Reporting on your performance in your last financial year is a legal requirement and causes major headaches for some people who run businesses if they don’t have an approachable, friendly accountant like us who can help them every step of the way!

If you run a limited company, then at the end of your financial year you must send certain information to HMRC and Companies House. Financial year-end reporting is a legal requirement, both to ensure that the company pays the right amount of tax, and to provide the public, banks, shareholders and potential investors with accurate information about the company.

We, as Chartered Certified Accountants, are responsible for doing this for you and offer a low, competitive and affordable price for this service and you can even split the cost into small monthly fees. Click here to see your instant free quote!

What are the basics of Year End accountancy?

Put simply, each limited company has their own financial year. The period/year starts when the company was incorporated, which is on the day you registered with Companies House. The year end is the end of that month in the following year. E.g. if you started trading on 5th March 2020 then your first year end would be 31st March 2021! You will need to provide us with bank statements for that entire period as well as your invoices/receipts and also who owes money to you (debtors) and who you owe money to (creditors) at the end of that year.

Your year end accounts have to be submitted to Companies House 9 months after the year end but in your first year as a company it is exactly 21 months after the date of incorporation.

There are some handy steps to make sure you have a stress free year end!

1. Don’t leave it last minute!

Your limited company accounts as mentioned above, don’t have to be submitted until 9 months after your year end, this is a deadline and not an opportunity! Please send your accounts in to us with enough time for us to complete them and please allow enough time for us to send you queries and ask for further information. Year end accounts are not a simple, quick process and require a lot of work from us so please give us the opportunity to spend time on them and do them to the best of our abilities.

2. Keep ALL paperwork safe and organised

When we do your accounts, we rely on a paper trail to correctly declare your financial position at your year end. Please keep hold of any sales invoices, purchases, remittances, bank statements, insurance documents etc and bring them into our office when you want us to work on your year end!

3. Help cashflow by chasing unpaid invoices!

Unpaid invoices can cause a real problem in terms of cash flow for businesses but they can also add to your stress levels at your year-end. Don’t feel harsh in ringing and chasing your customers and asking for payment for the services that they have required. This will not only help when it comes to your year end but it also means you don’t pay Corporation tax at 19% on money that you haven’t even received yet!

4. Make sure you include ALL expenses!

Expenses are hugely important for any business. Some clients don’t show all business related expenses in a year and only think that materials or goods are classed as expenses in a business. There are a whole variety of different expenses that a business has in a year and the HMRC has broad scale of allowable expenses. Include proof of any business related expense you can think of to get your corporation tax down and we can decide whether it is allowable or not when we work on your accounts.

5. Do regular stock takes

At your year end, you will need to provide us with a stock valuation that we can incorporate into your financial figures. This figure is much easier to work out at the time of your year end rather than doing a stock take retrospectively a few months later!

6. Be transparent with us

We are a bunch of friendly and approachable accountants but unfortunately our mind reading skills are not at the top of our credentials! Please provide us with clear, transparent information when giving us your year end records so we can provide an accurate and true reflection of your business’ performance over the last year to ensure that your corporation tax figure is as low as possible.

7. Use cloud accounting software

We are big believers in our preferred cloud accounting software, Sage. It provides an easy, backed up, easily accessible format for accounts and has your bank account, sales and purchase invoices all in one place. It also tells you and us who owes you money (debtors) and who you owe money to (creditors). It is a cheap, easy solution for bookkeeping and accountancy and allows us to work on your accounts at your year-end as efficiently as possible.

8. Ring us throughout the year with queries

We really do pride ourselves on how friendly and approachable we are as a team. Please don’t hesitate throughout the year to just give us a call to make sure you are doing everything right. It can be hugely daunting running a business and we know that but we are right by your side to help you along the way. We don’t charge for phone calls so please feel free to ring us with any help throughout the year.

If you have read this guide and are curious as to our pricing, please feel free to get an instant quote for your accountancy fees by clicking here or alternatively, give us a call on 01482447922 or click here to book a completely free consultation.