Bookkeeping for Small Businesses Cleveland

How to Better Prepare for This Year’s 1099 Season

Written by Kathy Dise | Dec 1, 2020 3:00:00 PM

Did you scramble to find copies of your vendors’ W9s last year? 1099s must be postmarked by January 31st, 2021. It’s time to prepare to make the job easier for this year. Here are some tips that can proactively help you slide through January with ease:

  1. Use your QuickBooks Preferences (Settings in QuickBooks Online) to set up your system to track 1099 information for your company.
  2. When you receive a W9 for a vendor, input all necessary data into the vendor profile under Tax Settings (Vendor in QuickBooks Online) which will make producing required 1099s a breeze come January.
  3. Use QuickBooks “attach” feature to scan/save your vendors’ W9s to their vendor profile in QuickBooks. This keeps them organized by vendor – no more searching around for them in January and possibly preventing the need to reach out to that vendor for another W9 copy.
  4. Also consider “attaching” a copy of the 1099 you issue to vendors’ profiles, especially if you manually create them instead of using QuickBooks to produce their 1099s. Vendors often request copies of their previous years’ 1099s from companies – this will greatly assist you in finding them quickly and efficiently.
  5. Toward the end of the year, review your 1099 settings in the 1099 Wizard to see where you might have missing information for vendors new to your company.

This year the IRS has thrown us all a new twist.  Instead of submitting a 1099-MISC for nonemployee compensation you need to file a 1099-NEC. If you file through QuickBooks they will manage the change. If you mail paper forms, now would be a good time to stock up on the forms and envelopes you expect to need. This is one of the services we provide at BudgetEase. Contact us by clicking below for a free consultation.