Alleviating the Year-End Rush with a Better Plan

The year-end accounting season in the first quarter may seem like a fire drill for some property management accounting teams, especially if due diligence through previous 12 months hasn’t been done. For the unprepared, a year’s worth of reporting and audit preparation gets boiled down to 90 fast days, and the end may leave even the most seasoned accounting pros looking to make a hasty getaway afterward just to recover. It happens, says Kim Kowalski RealPage Vice President, SmartSource Professional Services. The day-to-day tasks of running a portfolio or property can detract from the behind-the-scenes accounting functions that are necessary for a successful year-end. Before you know it, the first couple of months of the year are like a whirlwind. And the pitfalls of not being prepared become painfully obvious from late January to late March when the auditors arrive. “You take your eye off the ball, and you’re cruising along, running your business, and you don’t necessarily do your monthly asset file updates so it’s ready for your tax accountant,” Kowalski says. “So, you get to the end of the year and you’ve got to prepare a bunch of testing files for your auditors. Or you have to make some year-end journal entries that you haven’t been keeping track of throughout the year. “It’s a big headache.” Engage auditors before year-end cycle The former controller and accounting manager says that ringing in a new year can lose its glitter if filing and reconciliations aren’t maintained in preparation of annual audits. A lot can get lost in translation when playing catch up because key documents haven’t been kept or journal entries have gotten sloppy. The accounting team begins to scramble to catch up, instead of looking ahead to 12 months. Kowalski, who helps manage a property management accounting outsource service, says apartment industry accounting professionals can stay on top...