IT’S the time for people to file their tax returns again.
Viresh Harduth, vice-president of new customer acquisition, start-up and small business for Sage Africa and Middle East, shared with SunMoney a checklist to help you prepare.
Count your inventory
If you sell parts and consumables, count your stock. Give your accountant the following numbers at year end:
- The number of each stock item
- The value of stock on hand
- The cost of stock bought in the year
- How much stock you sold or used
Stock counts alert you to shrinkage by theft or old products still in inventory.
Outstanding payments
You need to collect what you owe and what’s owed to you. You must settle your overdue accounts.
Finalise your books
If you or your accountant are running accounting software and recording individual sales, closing for the year should be simple.
- Check that you have recorded all sales and purchases for the year.
- Gather any supporting documents you may need for tax or audit purposes, such as invoices, receipts and bank statements.
- Make sure that you have accurately recorded all costs and expenses for the financial year.
- Look at whether you have any bad debts to be written off.
- Reconcile your bank accounts to your cash book.
- Work with your accountant to produce your business’ income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement for the year.
- Consider whether you want to pay performance bonuses to your employees.
- Compile and file any outstanding VAT and employer reconciliation returns.
- Estimate your tax liability for the year.
Check your performance
Once you have final income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements, see how your real expenses compare to your budgets.
Does your revenue growth and profitability meet or exceed your expectations?
