are not your accountant.

The checklist

• Reconcile every operating, tax, and payroll account to the statement — not to the app’s “suggested.” Wave, QBO, and Xero all lie if you click past unmatched.
• Map payouts (Stripe, Square, Etsy, Shopify, Airbnb). The lump is not sales. See Etsy bookkeeping, Airbnb host accounting, and ecommerce accounting.
• Categorize owner draws vs wages. A transfer to personal is not an expense. How to separate personal and business finances is the habit.
• Post sales tax collected vs paid. Software will not file your state return unless you bought that SKU.
• Payroll: confirm deposits left the bank and the quarterly employment return is on a calendar. Gusto and OnPay file if you finished setup. See payroll-tax mistakes.
• 1099 contractors: collect W-9s now, not in January. Contractor payments ranking is the rail.
• Bills: nothing sitting in a founder inbox past terms. Melio or BILL if AP is the leak. See Melio vs BILL.
• Inventory or job costs if that is your business — a count or a WIP note. Do not invent COGS in April.
• Export a P&L and balance sheet. If you cannot, you did not close.
• One sentence to your CPA: “Quarter closed, recs done, here is the file.” Silence is how catch-up bills start.

Where it lives (September 21, 2026)

Wave $0 / Pro $19 or $190/year if you will open it. QBO Simple Start $38, Essentials $85, Plus $140 — Plus if classes, projects, or inventory are real. Xero US $25 / $55 / $90 (October 1: $27 / $59 / $97). FreshBooks $23 / $43 / $70 if invoices are the file. Bench from $199 if you will not categorize. Confirm waveapps.com/pricing, quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing, xero.com/us/pricing-plans, and bench.co/pricing.

Gusto Simple $49 + $6, OnPay $49 + $6, Square Payroll $35 + $6 — the quarterly employment return is why you bought them. Melio Go can stay $0 software on ACH. Receipts: the bank feed plus Dext or Shoeboxed if volume is a pile. See receipt scanning. How much QuickBooks Online costs is the ledger napkin. Is Bench worth it vs DIY is the human fork.

Skip-ifs

• Skipping the rec because “the dashboard looks fine.”
• Running two ledgers (Wave plus QBO) as truth.
• Paying every vendor by card in Melio and calling the fee a reward.
• AI “bookkeepers” as the close. Aiacent can rank the bots. A human or a habit still has to match the bank.
• Waiting for year-end to discover a missing 941.
• Buying QBO Advanced $340 to feel like a controller when Essentials would rec.