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Year-end closing checklist
A step-by-step guide to closing cleanly at year-end.
Year-End Closing Checklist
A year-end closing checklist is the set of reconciliations, reviews and adjustments that need completing before statutory accounts and a tax return can be prepared from your books.
Start this eight weeks before your year end and the statutory process stops being a fire drill. Most of the pain at year-end comes from work that could have been done calmly in advance.
Eight weeks out
- Confirm your year-end date and every filing deadline that follows it
- Agree the review and filing timetable with whoever signs off
- Reconcile all balance sheet accounts and attach supporting schedules
- Confirm the fixed asset register agrees to the ledger
Four weeks out
- Review and write off genuinely bad debts
- Reconcile loans and finance agreements to lender statements
- Confirm director and related-party transactions are recorded
- Review revenue recognition and deferred income
At year end
- Count stock and reconcile to the ledger
- Gather bank confirmations and closing statements
- Prepare the tax computation workpapers
- Lock the year once the accounts are agreed
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