Bookkeeping and the End of Financial Year

by | Jul 5, 2015 | Bookkeeping, Filing

It is officially the start of a new Financial Year. There is always so much hype around this time of year, but with good planning and clear actions you can get through this time of year with a whole lot of less stress.

What you should have already done

By now you should have done the following:

  1. Set up your filing system for the New Financial Year

In theory this should have already been done. Filing is a very important factor of your bookkeeping and you need to keep on top of it. The only way that is going to happen is if you start the New Financial Year on the right foot, with your filing system set up already. So if you have already done it, do it today.

  1. Ensure that your employee’s details are all entered in your payroll program correctly.

Payment Summaries are due within the first two weeks after the 30th of June, to ensure that you meet this deadline you need to ensure that all your employee’s details are all entered in your payroll program correctly.

  1. See Your Accountant

You should have already seen your Accountant by now. You should have already made the changes that he suggested. If you haven’t it is too late to make any effective tax measures for last Financial Year, but make sure you still go and see your Accountant so you an start making plans for this new Financial Year.

  1. Superannuation Contributions

If you were going to make personal contributions to your superannuation fund, you needed to have done this before the end of the financial year for them to be tax effective for last financial year. You may have discussed with your Accountant the coming Financial Year as well. Make sure you put your processes in place for the New Financial Year as soon as you can.

  1. Update your Accounting Program

If you are using a desktop accounting program, you will need to update it. If you are using an online accounting program you wont need to update as the update will happen automatically.   It is really important to update so that you get the correct up to date changes that have occurred as of the 1st of July.

  1. Make sure you are SuperStream Compliant

If you employ 20 or more staff then you should already be SuperStream Compliant. But if you have 19 or fewer staff then you need to make sure you are SuperStream Compliant when you pay your Superannuation for July of the New Financial year.

  1. Do a Budget

This is really important. If you haven’t already done so then you need to do a budget. A budget is an estimate of income and expenses over a period of time, wether that is a few months, twelve months or 5 years. Doing a budget for this coming financial year will assist you to plan your actions for achieving our quantified objectives for this coming Financial Year.

End of Financial Year Bookkeeping Processes

You now need to finalise all your bookkeeping from last financial year. It is really important you do this so that you can go ahead and get your tax done and get the correct reports and data you need so that you can make effective decisions about your business.

  1. Aged Payables

You need to make sure you have entered all your bills and bill payments into your Accounting Program up until the 30th of June. Then reconcile all Suppliers Statements as at 30th June to make sure all payments and invoices have been entered correctly.

  1. Aged Receivables

You also need to make sure you have invoiced all your clients and received all payments from them up until the 30th of June.

  1. Assets and Liabilities

Once you are satisfied the Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable and all your Data Entry is complete, then:

  • Reconcile all of the following Accounts to the 30th June
    • Bank Accounts
    • Credit Card Accounts
    • Loans
    • Suspense Accounts
      • EFTPOS Clearing Account
      • Cash Draw
      • Payroll Clearing Account
      • Electronic Clearing Account
      • Undeposited funds
    • Petty Cash

  1. GST

Now that you are happy with all the transactions and the reconciliations are done, you need to check your GST Codes and if you have allocated GST and GST Free items correctly.

  1. Profit and Loss

Once all the data entry is complete, the reconciliations are done and you are satisfied with your GST allocations, quickly check transactions.   Screen Print a Profit and Loss Report, run your eye over it, making sure that you are satisfied with where the income and expense allocations. If you need to adjust some do so now.

  1. GST Reconciliation

After you are satisfied that everything is 100% accurate, complete a GST Reconciliation so that you can lodge your June 30 BAS with accurate figures from the whole year.

End of Financial Year Payroll Processes

If you haven’t already done so, then now is the time for you to read my blog about Making it through the End of Financial Year when you have Staff. This blog will take you through all the steps you need to finalise the end of financial year payroll processes.