The countdown to the end of financial year is less than 2 weeks away and while it is still the calm before the storm, I thought it would be helpful to provide you with a timeline to help you get it right and meet important deadlines.

25th June

If you have the cash flow, pay all the super that you can to allow plenty of time for the payment to reach the superannuation funds prior 30 June. There will be plenty of people trying to lodge at the last minute and be prepared for delays and technical issues. Forewarned is forearmed so preparation is key. If you have salaried staff you can pre-post the payruns to the end of financial year and start now to calculate and reconcile the super. If you are doing this your super liability should be nil on the balance sheet at 30 June.

30th June

Reconcile all your accounts at the 30th June! If your bank or credit card statement crosses over to say 5th July then do 2 reconciliations (i.e. print off a reconciliation report at 30 June) then proceed to reconcile to the end of the bank statement. Your accountant will appreciate this.
Stocktake! Perform a stocktake and work out what your obsolete stock and shrinkage is. Not a fun job I know but so essential to perform this (monthly is ideal) as some businesses have a lot of money tied up in stock. I will write a future blog article on the importance of stocktakes and demonstrate how opening and closing stock can affect your gross profit.

14th July

Payment summaries to be issued to employees. You need to reconcile your actual gross wages paid and PAYG withholding to your general ledger, to your BAS’s lodged and to the annual payment summary report. Very important to have all three figures matching otherwise you may need to re-issue payment summaries or revise a BAS. Cloud accounting packages can email the payment summaries direct from the software and there are methods for accessing them at a later stage should an employee lose it and request a copy at a later date.

21st July

Lodge monthly instalment activity statement, BAS. As this is the final report to be lodged for the financial year it is important to reconcile your accounts and balance back to supporting documentation. i.e. bank balances match bank statements, gross wages match the annual payment summary report, accounts receivable and accounts payable control accounts reconciled to subsidiary accounts.
Pay your payroll tax.

28th July

Lodge quarterly BAS - if you are lodging by paper (although most business will lodge electronically you will gain an extra two weeks after the standard due date).
Pay super (if you pay at this time you will receive the deduction in the following financial year).

14th August

Lodge annual payment summary report; this is very important to get right to avoid having to do an amendment.

28th September

Lodge TAPR (Taxable annual payment report). Businesses in the building and construction industry are required to report payments to other businesses/contractors providing building services. This annual reporting system commenced for the year end June 2013. It is about payments for “services”/for labour. If the payment includes both labour and goods you report the whole lot. If the payment is for just goods you are not required to report it.

30th September

Send your information to your accountant!

So hopefully the above information will give you a good guideline to plan your end of financial year processes. There is a lot to get through but with good bookkeeping practices it shouldn’t be too hard. Our clients books are reconciled monthly so the final June month involves only a few extra steps to make sure all the figures align to trial balance, plus if you lodge through us you will get extra time to pay and lodge for your quarterly BAS.

Are you ready to hand over your bookkeeping tasks to a professional?

If you would like some help getting your financial paperwork up to date for the New Financial Year – get in touch with the team from Apple Business Consultancy.

To find out more why don’t you use our Free Assessment Tool and we will happily discuss what packages are available to help you focus on what you do best...your business!