I am sure you will agree, the “year end” for your business seems to come around quickly every year. To help make this year-end process as easy as possible, and to prepare you for our usual checklist to gather information, we’ve prepared a guide to help you source the key information we’ll need for your accounts.

Self-employed associates and small sole traders
We require all of your income statements/invoices and a list of any expenses which have incurred throughout the year. Please click here to download our bookkeeping template which you can complete and attach to your checklist.

Stock take
Count up all of your materials/lab supplies etc that you have not used in the year, and record an accurate value for these items.

Customers Owing
Make a list of any customers that still owe you money at the end of the year, with a total figure outstanding. You may have software that will produce this information for you and you can just provide us with the reports. Be warned though that some software does not let you backdate these reports – so to be safe – you should set a reminder to produce this report on your year end date.

Income in Advance
Make a list of any customers that have paid you in advance (for example, your year end is the end of March and they have paid you in March for treatment and services due to take place in April). Again, if you use software, there may be a report you can run to gather this information, but be careful as it may not be possible to backdate.

Suppliers
Make a list of any suppliers who you owe money to, and how much, at the end of the year. For example, if you received an invoice dated in the final month of your financial year but didn’t settle it the following month, we will need details of this. You may use Xero to track your supplier invoices, in which case you will need to review this information at the end of the year to ensure it is accurate.

Petty cash/cash in hand
Count up the amount left in your tin at the end of the year and make a note of the figure. A really effective way of running a petty cash tin is to record any money that goes in and out of the tin throughout the year with an Excel sheet or on Xero, and do regular (eg. Monthly) checks that the balance matches the total money in less the total purchases.

There are also more efficient ways to manage your petty cash and staff spending going forward, see our blog here on the topic.

Reconcile Xero Transactions
All of your bank accounts on Xero should be fully reconciled before the records are provided to us to complete your year end, to speed up the preparation process. We’ve written in detail about the importance of keeping your Xero up to date and accurate in the past, and there are many helpful guides on Xero’s website of how to maintain accurate books.

Bank Accounts/Credit cards
Download/request your bank statements for the final month of your financial year and check the balance at the final day of the year (eg. 31st March) matches the amount on your bookkeeping software/manual bookkeeping figures. If it doesn’t, you will need to investigate why there is a difference. If you are coming up with a difference that you can’t locate, get in touch with your accountant as soon as possible to discuss the best way to resolve the issue.

Rental properties
If you have received rental property income this will need to be declared on your personal tax return (unless the property is owned by a limited company). The information we will require is rental statements for the year (if you have a letting agent), income and expenses relating to the property. We will also need to know the interest part of your mortgage if applicable, and the easiest way for you to provide this is to ask your mortgage provider for a certificate of interest for the tax year. You can often download these from your internet banking, or they can pop a copy in the post to you. If you have travelled to the property to carry out maintenance/inspections you can also claim this mileage, so make a note of how many miles you have travelled in the year for your rental property.

Use of home
See our handy blog or useful information on making a use of home claim, depending on what type of business you run.

Mileage
Calculate and keep a record of how many business miles you have travelled in the year. Please note, you can’t claim mileage to and from your usual place of work but if you travel between two different sites, you can claim the mileage between the two. HMRC may ask for this information so, as with all your accounting records, it is important to keep it in a safe space!

Payroll
If you employ staff, and we at Hive don’t prepare your payroll for you, we will need you to gather payroll reports for the year. These will need to include the total gross pay, net pay, national insurance, tax, maternity/paternity/sick pay for the whole year. You will be able to download these reports from your payroll software or if you use a payroll provider they will be able to produce these reports for you.

Loans
If you have taken out any new loans or hire purchases within the year, gather together all of the paperwork which relates to them including agreements, contracts & statements and provide these with your year-end records.

Expenses paid by private sources
If you have paid for business expenses via your own personal bank account, make a list of these items and provide them to us so we are able to claim the maximum amount of tax relief for you.

Pension
If you have made private pension contributions during the year gather together the total amounts paid.

Dividends
If you receive dividends, gather together the dividend certificates showing the amount and date received. If these dividends are received from your own personal limited company, you need to make sure you are documenting these dividends formally as they are declared. We can assist with providing standard dividend templates to help you with your record keeping.