Year-End Checklist for Dealerships

With 2025 ending, it’s time to get prepared for your company’s year-end. With this comes preparation for the documents that your accountant will need to efficiently and accurately complete tax returns and CPA issued financial statements. To make the process as seamless as possible for you and your CPA, there are several things to consider and complete.

In the months of November and December, pull your trial balance and do an audit of the accounts on your balance sheet:  

• Vehicle Inventory Accounts: Complete a physical inventory of your new and used vehicles that show in stock in accounting. This will ensure that cost was cleared, and the gross was accounted for. Pulling these schedules will also allow you to write off old balances that might have been missed in a prior month.  

• Cash Clearing Accounts: Ensure that all checks and cash received have been deposited.

• Bank Accounts: Review your daily and monthly bank reconciliations for any outstanding checks that have not cleared. Research these and make notes in your final year end bank reconciliation.  

• Receivables: Are any of your receivable accounts overstated?

• Holdback: For any old balances that have not paid, ensure there are no mis-postings or dealer trades stocked in that accounted for holdback that would have been paid to the selling dealer.

• Warranty:  Make note of any unpaid warranties or ones that will not be paid at year-end.

• Parts and Service: Make note of any that you know are not going to pay that will need to be included in year-end adjustments.

• Other factory receivables: Make note of any that are not going to pay that will need to be included in year-end adjustments.  

• Floorplan Reconciliation: Are there vehicles that are on your floorplan and not in accounting? Or mis-posted vehicles that are in accounting and show owed to your floorplan? Make notes of any outstanding issues on your final year end reconciliation.

• Prepaid Accounts: Are there any expenses that need to be included in year end? What can you expense before the end of the year? Make note of any prepaid expenses that are for the next year, and which ones need to be included in your year-end adjustments.  

• Packs: Are your packs accurate? If packs have changed, be sure to have these documented for used vehicle write downs and LIFO purposes.

• Parts Reconciliation: Schedule a parts inventory audit. This can be completed internally or by a third-party company. Research your variances and adjust accurately. Present a completed parts pad reconciliation for year-end.  

• Factory Parts Statement: With your monthly parts statement reconciliation, research any invoices that have not been paid and make note of ones that will roll over to the next year. Archive the open account and the December parts statement.

• Payables: Reconcile payables to your current vendor statements. Were invoices posted twice? Make note of any that are aging.

Document Organization:

• Did you purchase new assets in 2025 for your company? For fixed assets, pull together the invoices and purchase amounts for each to accurately create the depreciation schedules.

• Did you dispose of any assets in 2025? If assets were disposed, pull together the documentation and entry for these to ensure they were properly disposed of with the cost and book depreciation.

• Did you take out any new loans in 2025? If new loans were added to the balance sheet, you will need to provide the year-end statements for those to properly tie the principal and interest was booked correctly.

• Archive all schedules in detail for December 31,2025 so that balances tie to the year-end trial balance.

• Save all statements for banks and loans.

• Save all credit card statements and December reconciliations.

Closing your books at the end of the year can be a stressful and tedious process. Ensuring that you can accurately represent the numbers on your financial statement will make the review and tax preparation process seamless. Your CPA will have follow-up questions for balances and may need extra documentation that you might not be prepared for. Below is a checklist so you can be prepared.