What is year-end preparation?
The file your accountant needs, finished, so their work starts where it should.
An Australian year-end file closes out to 30 June, and what makes it a distinct piece of work — separate from the bookkeeping and reconciliation that ran through the year — is that everything gets tied to one closing trial balance and handed to the accountant with the schedules and answers they'd otherwise have to chase. The accountant's fee for finalising the annual financial statements and lodging the return tracks the same way it does everywhere: a reconciled file with schedules behind every account gets reviewed; an unreconciled ledger gets rebuilt first, on the clock.
The schedules matter more than the totals. A trial balance figure for the fixed asset register doesn't tell the accountant what was added, when it was put into use, or what depreciation method applies — an asset register with each addition, disposal, and the method applied per the entity's accounting policy does. Debtor and creditor balances need an aging schedule, not just a total. Director and shareholder loan accounts need their own schedule, flagged clearly, because those balances carry a compliance question — Division 7A — that has nothing to do with how well the books were kept and everything to do with how the loan is documented.
Why it matters
| Without a system | With CapEasy |
|---|---|
| Performance problems surface a quarter late | A pack that lands on the same day each month |
| Board and investor reporting becomes a scramble before each meeting | Variance against budget, explained in a written note |
| Cash runway is an estimate rather than a number | Board-ready reporting produced from the close you were already doing |
What we need from you
From the close
- Reconciled general ledger
- Trial balance
- AR and AP aging
- Inventory reports if applicable
For comparison
- Budget and forecast data
- Prior period statements
- Segment or entity structure
How it runs, step by step
- Monthly
- Profit & loss
- Balance sheet
- Cash flow statement
- Quarterly
- Consolidated statements
- Quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year comparison
- Cash flow trend analysis
- Year-end
- Year-end statement preparation
- Supporting schedules
- Fixed asset reconciliation
- Management reporting
- Break-even analysis
- Profitability by product or service
- Working capital analysis
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | Year-end preparation, the reconciliations and reporting behind it, and the questions list that keeps it honest. |
| Your registered BAS or tax agent | Everything that carries a licence in Australia — rendered exactly as written: work out what goes on your bas, or advise you on it — under tasa 2009 that requires registration we do not hold. |
| You | One conversation with one named person, and the decisions that are genuinely yours. |
Year-end preparation in Australia
30 June close, with two other calendars running alongside it
The income year for most Australian entities ends 30 June. Fringe benefits tax runs on its own year, 1 April to 31 March, so a business that closes its books at 30 June still needs a separate FBT-year cut of the relevant data — car benefits, entertainment, other fringe items — for the accountant to work with; treating FBT as if it aligns with the income year is a common and avoidable mismatch in the file.
Division 7A — a director or shareholder loan needs to be flagged, not characterised
A loan from a private company to a shareholder or their associate that isn't on a complying Division 7A loan agreement (or repaid before the lodgment day) risks being treated as a deemed unfranked dividend. Whether a given loan meets that standard, and what to do about it, is the accountant's determination — our job is that every such loan is identified in a dedicated schedule at year-end, not buried in a general ledger account where it goes unnoticed until an ATO review raises it.
Trust distribution resolutions have a deadline that sits inside the financial year, not after it
For most discretionary trusts, a valid distribution resolution has to be made and documented by 30 June (some deeds specify an earlier date) — after that date, the trustee generally can't retrospectively decide who receives the year's income in a way the ATO will accept. We flag the deadline and confirm a resolution exists in the file; drafting or advising on the resolution itself is the accountant's or the trustee's solicitor's role.
STP finalisation lands before either year-end, on its own 14 July date
Single Touch Payroll reports pay events to the ATO through the year, and finalisation — confirming the year's cumulative wage, PAYG withholding, and superannuation figures are correct so employees' income statements are marked final — is generally due by 14 July for most employers. We prepare the year-to-date wage and super data by employee; the registered agent or the business's STP-enabled software performs the finalisation lodgment itself.
What your registered BAS or tax agent receives from us
- A closing trial balance for the financial year to 30 June, with every account tied to a supporting schedule.
- A fixed asset register: opening balance, additions and disposals with date and cost, depreciation applied per the entity's accounting policy, and closing balance by asset class.
- Debtor and creditor aging as of 30 June, with anything past 90 days flagged.
- A director and shareholder loan account schedule, with any loan lacking a documented complying agreement flagged explicitly for the accountant's Division 7A review.
- An annual GST reconciliation: ledger totals for GST collected and GST credits claimed, checked against the totals actually lodged on each BAS for the year, with variances flagged.
- Single Touch Payroll year-to-date data by employee — gross wages, PAYG withheld, superannuation — ready for the accountant or the business's STP software to finalise by 14 July.
