Let’s be honest: Preparing for the end of the financial year (EOFY) makes your brain hurt. Tax time is simply a pain in your you-know-what. Between unexpected tax bills and finding out your books are less organised than you thought—unpleasant surprises seem to be around every corner. Even if all goes well, the process is still laborious. 

EOFY prep can require catch up bookkeeping when you’re not up to date — filling information gaps for your accountant and looking for lost receipts. Switching to real-time bookkeeping and oversight sets you up to have better reporting for FY 22. Good bookkeeping can equal less tax and a smoother compliance process. Visory can help. 

5 ways to prepare your business for EOFY

In Australia, with EOFY  just around the corner, your business has the chance for a fresh start on July 1 each year. Here are five tips for keeping your headaches to a minimum. 

Organise your records

The best way to make EOFY painless is good record keeping. Ideally, you’ll do this throughout the year. However, if you’re scrambling this year because COVID turned some things upside down, it’s not too late to organise your paperwork. Make sure you hit these key points:

• Write down all due dates. Lodging your tax returns and records late can result in fines or make your taxes incomplete. 
• Gather receipts. To be prepared for EOFY, you will need everything from sales records, credit card statements, bank statements and receipts. Anything you tracked in accounts payable or accounts receivable will need to be reconciled and reported. 
• Organise employee records. You’ll also need to find your records for all wages paid and current superannuation details. PAYG payment summaries, too, because these reports must be lodged at the end of the financial year. 

• Reconcile bank statements. Most banks will provide records of each transaction. Make sure you have a full report for all business bank accounts on hand as you prepare your end of year financial reports. 
• Balance the general ledger. Has your ledger been kept up to date? This tracks each transaction by category and will inform your available deductions, as well as help to reveal the overall health of your organisation’s finances. It must be up to date by EOFY. 

Plan deductions and concessions

Many businesses reduce their taxes by claiming deductions and concessions. You might be surprised at how many aspects of your business qualify for a deduction — especially for small businesses. Things like office equipment, motor vehicle expenses, rental property costs, and travel expenses are commonly deducted from your assessable income. 

Ensuring your accounting software is up to date and accurate helps you ensure you won’t miss a deduction. Also, if you’re working with a professional, make sure they are working with the latest software and that their personal licence is up to date. 

Make a compliance checklist

EOFY requirements extend beyond lodging your tax returns. In fact, businesses across Australia have unique compliance needs depending on their size, revenue, and entity type. Do any of these compliance requirements apply to your business?

• Public Sector entities must prepare financial end-of-year statements in accordance with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. For more information about the standard parameters document and more, check out this list of compliance-related documents for commonwealth entities. 
• Media holders in Australia with foreign stakeholders must meet very specific compliance reporting. 
• Most business entities are required to lodge at least some government reports at EOFY. Section 292 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act) outlines more specifically what is required of various entities. This includes public entities, all disclosing companies, and some small proprietary companies. 

Write off bad debts

Writing off bad debts (unpaid invoices, for instance) can be considered a tax deduction. Gather all uncollectible invoices and other extensions of credit and have them ready for reporting. This clears the slate of unrecoverable money owed to your business’ that are owed to your company moving into the new financial year. 

Create a plan for next year

If your EOFY was a pain this time around, you don’t have to simply do it all again next year. With the aid of professional bookkeeping services, you won’t feel the full burden of the necessary reports and tax lodgements. So make a plan now for how you will switch to real-time bookkeeping and reporting moving forward. 

Visory is here to help with catch-up record keeping, payroll and insights, and ongoing internal finance support. Be ready for the next EOFY by partnering with a trusted team of experts now.