13th February, 2024
There’s nothing like a bit of a deadline pressure to really get you into gear, and there’s no deadline quite like tax time for business owners (that’s 31 March for the majority of businesses, by the way).
Whether it’s your first year in a business or you’re an old hand, running around trying to find invoices and receipts and getting your accounts in order makes your life more difficult and can cause unnecessary stress to your staff, too.
If this sounds way too familiar, then this is your year to turn things around.
By taking a closer look at how you perform basic bookkeeping and accounting tasks, you can make tax time much less stressful.
Here are 5 key things to get on top of for EOFY this year
Employers should be generating and sending an Employment Information (EI) return file with every pay run as well as a New and Departing Employees file whenever you lose or gain staff.
To make your life easier ahead of the final pay run of the year, take the time to check that whatever payroll reporting you’re performing matches Inland Revenue’s records accessing your myIR portal.
If there are any discrepancies, first ascertain that your physical payment date falls within the Current PAYE Period. If it doesn’t, be sure to update the PAYE Period before checking again.
MYOB automates PAYE management, so you can say goodbye to messy manual admin at EOFY.
You can find out more on how to process Payday filing with MYOB on the relevant help page.
Any discrepancies in payroll reporting and Payday filing should be identified and discussed with a payroll expert well in advance of 31 March.
For comprehensive information on Payday filing v2 and more, visit the IR website.
Keeping tabs on your inventory is important at all times, not just at EOFY, which is why it’s recommended you run stocktakes on a regular basis throughout the year.
But you’ll also need to report opening and closing stock value at tax time, requiring you to commit yourself to an EOFY stocktake close to the end of March.
Manually checking inventory can be slow and tedious, so set the time aside and get it sorted.
Taking stock of your inventory also gives you the opportunity to audit what is and isn’t working for you.
Perhaps it’s time to retire a certain product or write off dead stock. In either case, putting some time into more efficient and effective stock keeping ahead of EOFY will set you up for a stronger start to the new financial year.
For a no-nonsense checklist on how to perform a thorough stocktake in your business, check out our Inventory Management guides here.
There are any number of deductions and claims made at tax time that could require you to provide records as a form of evidence to IR.
In the past, this meant rummaging through filing cabinets, car glove boxes and, perhaps, digging up shoeboxes filled with receipts from under your bed.
Accountants will frequently ask for mileage records and logbooks to help make motor vehicle expense claims, estimates of home office usage and lists of accounts receivable and payable in the case you’re using a cashbook without invoicing or bills payable functions.
You can see where we’re heading with this – modern, digital recordkeeping processes really take the hassle out of providing evidence for your tax time claims, and that means going beyond juggling paper and spreadsheets.
Acquiring a business management solution like MYOB puts all of these details at your accountant’s fingertips.
With cashflow being one of the most important factors of business health, getting on top of money in and out of your business come tax time is critical.
In essence, the more money you can bring in while paying off your outstanding bills – and remaining solvent – the better off your business will be for EOFY and the new financial year ahead.
Running debtors and creditors reports ahead of tax time will help you to stay on top of any errors in payments, as well as giving you a chance to follow up with outstanding accounts without the panic associated with a bad case of ‘last minutitis’.
When it comes to the year-end processing, reconciliations are going to be a big feature, and for first-time business owners, this can be incredibly daunting.
If you’ve not been through the process before, or if you’ve found running reconciliations particularly stressful in the past, now’s the time to get on top of these processes so that you can be confident that you know what you’re doing in time for the end of March.
The main things you’ll need to reconcile are any bank accounts associated with your business, your balance sheet, and GST.
Take the time now to refresh yourself on how to perform these actions for your business and seek advice from an accredited professional if you have any doubts whatsoever.
For more detail on key EOFY dates, covering all the major actions businesses will need to take, head to our handy EOFY calendar of events.
Familiarise yourself with the dates that are most important to your business. Organise your tax time activities around them and consider engaging a professional so that you can maintain compliance without the hassle.
We run tax time so you blast through EOFY. MYOB Business delivers a business management platform designed to unleash your potential. Discover more today.
Information provided in this article is of a general nature and does not consider your personal situation. It does not constitute legal, financial, or other professional advice and should not be relied upon as a statement of law, policy or advice. You should consider whether this information is appropriate to your needs and, if necessary, seek independent advice. This information is only accurate at the time of publication. Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information contained on this webpage, MYOB disclaims, to the extent permitted by law, all liability for the information contained on this webpage or any loss or damage suffered by any person directly or indirectly through relying on this information.
MYOB is not a registered entity pursuant to the Tax Administration Act 1994 Agent Services Act 2009 (TASA) and therefore cannot provide taxation advice to clients. If you have a query concerning taxation including filing your BASGST return or annual tax statements then you should consult with your accountant or other registered tax adviser.