Spring cleaning is for closets and garages. *Summer cleaning?* That’s for your books. The summer months are quiet on the tax deadline front, which makes them the perfect time to get your financial house in order before the fall chaos hits. If you’ve ever scrambled to find your EIN letter or formation docs during a bank meeting, or lost hours digging through inboxes for last year’s 1099s, this one’s for you.
Here’s your summer cleaning checklist. Less dusting, more documenting.
🔎 Find Your FEIN Letter (and Don’t Let It Wander Off Again)
The Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN or EIN) letter is like your business’s social security card. You probably needed it once to open a bank account or apply for a loan—and then promptly lost it in the abyss of “important papers.” Make a digital copy, back it up in multiple places, and name the file something obvious like: `BusinessName_EIN.pdf`. You’re welcome.
🧾 Round Up Your Formation Docs
Articles of incorporation. Operating agreements. Partnership agreements. These are the things people forget they need… until they need them *yesterday*. Now’s the time to scan, organize, and store them somewhere secure and accessible. You should be able to locate them in under 60 seconds—if not, fix that.
💳 Gather and Organize Bank Statements
Whether you’re reconciling monthly or not (and you should be), having all your bank, credit card, and loan statements in one place is a game-changer. Don’t just rely on your bank’s app history. Download full PDF statements and backdate your files to at least the start of the year. This is especially helpful for those year-end “Wait, what was this $438 charge from last March?” moments.
🧮 Get Tax Docs in Check (Yes, Even Mid-Year)
W-9s from contractors. 1099s you sent or received. Any IRS correspondence, letters, notices, or payment receipts. Start a folder called `2025_TaxPrep` now—even if it’s still 2025. Your CPA will thank you. So will your sanity. Bonus move: log into your IRS and state accounts, check for any surprises, and screenshot your account balances and activity for your files.
🗃️ Update Your Accounting Software (Stop Putting It Off)
QuickBooks, Xero, Wave…whatever you use, summer is the time to clean up the chart of accounts, merge duplicates, categorize uncategorized transactions, and dump the vendors you never use. While you’re in there, review user access. If your ex-business partner, old assistant, or that one temp from 2021 still has access… revoke it.
📆 Plan for Fall (aka When the Real Deadlines Start Creeping In)
September and October come with tax extension deadlines, quarterly estimates, and budgeting season. Doing your summer cleanup now means you’ll walk into fall with everything dialed in. You won’t regret getting ahead. You *will* regret hunting for a missing EIN at 11:37 p.m. the night before you apply for a business loan.
**Bottom Line: Summer is the Off-Season for Bookkeeping. Use It.**
Think of it as a deep-tissue massage for your business—slightly uncomfortable in the moment, but leaves you feeling 1000x better after. File what’s loose, clean what’s messy, and prep like the pros do.
Need help digging through the mess? That’s what we’re here for.