Year-end checklist for contractors

By Diane Jones, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, 30+ years of bookkeeping
Updated October 2026

Before December 31, get a W-9 from every sub, reconcile the bank and card accounts, close out the jobs that finished, and pull together what you bought this year. In January, the 1099-NECs go to every sub you paid $2,000 or more, by February 1, 2027. Here’s the whole list, in the order I’d work it.

Before December 31: subs and 1099s

1. Get a W-9 from every sub. If a sub hasn’t given you a taxpayer ID number, their pay is subject to backup withholding at 24%, so get the form before the next check, not after the holidays.
2. Total what you paid each sub this year. For payments made in 2026, a sub gets a 1099-NEC at $2,000 or more. It was $600. Leave out anything you paid by credit card or through a payment app, since that’s reported on a 1099-K instead, and most corporations don’t get one. My 1099 guide for 2026 covers the rules.
3. Apply for IRIS access now if you’ve never e-filed. IRIS is the only way the IRS takes 1099s electronically this season, and you’ll need a Transmitter Control Code from an application the IRS reviews first. If you file 10 or more information returns in total, W-2s included, you have to e-file.

Before December 31: the jobs

1. Close out every job that finished. Every cost coded to its job, the final invoice sent, and any retainage the customer is holding recorded as money owed to you. Then read the job’s profit and see whether it matched your bid. My job costing guide shows how I set that up.
2. List the jobs still open on December 31. For each one: what it’s cost so far, what you’ve billed, and how far along it is. Your CPA uses that to decide how the open jobs get reported, so get it to them with the rest.
3. Chase the change orders. Work that’s done but never billed is money you’ve earned and haven’t asked for. Year-end is a good time to find it.

Before December 31: equipment, trucks, and miles

1. Gather the invoices for what you bought. Equipment, tools, trailers, and trucks, each with the invoice and the date you started using it. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act made 100% bonus depreciation permanent for property acquired after January 19, 2025, and the Section 179 limit for 2026 is $2,560,000. Which one you use, and how vehicles are handled, is your CPA’s call. They just need the paper.
2. Split the loans. Equipment and truck payments are part principal and part interest, and only the loan statement tells you which is which. Enter them from the statement, not from the bank feed.
3. Split your mileage log at June 30. The IRS business rate was 72.5 cents a mile for the first half of 2026 and 76 cents from July 1, according to its mileage rate page. A log that runs straight through the year makes your CPA do the math twice.
4. Sort the truck that also goes to the lake. Business miles and personal miles get logged separately. The personal ones don’t belong in the books as a business expense.

Before December 31: the bank and payroll

• Every bank and credit card account reconciled through December.
• Every payroll run from your payroll provider recorded and reconciled, so the books agree with the W-2s the provider sends by February 1.
• Owner draws and owner contributions kept separate from wages and from job costs.

In January

1. Close December. Let the last checks clear, then close the month before you run a single year-end report.
2. File the 1099-NECs by February 1, 2027. January 31 is a Sunday, so the deadline moves to Monday. The same date applies to the copy for your sub and the copy for the IRS. If the payments come from a Missouri source, Missouri wants its own copy by March 1, 2027.
3. Hand your CPA the package. The reconciled books, the open-jobs list, the equipment invoices, the loan statements, and the mileage log, together, so the questions come back as one list instead of ten emails.

I’m a bookkeeper, not a tax preparer or attorney. For tax and legal questions, confirm the details with your CPA. I keep the books that make their job easier.