Year-end checklist for creative agencies: the financial tasks most often left too late

The end of the fiscal year is crunch time for creative agencies. While you’re focused on wrapping campaigns, billing clients, and managing deadlines, your financials often take a back seat, until it’s too late. This is why we have created this year-end checklist for creative agencies.

At Visory, we help creative agencies keep their bookkeeping clean and get clearer business insights from their finances, so we see where things tend to unravel at year-end. This checklist covers the financial tasks most often left too late, and what you can do now to stay ahead.

1. Unbilled work that gets missed

Have you completed work that hasn’t been invoiced yet? That’s called work in progress (WIP). In accrual books, revenue for work you have delivered generally belongs to the period you did the work, even if the invoice goes out later. That is an accounting point; your tax advisor confirms how it is treated on your tax return.

What to do: Review projects delivered in the last month of your fiscal year. Log hours or progress, and generate any missing invoices. Make sure WIP is tracked in your time-tracking or project management tool, such as Harvest, and synced to QuickBooks or Xero.

2. Project profitability left unreviewed

Year-end is the perfect time to understand which clients or projects drove the most profit, and which cost more than they should’ve.

What to do: Run a profitability report across major accounts. Look at time tracked vs. budgeted hours, and flag scope creep for next year’s planning.

3. Accruals and prepayments overlooked

If you’ve paid for software or services in advance, only a portion may belong to this fiscal year in your books. Similarly, any services you’ve received but haven’t paid for should be accrued.

What to do: Review large annual subscriptions, deposits, or retainers. Work with your bookkeeper or finance partner to allocate expenses across the correct periods. How a prepaid expense is deducted for tax is a separate question for your tax advisor.

4. Missing contractor details for Form 1099-NEC

If your agency pays freelancers or contractors (especially for design, production, or video), you may need to file a Form 1099-NEC for each one. The IRS instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC¹ set the reporting threshold for nonemployee compensation at $2,000 or more for payments made after December 31, 2025 (it was $600 before), and the form is due on or before January 31.

What to do: List every contractor you paid during the year and what you paid them. Collect a Form W-9 from anyone you are missing a taxpayer identification number for.² The deadline comes soon after the year closes, so it pays to prep now.

5. Forecasting the new fiscal year

Year-end is also a chance to plan ahead. Many agencies forget to build or update cash flow and revenue forecasts until Q1 is already in full swing.

What to do: Use year-end as a trigger to reset your forecast. Base it on pipeline activity, retained accounts, and recurring costs, and don’t forget to align it with your wider business growth goals.

6. A chart of accounts that no longer makes sense

Over time, your chart of accounts can become messy, especially if you’re adding new services or team structures. This creates confusion for reporting and budgeting.

What to do: Look at whether your current setup gives you the clarity you need on things like project profitability, team costs, or software spend. If not, restructure it before the new year starts, so next year’s reports compare like with like.

Year-end doesn’t have to be a headache

Year-end can be a huge opportunity to clean up, look ahead, and take control of your agency’s finances. But only if you stop putting it off.

With Visory, a dedicated team and our AI, Delphi, overseen by that team, run your bookkeeping, payroll, accounts payable, and accounts receivable all year, so year-end is a check rather than a scramble. Visory Insights and a Business Performance Partner then turn the numbers into decisions. Book a discovery call to see how it would work for your agency.

Frequently asked questions

What are the key year-end tasks for creative agencies?
Creative agencies should review WIP, confirm contractor payments, assess project profitability, manage accruals and prepayments, and prepare forecasts for the new fiscal year.

How should I treat annual software subscriptions?
In your books, an annual subscription paid upfront is a prepayment, spread across the months it covers. How it is treated on your tax return is a question for your tax advisor.

What is a Form 1099-NEC and does my agency need to file one?
It is the IRS form that reports nonemployee compensation, such as fees paid to freelancers and contractors in the course of your business. For payments made after December 31, 2025, the IRS instructions set the threshold at $2,000 or more per recipient for the year.