No Last Minute dot com for your EOFY!

5 things “to do” to avoid “last_minute.com” panic for the End of Financial Year

Have you heard the term “last_minute.com”?

In the bookkeeping and accounting world that dreaded moment is when you realise End of Financial Year is upon you and you have DAYS to ensure everything is recorded, reconciled and ready for submission.

Having a great bookkeeper and accountant on your team ensures that you avoid the stress, avoid the mess and are able to calmly submit your documentation without the hassle.

Here are 5 things you can prepare to ensure you avoid the “last_minute.com” panic

1. Schedule a “Tax Planning” meeting with your accountant:
   In this meeting your accountant will check your figures, and see if there are any opportunities to reduce your tax for the year.
   These may include:
   1. Paying extra into your super annuation fund to reduce your taxable income.
   1. Paying yourself additional wages,
   1. Investing in any equipment you may need before end of financial year.
      
      
2. Ensure your accounting program and banking is reconciled:
3. By ensuring your banking program (Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks etc) is up to date and knowing that your banking is reconciled you will have peace of mind knowing that all your financial information is captured and nothing is missed.
4. It is essential to ensure bank feeds within your accounting program is reconciled to your physical bank statement. Although they may be accurate, they not infallible and sometimes accounting programs miss and duplicate transactions. These need to be triple checked to ensure accuracy.

• Payroll

It is essential that your payroll is correctly recorded, paid and reconciled to ensure you are compliant and ready for STP lodgements.

This includes:

• Super
• PAYG withholding

• Compliance lodgements

Make sure your compliance lodgements are up to date and submitted correctly

This includes:

• BAS
• IAS
• STP
• FBT
• Fuel levies
• Others that are relevant to your industry

By having this in order you are likely to avoid any penalties and unnecessary audits.

• A final meeting with your accountant to process your tax returns

A final meeting with your accountant prior to submission ensures you are able to seek and discuss any questions or concerns you have giving them plenty of time to delve into more detail should they need to.

They can ask you any prompting questions they may have which you may not have discussed. Such as:

• Working from home expenses for the year.
• Any other income from dividends, a side hustle, Super annuation payouts
• and the like

As we move towards the EOFY 2023, I hope you will feel inspired, invigorated and motivated to take you and your business to the next level!

If you are wanting to work with a bookkeeper who is confident in working with your accountant and is able to ensure you are READY for the EOFY, I invite you or your accountant to reach out to me so we can have a chat and see how I can help you without the “last_minute.com” panic.