EOFY bookkeeping checklist

business.gov.au's glossary gives the financial year as a 12-month accounting period, running from 1 July to 30 June in Australia. The tasks below are the bookkeeping side of the year end: making sure the year's records are complete, checked and filed.

Your accountant takes the books from there, so ask them early what they need from you and in what form. business.gov.au also points out that businesses differ, so check whether yours has year-end record tasks beyond this list.

Each month from July to June should be entered and reconciled before the year-end checks begin. If any month is behind, finish it first, working forward from the oldest.

• Every sales invoice for the year has been issued and recorded.
• All bills from suppliers for goods or services you received in the year are entered.
• Cash takings and cash purchases have been recorded.
• Money the owners paid in or took out is recorded in the account that fits your business structure, as agreed with your accountant.

Get a statement showing the balance at 30 June for every account the business uses, and reconcile each one:

• each business bank account
• each business credit card
• loans, hire purchase and other finance
• payment platforms and merchant accounts
• petty cash, counted on the day.

Check later bank statements to see when items still uncleared at 30 June clear. Follow up any item that remains outstanding or has an unexpected delay, and keep the explanation with the reconciliation.

business.gov.au's end of financial year checklist includes reviewing your debtors, who owe you money, and your creditors, who you owe money to. It says the review helps with reporting where the business stands financially and with finishing the bookkeeping. Its record-keeping page names lists of debtors and creditors as year-end records to keep.

For the customers who owe you money:

• Run a report of customer invoices still unpaid at 30 June, sorted by age.
• Check each one is still owed. Look for payments not matched to their invoice, credits not applied and invoices entered twice.
• Follow up the overdue ones before the year closes.
• Note any invoice you don't expect to be paid, with the reason, and ask your accountant how to deal with it.

For the suppliers you owe:

• Produce the list of unpaid supplier bills at 30 June.
• Compare it with supplier statements, looking for bills that are missing, already paid or entered twice.
• Keep the bills and sales invoices from late June and early July easy to find, so your accountant can check which year each one belongs to.

Keep a copy of both 30 June lists with the year's records.

A stocktake checks physical quantities against the stock records. Plan it with your accountant as part of the year-end work. If the count is not at 30 June, use recorded sales, deliveries, returns and other stock movements to reconcile the quantities to that date.

• Plan the count: have stocktake sheets ready and make sure everyone knows what stock to count. business.gov.au suggests thinking about counting outside business hours.
• Record the date and time of the count, so sales and deliveries either side of it are treated consistently.
• Compare the count with your stock records and record any shortage or overage.
• Note any stock that is damaged, expired or unsaleable.

How the stock is valued in the accounts is a question for your accountant.

Put together the invoices, contracts and finance documents for any asset the business bought or sold during the year, so your accountant can see what changed. How each is treated in the accounts is a question for your accountant.

business.gov.au's checklist includes preparing a profit and loss statement that shows the year's income and costs. Once every account is reconciled, produce the profit and loss statement for July to June and the balance sheet at 30 June, and read them for anything out of place:

• an income or expense account that is far higher or lower than last year
• transactions recorded in the wrong account
• amounts left in a holding account for items you couldn't identify
• bank, card or loan balances that don't match the book balances in your 30 June reconciliations
• personal spending recorded as a business expense.

Correct what you can with an entry supported by a document. Where you are not sure how something should be recorded, leave a note for your accountant rather than guessing.

business.gov.au's checklist suggests scanning paper documents and making backups of digital records. Before you throw away any paper originals, check each scan is readable. business.gov.au says the ATO accepts an electronic image of a paper record when it is a true and clear reproduction that follows the record-keeping rules, and that the paper original can then go unless a particular law or rule requires it to be kept.

Keep the year's records together and stored safely. business.gov.au gives 5 years as the usual period for keeping business records, counted from when you got the record or completed the transaction it relates to, whichever is later. Section 286 of the Corporations Act 2001 sets 7 years for a company's financial records, counted from when the transactions they cover are completed.

Ask your accountant what they want from you. Having these ready means fewer questions later:

• the year's profit and loss statement, and the balance sheet as at 30 June
• statements for every bank, card and loan account at 30 June
• the 30 June lists of debtors and creditors
• the stocktake sheets, if you hold stock
• the records of assets bought or sold during the year
• notes on anything unusual or that you weren't sure how to record.

business.gov.au suggests the end of the year as a time to measure the year's results against the goals you started it with, review your business plan, set goals for the next year and look for ways to improve your cash flow.

On the bookkeeping side, the balance sheet accounts should open the new year with the old year's closing balances. Once your accountant has finished the year, ask whether they made any adjustments that need to be entered in your books, so the two stay in step.