Sail Smooth Into the New Financial Year
Mar 17, 2021
Sail Smooth Into The New Financial Year
The end of the financial year is creeping up quickly. While you want to make sure you’ve covered all bases correctly, it doesn’t have to be a
stressful time. We’ve put together a few tips to help you prepare and sail as smooth as possible into the new financial year.
Get the right advice
Just like you wouldn’t rely on an internet search for a health diagnosis, the same applies for the health of your business. Now is a good
time to talk to us or your own accountant, and work through what needs to be done before the year-end. We can help answer questions like,
what documents do I need to gather up? What sort of tax should I have paid? How much more do I need to pay and when do I pay it? Plus
everyone’s favourite question – can I pay less?
Know as you go
If you’re using Xero, you can check in on your data at any time. If you don’t have access, ask us or your accountant to invite you in. You
can create a P&L (Profit & Loss) statement or a balance sheet in Xero whenever you like. Not just at year-end. This lets you know
exactly how your business is performing at any time. This is key to understanding and managing your business’s financial health. Not using
Xero, yet? Talk to us today about signing up.
Plan your year ahead
Now is a good time to talk to us to work on a plan for the new year. We can also help put a 12-month strategy in place to ensure there are
no surprises.
Start the year with a clean slate
Tying up loose ends can make financial year-end much smoother. Make sure you’ve invoiced all customers correctly, and you’ve paid any due
bills. Bank any cash and cheques, and check that all payments have been recognised. Also ensure outstanding bills have been entered into
your accounting software, and all work you’ve done has been invoiced. This will make going through your records a much smoother process for
us or others involved.
There is an easier way
A cloud accounting platform makes running your business easier and helps us or your accountant complete your year-end accounts faster. This
is because you are all working from the same set of data and it is always up-to-date – no messy backlog to deal with. Keeping on top of bank
reconciliation also helps you stay in touch with what’s happening in your business. All of this, plus storing key financial documents in the
cloud during the year, makes your financial year-end a breeze!
Business support measures
Make sure you consider the business support and tax relief measures introduced because of COVID-19 so you can sail as smooth as possible
into the new financial year. There are some things you may not be used to thinking about when you prep for end of tax year, to find out what
these are, click here.
Our team are busy preparing strategic tax plans and forecasting for many of our clients in preparation for end of year. If you need help,
please don't hesitate to get in touch.