tax prep guide.md
Tax Prep Guide
Tax prep isn't just about generating a report and sending it over. The quality of what your accountant receives determines how much time they spend on questions versus actually filing - and whether anything gets missed.
This guide is about accuracy and handoff. If you've been doing monthly reviews, most of this will be fast. If you haven't, this is the catch-up process.
What your accountant actually needs
Before you generate anything, understand what a complete set of books looks like from your accountant's perspective:
- Every transaction for the year is categorized - nothing left uncategorized
- All transfers are matched - no phantom income or duplicate expenses
- Personal business expenses have been moved into the right entities
- Bank accounts reconcile to statements - the numbers in Kick match the numbers the bank reported
- Any journal entries from your accountant are finalized and locked
When these are true, your P&L, Balance Sheet, and General Ledger are reliable. That's what makes tax prep fast.
Step 1: Confirm all accounts synced through year-end
Before reviewing anything, check that every account has been syncing.
Go to the Accounts tab and look for any disconnection warnings or gaps. If an account shows an error, fix the connection and let Kick backfill the missed transactions. If a bank isn't supported by Plaid, import the missing months via Import Transactions.
A gap in your bank data means a gap in your books - undetected until your accountant compares the numbers to your actual bank statements.
→ Manage Integrations
→ Import Transactions
Step 2: Clear every uncategorized transaction for the year
Filter the Transactions tab: date range → full tax year, Status → Uncategorized. Work through everything that's left.
If a transaction is genuinely unclear - you don't know what it was for - add a memo with your best recollection and flag it for your accountant via a Task. Don't leave it uncategorized and hope they figure it out. Uncategorized transactions don't appear on your P&L, which means your reports are incomplete until they're resolved.
Step 3: Catch up on personal transactions
Go through the Personal entity for the entire tax year, not just recent months. Business expenses paid with personal cards that weren't moved across are missing deductions - sometimes significant ones.
Filter by Entity: Personal, sort by date oldest to newest, and work through the full year systematically.
Step 4: Audit your Profit & Loss
Run the P&L for the full tax year and read it critically - not just as a number to report, but as a document that needs to make sense.
Things to look for:
- Income looks right - does the total match what you know you earned? If you accept payments through Stripe or PayPal, cross-check against your processor's annual summary.
- No major categories are missing - if you paid for health insurance, software, or a vehicle all year and those categories don't show up, something didn't get categorized correctly.
- Large one-off items are explainable - if there's a big unusual expense or income line, make a note of it. Your accountant will ask, and having the answer ready saves time.
- Nothing looks obviously wrong - an expense category that's 10x higher than last year is worth investigating before your accountant flags it.
Step 5: Resolve open tasks from your accountant
If your accountant has sent you questions through Tasks, these need to be answered before they can close your books. Outstanding tasks typically mean there are transactions still in question - and those questions will affect your reports.
Check Tasks, answer everything, and confirm with your accountant that they have what they need.
Step 6: Know when to bring in a partner
If any of these apply to your situation, consider working with a bookkeeping partner before generating your Tax Package:
- You have payroll history - each tax year requires a payroll reconciliation via journal entry. This is specialized work most business owners prefer to hand off.
- You have loans - each loan payment needs to be split between principal and interest. Multiple years of loan history is time-consuming to do correctly.
- You need data older than 2 years - Plaid retrieves up to 2 years of transaction history. Older data from closed accounts needs to be manually imported and reviewed.
Kick can connect you with a vetted bookkeeping partner who can take over the catch-up work.
Step 7: Check your receipts and documents
Before generating the Tax Package, do a quick pass on documentation. Your accountant will need supporting records for any deduction that might be questioned.
Make sure:
- Meals, travel, and large purchases have receipts attached to the transaction
- Loan agreements and payroll records are uploaded to Documents
- Year-end statements from Stripe, PayPal, or other processors are on file
- Any 1099s you've received are stored and accessible in your workspace
If your accountant has flagged transactions that need documentation, address those first.
Step 8: Download the Tax Package
Once your books are clean and your accountant has confirmed they're ready, generate the Tax Package.
Go to Accounting → Year-End Tax Package, select the tax year, and download.
Use the Cover Page to add notes for your tax preparer - anything unusual, questions you have, or context about specific line items. This is better than a separate email and ensures nothing gets lost.
Tax prep checklist
- All accounts confirmed connected and synced through year-end
- All uncategorized transactions cleared for the full year
- Personal entity reviewed for the full year, business expenses moved
- P&L reviewed and makes sense - no missing categories, no unexplained anomalies
- All open tasks from accountant answered
- Payroll, loan, and historical data handled (if applicable)
- Receipts attached for meals, travel, and large purchases
- Loan agreements, processor statements, and 1099s uploaded to Documents
- Tax Package downloaded with cover page notes completed