Helpsheet for Preparing Year-End Accounts

As the financial year draws to a close, preparing year-end accounts is crucial for every business. Year-end accounts summarize your company’s financial activity over the past year, providing an accurate snapshot of profits, expenses, and liabilities.

Not only is this essential for understanding your business’s performance, but it’s also a legal requirement for tax reporting. A well-organized year-end process can help you maximize tax efficiencies, ensure compliance, and set your business up for success in the coming year.

Here’s what you need to know to make year-end accounting as smooth and beneficial as possible.

Basic Ways in Which You May Find You Can Help us:

• Adding up and balancing your books such as cross-casting column totals
• Analysing your payments and receipts
• Filing your invoices in a sensible system so that relevant invoices can be easily found.
• Using a mutually agreed cloud bookkeeping product

If you’re feeling more adventurous, you can also assist by

• Preparing a bank reconciliation that reconciles the balance on your bank statement to that derived from your records after adjusting for unpresented receipts and payments.
• Using control accounts for key nominal accounts such as debtors and creditors that reconcile to your year-end list of debtors and creditors.
• By using reconciliations and control accounts regularly during the year, you help to ensure there are no errors in the records.

Records to Provide to Us

Not every business will have all of the following records but if you do and are not using a mutually agreed cloud bookkeeping product, you should provide them to us covering the year (plus one month after):

1. A backup copy of your accounts software disc for the year if your records are computerised.
2. Your cash book.
3. Petty cash records.
4. Sales and purchase day books.
5. Any ledgers that you keep.
6. Bank statements.
7. Purchase invoices.
8. Sales invoices.
9. Chequebooks and paying in stubs.
10. Copies of VAT returns covering the year together with any workings.
11. Your payroll records for the year together with details of PAYE calculations for payments to HMRC.
12. Copies of any new loan or HP agreements taken out during the year.
13. Details of any business income or expenditure that didn’t go through your business bank account.
14. Anything else you feel may be relevant – if in doubt, include it.

Schedules to Provide to Us

In addition, the following schedules will assist us in completing your end-of-year accounts. We can prepare these ourselves but if you wish to do so, it would reduce the time we spend preparing your accounts:

1. A list of fixed asset additions with copy purchase invoices is provided.
2. A year-end stock list. This should be at the lower of cost and net realisable value.
3. Details of work in progress at the year-end.
4. A list of debtors at the year-end, their age, and an indication of any that are unlikely to pay.
5. Sales ledger control account reconciliation.
6. Reconciliations for all bank and cash accounts.
7. A list of trade creditors at the year-end and their age.
8. Purchase ledger control account reconciliation.
9. Details of PAYE owed at the year-end.
10. Details of VAT owed at the year-end.
11. Schedules of key and tax-sensitive profit and loss accounts such as repairs, sundry expenses, entertainment, etc.

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