April means a fresh financial year... and a wave of documents headed your way. Get organised now and you’ll save time, avoid back-and-forth, and help us turn your accounts around faster.
The financial year is done. Before the relief fully sets in, there’s one more thing worth doing: getting your records together while everything is still fresh and the paperwork is landing in your inbox.
The sooner we have what we need, the sooner we can get your accounts done! And the sooner you’ll have a clear picture of where your business stands heading into the new year. Here’s what to pull together.
Documents to collect as they arrive in April
April brings a predictable wave of year-end statements and summaries. As each one arrives, put it straight into a folder (physical or digital) rather than letting it get buried. Here’s what you’re looking for:
- Bank statements showing your balance at 31 March
- Loan statements showing the balance at 31 March, interest paid for the year, interest rate at 31 March, and the date of the last interest charge before 31 March
- Interest certificates
- Investment portfolio summaries
- PIE income summaries
- Income protection or disability insurance summaries
- Any creditor invoices dated on or before 31 March where payment isn’t due until April (if you don’t recognise creditors in your accounting ledger)
Documents you may have received earlier in the year
Some of what we need will have arrived months ago. Now’s the time to dig it out:
- Term deposit rollover statements and confirmations
- Sale and purchase agreements, tax invoices, settlement statements, and legal invoices for any property purchased during the year (particularly if owned by a trust or other entity, or if the property earns income)
- Invoices for any business or trust assets purchased over $500 (excl. GST)
- Statements showing any shares or investments bought or sold during the year, and any dividend income received
- Hire purchase setup documents and repayment schedules showing the interest split and balance owed
- Loan setup documents
- Insurance invoices
- Legal invoices, gifting documents, or trust resolutions
- Home office costs — rates, insurance, power, mortgage interest
- Donation receipts, including school donations
- Details of any unusual transactions or related-party dealings we should know about — for example, sales to a family member or staff member
Reconcile your ledger before you send it to us
A reconciled ledger saves you money. Every discrepancy we have to chase takes time, and that time is yours.
Before you send us your records, it’s worth running through these three checks. They’re not complicated, but catching issues now is much faster than resolving them later:
Bank, credit card, loans and hire purchase
The balances in your accounting ledger should match your statement balances. If they don’t, there’s likely a transaction that’s been missed or miscoded.
Wages
Your wages expense in the ledger should match the wages reported in your PAYE returns filed with the IRD. If there’s a discrepancy, common causes include pay periods that span the year-end, deductions forwarded to the Ministry of Justice, or employee tool account repayments that haven’t been accounted for correctly.
GST
Your GST balance should match what’s owed to the IRD at 31 March, taking into account GST on debtors and creditors if you’re on a payments basis, and any prior-period adjustments not yet processed. It’s also worth checking whether any transactions have been recoded after a GST return was filed, which can create a mismatch between your ledger and what’s already been reported.
What happens next
We’ll send you an email with a link to the year-end checklists to complete and return along with your records. The more organised everything is when it arrives with us, the faster we can turn it around, and the fewer questions we’ll need to come back to you with.
If you’re unsure about anything on this list, or something unusual happened in your business during the year that you’re not sure how to handle, just give us a call. It’s always quicker to ask early than to unpick it later.
Ready to get your year-end records to us?
Get in touch and we’ll let you know the best way to send everything through. The sooner we have it, the sooner you’ll have your accounts.
