End of financial year checklist (Australia): a bookkeeper's EOFY run sheet

EOFY in Australia is not one deadline. It is a run of them: 30 June, then payroll finalisation two weeks later, then the June quarter BAS, then the contractor report, with the tax return behind all of it. A bookkeeper who treats it as a single date spends July firefighting. This run sheet lays the work out by month, from the pre-EOFY review in May through to the handover to the tax agent, so each lodgment is built on work already done. Every date is the ATO’s own, linked in the Sources section, and the full calendar is in Australian tax deadlines.

The dates that drive the run sheet

Two notes on the table. Lodging the BAS online may give an extra two weeks, and lodging through a registered tax or BAS agent may give more ^[3] . And a client who uses a registered tax agent for the return is told their lodgment date by the agent, so 31 October applies to self-lodgers ^[1] .

May: the pre-EOFY review

The point of May is that nothing in July is a surprise.

• Reconcile everything to 30 April: bank, cards, loans, receivables, payables, and the GST and PAYG withholding accounts.
• Send the tax agent year-to-date figures. Decisions on asset purchases, super contributions, trust distributions, and bonuses belong with the client and the agent, and they need current numbers to make them.
• Review the asset register. List additions for the year with invoices, and note anything sold or scrapped. The rules on writing off assets are in how to claim equipment in Australia.
• Check contractor records if the client may need a TPAR: ABN, name, address, and total paid for each contractor.
• Review payroll set-up before the last pay runs of the year, so year-to-date figures are right before finalisation and not corrected after it.
• List old receivables. Give the client and the agent a list of debts that are unlikely to be collected, with the history of each.

June: get ready for the count

• Decide whether a stocktake is needed. The ATO’s simplified trading stock rules let a small business skip a formal stocktake when it reasonably estimates that the value of its trading stock changed by $5,000 or less in the year. They are available to businesses with aggregated turnover under $10 million, or under $50 million for income years starting on or after 1 July 2021 ^[5] . The estimate has to be made in good faith and be explainable if the ATO asks.
• If a count is needed, plan it: date, counters, count sheets, and the valuation method used last year.
• Send the missing-documents list for the year and tell the client the cut-off. See how to stop chasing client receipts.
• Clear suspense accounts and send the owner a query list for anything unexplained.
• Confirm the date of the final pay run and whether it falls before or after 30 June.

30 June: on the day

• Count stock, or record the estimate and how it was made.
• Count petty cash and undeposited takings.
• Record the cut-off: the last sales invoice number and the last delivery received.
• Save bank, card, and loan balances as at 30 June.
• List goods and services received but not yet invoiced.

July: payroll, then BAS

STP finalisation by 14 July

Employers need to make a finalisation declaration by 14 July each year. Once payroll information has been reported and finalised through STP, the employer does not have to give employees payment summaries or lodge a payment summary annual report ^[2] . Before declaring, do the reconciliation:

• Gross wages in payroll for the year agree to wages expense in the ledger, with differences listed.
• PAYG withheld in payroll agrees to the withholding amounts reported on the year’s activity statements.
• Super accrued agrees to super paid plus the liability at 30 June.
• Year-to-date amounts for each employee look right, including anyone who left during the year.

The ATO’s own list of common mistakes is short: finalising the wrong financial year (easy to do when the declaration is made after 30 June), and failing to finalise every employee paid and reported during the year ^[2] . An employer who cannot finalise by the due date needs to apply for a deferral.

June quarter BAS by 28 July

Quarter 4 covers April, May, and June and is due on 28 July ^[3] . It is an ordinary BAS, but it is also the last one of the year, so use it to tie the year together: the four quarters’ GST should agree to the GST accounts in the ledger at 30 June. The lodgment steps are in how to lodge BAS.

August: the contractor report

A taxable payments annual report must be lodged by 28 August each year by businesses that make payments to contractors for certain services ^[4] . If the client is in a reporting industry, the work is easy when contractor details were captured through the year and painful when they were not. Run the report from the accounting software, check each contractor has an ABN, and agree the totals to the ledger.

Closing the year for the tax agent

With the lodgments out, finish the books. The sequence is the month-end close process, applied to the whole year.

1. Bank, cards, and loans reconciled to statements at 30 June.
2. Receivables and payables agreed to aged listings.
3. Stock adjusted to the count or estimate.
4. GST accounts agreed to the four BAS lodged, with the June quarter amount as the closing liability.
5. PAYG withholding and super payable agreed to payroll and to payments made.
6. Wages agreed to the finalised STP figures.
7. Fixed assets: additions and disposals listed with invoices. Leave depreciation and write-off choices to the agent, but give them a clean register.
8. Loans to and from owners and related parties analysed, with every movement explained.
9. Accruals and prepayments scheduled with the basis for each.
10. Profit and loss compared with last year, with a note on every line that moved sharply.

Then lock the year. In Xero, set a lock date under Accounting settings, Financial settings; users cannot then add or edit transactions dated on or before it ^[6] . Post the tax agent’s year-end journals before the final lock so the ledger agrees to the lodged return.

The handover pack

• Trial balance at 30 June from the locked ledger.
• Bank, card, and loan statements at 30 June, with reconciliations.
• Aged receivables and payables.
• Stock count sheets, or the estimate and its basis.
• The four BAS for the year and the GST reconciliation.
• STP finalisation confirmation and the payroll reconciliation.
• TPAR as lodged, if applicable.
• Asset additions and disposals with invoices.
• Owner and related-party loan analysis.
• Notes on one-off events and open queries.

What makes each schedule stand up is covered in workpapers and audit trail; how long to keep it is in Australian record-keeping requirements.

Where ExpenseFlow fits

EOFY is lighter when purchases have been complete all year. ExpenseFlow captures bills and receipts as they arise, by upload, a per-client email address, or Google Drive. It reads each line and assigns an account and GST treatment using an Australian rule set, which covers cases such as GST-free government charges and input-taxed bank fees. Items wait in a review queue until a person approves them and then sync to Xero or QuickBooks Online. In Xero the source document is attached to the transaction, so the tax agent can open the invoice behind any cost.

ExpenseFlow does not finalise STP, lodge BAS, TPAR, or tax returns, or post year-end adjustments.