Around the holidays, when the professional events and corporate holiday parties are clearing off your calendars, is the perfect time to review your association's 2011 financial results and evaluate how to make 2012 even better for your nonprofit or business.

Here’s a friendly fiscal checklist for you to knock out by January 1st to get an organization head start before the New Year.  Download a .PDF copy of the checklist to save and print.

We've included a list of geek-friendly online financial tools at the end of the list to get you started too! 

Start 2012 on the Right Foot with the IRS

• Review your Payroll Accounting Records
• Double Check Payroll Taxes for your staff, former staff, and any independent contractors your association worked with this year.
• Prepare your W2’s and 1099’s for staff and contractors
• Remember the IRS due date to submit Payroll Taxes is in January - View the IRS 2012 full calendar.

Save Time Next Year with a Receipt-Friendly System in Place

• Organize Your Shoebox of Receipts (if you really use a shoebox to store your business receipts, then our bonus web tech item #1 below is perfect for you!)
• Organize your business expenses and maximize your deductions
• Make sure all of your reported deductions are accurate
• Set-up your receipt management system for 2012, with monthly and category type folders so as you gather next year’s receipts.

Review your vendor contracts for the next year

• Pre-pay a full year for fixed expenses such as web hosting, mortgage or lease payments for your building, office equipment rentals, and other expenses you typically have to pay monthly or quarterly.
• Ask your vendors if they have a recurring billing option and then you can automatically have the funds deducted from your bank or charged to your credit card each month.
• Take care of these payments now, and you can spend next year focusing on higher priorities and eliminate any chance of late charges.

Start 2012 with a Clean Accounts Receivable Slate

• Reach out to your clients and members who have outstanding invoices to collect payment
• Update your payment and accounting processes.
• Think about what you could move off paper and onto the web.
• Integrate a merchant account with your website to start accepting online payments
• Update your accounting and banking software to a newer version
• Research other ways to automate your organization’s financial management

Begin the Year with the Peace of Mind that Your Financial Information is Protected.

• Secure your organization’s financial data - Check out the FTC's Data Security Guide.
• Review and update your internal financial controls.
• Remind staff to change their passwords.
• Verify who has access to sensitive data and that they are using it correctly.
• Make a list of the financial responsibilities each of your staff and board members have.
• Determine what level of access each person at your organization needs to your accounting software, company credit card, and bank account.
• You should also think about what types of access they should NOT have.

Bonus Web Tech to Help!

We're totally digging these financial web apps that'll help get you organized for the New Year:

Shoeboxed helps you organize and save your receipts digitally and on the web.

Have an accounting question? Teaspiller has accountants online to answer questions and you can locate an accountant in your area.

Tendenci gives organizations a professional looking website that accepts online payments, makes It easy to store and search invoices, and offers selective permissions settings so you can control who can view, edit, and delete content on your website.

Authorize.net provides merchant account services so you can accept online payments, set-up recurring billing, and they even have mobile apps to process credit card payments from a smartphone

Google Docs is wildly awesome and FREE! Google Docs also has a ton of public templates for business accounting and finance – read more about how to get started and find a template on the GoogleDocs’ blog.