21 March 2018
The end of the financial year can be either stressful or a seamless part of what you do. Ideally, your end-of-year accounts will confirm what you think your business has been doing for the past 12 months.
Being prepared is the key to avoiding end-of-year financial drama and stress.
- First make sure you have all the documents we’ll need, such as bank statements, interest certificates, dividend statements for shares, GST returns, PAYE schedules, receipts for expenses.
- Don’t forget receipts for charitable donations.
- Look at writing off old or bad debts before balance date. Scrap redundant or worthless assets, so you get a deduction on your books.
- Print out profit and loss, balance sheet and general ledger listing reports and store them safely.
- Have a final look at your payroll reports. You don’t have to give summaries to your staff, but if you give them Earning Certificates, they can be used to check IRD information.
- Note odometer readings on vehicles and ensure logbooks noting business and personal use, mileage and costs etc. are in order.
- Dispose of obsolete stock by the year end or write it down to its net realisable value.
- Talk to us on any planned dividend payments, as managing imputation credits will be important.
- Finally, get us to work with you on reviewing your business plan and updating it for next year – and to review your accounting software.
We’ll probably adjust your reports or accounts. Once we’re done, lock all accounts relating to the financial year – and keep them secure.