Tasks to action before year end (receipts and payments)
This article suggests some tasks for receipts and payments organisations which you may wish to action as year end approaches.
This will help ensure:
- that money is received into/paid out of your bank account before the end of your financial year
- that income and expenditure appear within the accounts for the financial year to which they relate
Note: Receipts and payments (cash) accounts are a simplified form of accounting, where money is accounted for based simply on the date it is received into or paid out of the bank account. There's more information about this in our blog article on Receipts and Payments accounting.
In this article:
Receive into your bank account the money you are owed
Typically, this will involve:
- claiming Gift Aid
- chasing up outstanding customer invoices
Gift Aid: While it's not possible for all Gift Aid to land in the financial year to which it relates (because of the lag between claiming Gift Aid and being paid by HMRC), it is possible to claim up until at least the end of the previous month if you haven't already done so - for example, claiming November Gift Aid so you can receive it in December. To ensure the money from HMRC is paid into your bank account before the end of the financial year, you will need to do this at least 2 weeks before year end.
Customer invoices: If you invoice customers, it's also worth chasing up any customers who still owe you money, so you can receive as much of the outstanding money as possible into your bank account before the end of your financial year.
Pay out of your bank account the money that you owe
Typically, this will involve:
- reminding those who claim expenses to submit them in good time (and setting a date for them to do this)
- chasing up and paying any outstanding supplier invoices
Expense claims: Often, those making expense claims are unaware that claiming money late can cause issues with viewing financial reports and with budgeting (expenses not paid until the next financial year will show against next year's budgets).
So as you approach the end of your financial year, it's worth asking all of those who claim expenses to ensure that all expenses relating to the financial year are submitted in time for these to be processed and paid out before the end of the financial year.
To do this, you will need to work out the date of your final payment run in the financial year, and ask people to submit purchases 5 days before this, to allow time for checking receipts and approving purchases.
Supplier invoices: Where are you awaiting invoices from suppliers, it's also worth chasing these up. This will ensure you can pay the invoices before the end of your financial year, allowing the expenditure to show in this year's accounts.
To better understand the Year End Accounts module, please view the module overview video here.