End of Financial Year Bookkeeping Checklist

The end of the financial year is a busy time in most small businesses and we've developed an End of Financial Year Bookkeeping Checklist to help you get through.

The end of financial year is the time to finish off your bookkeeping, review your finances, lodge pay as you go (PAYG) withholding, finalise income statements for single touch payroll, meet superannuation requirements, lodge your end of year Business Activity Statement (BAS) and prepare and plan for the new financial year.

And it’s nearly upon us again.

There are a few things you can do to make the end of the financial year easier on yourself. We’ve taken the guesswork out and developed a handy End of Financial Year Bookkeeping Checklist.

Getting prepared early will take away the stress and pressure of doing it at the last minute and will ensure you can take advantage of maximum tax deductions.

Speak to your accountant

Your accountant is a wealth of knowledge, and it’s vital that you are in touch at the end of the financial year.

After reviewing your Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet your accountant will be able to tell you if you need to purchase assets for a tax deduction.

They can advise you on options you may not have thought of such as pre-payments on memberships or subscriptions as well as advising you on the maximum amount of superannuation to pay yourself and making recommendations on your wage.

Your accountant will understand any changes to tax law and deductions or concessions for small businesses, make the most of their knowledge!

Find out how we can help you with these activities over in our Profit Keeping services page.

Reconcile your bank accounts

If you haven’t done your bank account reconciliations for a while, now is a great time to do it.

Your bank accounts should be reconciled against your software every time a new bank statement is issued, preferably monthly. If you are like a lot of business owners who do their own bookkeeping, you are too busy working in your business and this is one of the last things you can be bothered doing at the end of a busy day and it gets pushed to the bottom of the list.

Don’t worry, you definitely aren’t alone here!

Use this as a chance to get caught up with plenty of time before the end of the financial year to save time after the 1st of July. Don’t forget to also reconcile any credit cards, petty cash, loan accounts or clearing accounts as well.

Payroll Preparation

If you have employees, one of the most important things to do is to make sure all employee details are up to date.

This includes checking over all employee records to ensure there is: date of birth, tax file number, up to date address and email addresses and checking if any terminated employees have a termination date in their records.

You will need to check your software to ensure that wages reconcile (these can be checked against the General Ledger report) and that any other payroll related transactions are reconciled eg PAYG and superannuation.

You will also need to finalise your Single Touch Payroll data or prepare and finalise payment summaries.

Download your End of Financial Year Bookkeeping Checklist

All the above information and more is included in our 2 page End of Financial Year Business Checklist. It will help you get on top of all those tasks that need completing and provides a clear step by step process for you to follow.

If Profit Keeping services and packages aren't for you, feel free to download a copy of our end of financial year bookkeeping checklist HERE