Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/918346
W EEKLY EDITION DEC 20, 2017 Preparing Your Business for 2018 …continued Adapted for the PSAI by Executive Director Karleen Kos from " End - of - the - Year Checklist for Small Businesses " by Meg an Sullivan 5. Double - Check Your Payroll and Benefits. It's better to stay on top of any issues or corrections that need to be made to your payroll before year's end. Ensure that taxable benefits such as life insurance premiums for policies in excess of $50,000 are accounted for. Other benefits that are easy to forget include educational reimbursement, health insurance or HSA contributions, and transportation subsidies that meet certain tests. Information Technology (IT) 1. Back Up Yo ur Data. Make sure that all of your files, including accounting, customer files, marketing materials, legal documents, and emails are backed up and secure. 2. Back Up Your Contacts. Whether you do most of your business over the phone or via email, make sure to back up all of your contacts, even if that means printing a hard copy or writing them down in an old - fashioned Rolodex. You may think this is silly, but if your systems go down you will be glad you did it. 3. Download Any Files or Reports. If you've kept some documents or reports only on a cloud - based system like Dropbox, or if you've only saved generated reports within the system that created them (i.e. QuickBooks or your external payroll provider's site), take a moment to download copies of all of these and back them up with everything else. The golden rule for data backup is 2:1. That is, create two separate digital copies, stored in two separate locations, plus one offline copy (preferably stored somewhere else). 4. Evaluate Your File - Naming Conventions, and Adjust as Necessary. If you don't have a file - naming system that is company - wide, seriously consider implementing one. For example, if you manually save receipts as Word documents, you might adopt a convention like "LastName - Date - InvoiceNumber," or som ething similar. If you are such a small company that you are running your business off your personal computer, it is especially important that you segregate your company records from your personal records! Adopting file - naming conventions is especially im portant for businesses that share servers that can be accessed by multiple employees. Take a look at any of your own files that need to be backed up, and make sure you've named them appropriately. Change file names now to be clearer so that you're not stuc k searching for something come next June. Human Resources 1. Determine If You Will Pay a Bonus or Other End - of - Year Incentive. It makes a difference whether you disburse bonuses or other rewards before the end of the year or in January, especially for your taxes, as it directly impacts the profits you report. PAGE 3 CONTINUED ON PAGE 4