The single biggest cause of a slow year-end is missing information. It's not months of missing bookkeeping, just a handful of documents that take five minutes to find but hold up a set of accounts for weeks if they're not there from the start. Here's what to have ready.

The essentials

  • Bank statements covering the full year, including any accounts opened or closed during it
  • Sales invoices and a record of amounts still owed to you at the year end
  • Purchase invoices and receipts, particularly for anything over a few hundred pounds
  • Payroll records, including P60s, P11Ds and any pension contributions
  • Your VAT returns and records, if you are VAT registered
  • Any HMRC or Companies House letters received during the year

Easy to forget, but important

  • Loan or hire purchase agreements for vehicles or equipment bought during the year
  • A stocktake figure at the year end, if you hold stock
  • Details of any assets bought or sold (even small ones like a laptop or a van)
  • Personal expenses paid through the business, and business expenses paid personally
  • For a limited company, details of any dividends paid and any money the director has put in or taken out

Deadlines worth knowing

For a limited company, the annual accounts are due at Companies House nine months after the year end. Corporation Tax is normally payable nine months and one day after the year end, and the Corporation Tax return is due 12 months after it. For a sole trader or partner, the Self Assessment return and any tax due are normally due by 31 January after the end of the tax year on 5 April. Late filing can lead to penalties, which is a good reason to send records early. If your records arrive late, tell us as soon as you can and we will work out what is realistic.

If in doubt, send it anyway

It's always quicker for us to set aside something irrelevant than to chase you for it later. If you're not sure whether a document matters, the safest option is to include it; we'll work out what's needed once it's with us.

Sending everything together, rather than in instalments as you remember things, is what actually saves time, because it lets us prepare your accounts in one pass rather than starting, stopping and picking the file back up each time something new arrives.

Make next year easier

Most of this list is easier if the records are kept up to date as you go. A monthly bookkeeping service does exactly that, so by the year end most of the information is already in one place.

Getting ready to send over your year-end records?

Talk to us about your year-end records →