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.