Accounting Year-End Checklist: Key Points to be Kept in Mind

For businesses all over the world, including Dubai, accounting year-end is one of the hectic phases where the entities are engaged in sorting out the accounts and records and organising all the transactions in the proper order. The businesses may find it intimidating to sort all the accounts before the end of the accounting year, but this process can be simplified by maintaining an accounting year-end checklist, which can ensure that the entities don’t miss out on any vital areas of accounting. It can also assist them in resolving all the outstanding business operations before the start of the new accounting year.

Below are some of the vital points about accounting year-end checklist that must be kept in mind during the accounting year.

Year End Accounting Checklist

Maintaining an accounting year-end checklist would assist businesses in many ways. Some of the vital points to be remembered while creating the accounting year-end checklist include the following:

Preserve All The Vital Documents

The entities must ensure that they preserve and save all the vital documents and records pertaining to certain transactions that took place during the accounting period. The documents must be kept in a particular chronological order so that it might make the year-end accounting process easier and more comfortable.

The documents may include the following:

• Bank statements
• Loan statements
• Cash records
• Payroll documents
• Inventory records
• Sales and purchase records
• And other relevant documents

Keep Your Books Organised

Keeping the books organised will ensure the accuracy of the transactions recorded. The business entities must record all the transactions in an orderly manner, which would reduce the complexity at year-end. Hiring professional accountants can assist your business in recording all bulk accounts accurately.

You can also read: Why Does Your Business Need a Financial Health Checkup?

Prepare and Analyse All The Important Statements

Preparation of all the vital documents, like the balance sheet, profit and loss statement, and cash flow statement, is one of the most important processes during the accounting year-end of a business. So, businesses must create these documents with the utmost accuracy in order to get clear insights into the business and its performance. These documents are not only important for the internal parties but also for other external stakeholders to get a transparent picture of the operations of the business.

Consider The Inventory Assessment

Conduct a simple assessment of the current inventory, compare the results with the past-year records, and make the adjustments required based on the comparison to get the accurate capital of the current inventory. These records can be used in budgeting for the coming accounting year as well.

Analyse The Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable

The business entities must monitor the current accounts payables and receivables during the year-end. It must be evaluated whether all the payables are settled on time without any penalty and if all the receivables have been collected. If any of the receivables are not collected, then they must be duly collected, and proper follow-up must be maintained for the receivables from the beginning itself.

Tax Planning

The UAE was formerly known as a tax-free country, but the introduction of VAT and corporate tax has changed the picture completely. Hence, all the business entities must ensure that they comply with the tax regimes. Tax planning involves analysing the tax amount and reducing the tax payments. Appropriate tax planning can help your business reduce its tax liabilities and get all the possible deductions as per the tax regime.

Set Strategic Goals For The Business

Setting strategic goals for the business is a vital process. The organisation must use the accounting information to set goals for the business, which would help in the evaluation of the performance of the business, motivate the employees, and ensure the growth of the business.

CDA’s Assistance During Accounting Year-End

CDA, being one of the best accounting and auditing firms in UAE, has been providing multiple accounting and auditing services to its clients. CDA has a team of professionals who are well equipped with the skills to cater to the accounting needs of their clients. You can get professional services from CDA to sort your accounting and records during the accounting year-end, and you can also evaluate the performance of the business based on the insights provided by our team.

To explore more about our varied services, contact our team right away!