- Your accountant needs bank, sales, expense, payroll, director and asset records
- Unpaid invoices, unpaid bills and director's loan movements are easy to miss
- Keeping records current through the year turns year end into a quick check
A year end accounts checklist covers your bank and sales records, expenses and receipts, payroll and director information, and details of any assets or loans. Send all of it in one go and your limited company accountant can prepare your accounts and tax return without weeks of follow-up questions.
This guide lists what to send in each area and how to make next year easier.
What does my accountant need for year end?
Your accountant turns a year of transactions into statutory accounts and a Company Tax Return. Every number in them has to trace back to a record, so the year end documents for accountant review go well beyond your bank statements.
It’s also a legal duty: your company must keep accounting records and anything else needed to prepare its annual accounts and tax return. Use the table below as your limited company year end checklist.
| Area | What to send | Why your accountant needs it |
|---|---|---|
| Bank and sales | Statements for every business account, sales invoices, a list of unpaid invoices | Confirms your income and the cash you held at year end |
| Expenses and receipts | Receipts, supplier bills, expense claims, a list of unpaid bills | Supports every cost you claim against profit |
| Payroll and directors | Payroll reports, pension records, director’s loan movements, dividend paperwork | Shows what the company paid to the people who run it and work for it |
| Assets, loans and unusual items | Purchase invoices for equipment, loan agreements, notes on one-off events | Covers items that sit on the balance sheet or need special treatment |
If you’re still wondering what does my accountant need for year end beyond this, the answer is simple: anything that explains a transaction they can’t work out from the paperwork alone.
What bank and sales records should you send?
Start with the bank. When preparing for year end accounts, your accountant reconciles every account to its closing balance before anything else.
Bank statements
Send statements covering the full financial year for:
- every business current account and savings account
- business credit cards
- payment platforms such as PayPal, Stripe or card terminals
- any account opened or closed during the year
Even if your bank feeds into your software, your accountant may ask for a statement showing the closing balance. It’s how they prove the books match the bank.
Sales invoices and money owed to you
Send every sales invoice and credit note you issued, plus a list of customers who hadn’t paid you by year end. Those unpaid invoices count as income for the year even though the cash hasn’t arrived.
If your bookkeeping is up to date, most of this is already matched to the bank. If not, flag any cash sales or payments you received outside the business account.
Which expenses and receipts does your accountant need?
Every cost your company claims needs evidence behind it. Missing paperwork usually means a cost gets queried or left out.
Receipts and supplier bills
Send receipts and invoices for everything the company paid for, along with any bills you owed but hadn’t paid at year end. Good receipt and expense management during the year saves a long evening of digging through emails.
Watch for subscriptions billed to a personal card, because these are easy to miss.
Expense claims from directors and staff
If directors or employees paid for business costs personally, send their expense claims with the receipts attached. Mileage claims need the dates, journeys and business reason for each trip.
Not sure what counts? Our guide to limited company expenses covers what HMRC treats as a business cost.
What payroll and director records are needed?
This area is easy to leave incomplete, because a lot of it lives outside the business bank account.
Payroll records
Send your payroll reports for the year, including:
- pay, tax and National Insurance for each employee and director
- workplace pension contributions
- any benefits provided, such as health cover or a company car
- details of anyone who joined or left
If a payroll provider runs this for you, a year-end summary report is usually enough.
Director’s loan account and dividends
Your accountant needs to know about any money you took out of the company that wasn’t salary, dividends or expenses. They also need anything you paid in personally, such as funds to cover a bill.
For dividends, send the board minutes and dividend vouchers for each payment. Let your accountant know about any change in directors or shareholders during the year too.
What about assets, loans and anything unusual?
These items don’t appear every year, which is exactly why they get forgotten.
Equipment and other assets
Send invoices for anything the company bought to keep and use, such as computers, machinery or vehicles. Also note anything you sold, scrapped or gave away, with the date and any money received.
Loans and finance agreements
Send the agreement and a year-end statement for every loan, overdraft, hire purchase deal or lease. Your accountant needs the balance owed at year end and the interest paid during the year.
Anything out of the ordinary
Tell your accountant about grants, insurance payouts, legal disputes, large one-off contracts or stock held at year end. A short note on each saves them guessing.
If you changed accountants this year, your new one also needs the opening balances from your last set of accounts.
How can you make year end easier?
Preparing for year end accounts gets far easier when the work happens monthly rather than in one push. A few habits do most of it:
- Reconcile your bank accounts every month, so gaps show up while you still remember them.
- Upload receipts when you pay, not when your accountant asks.
- Keep business and personal spending in separate accounts.
- Store year end documents for accountant access in one shared folder.
- Note one-off events as they happen, in a single running list.
Give your accountant access to your software
If you use Xero accounting, your accountant can log in and review your records directly instead of waiting for exports. That alone turns a limited company year end checklist from a week of emails into a quick check of what’s still missing.
If your records are already tidy and you only need the accounts filed, a year-end-only service may be all you need. Our accounting FAQs cover how the different options work.
How Sleek helps with year end accounts
Sleek gives your company a named, qualified accountant who handles your bookkeeping, year end accounts and Company Tax Return in one relationship. Your records come in through the year in SleekBooks, our in-house software, or in Xero if you’d rather keep it.
Your accountant raises missing receipts and unclear transactions as they come up, and every change to your books is logged so you can see what’s been done. When your accounts are ready, you review and approve them before anything is filed. See how our accounting for limited companies works.
Tell us how your records are kept today and we’ll show you exactly what’s included.
Your year end accounts checklist, handled by a named accountant.
FAQs on year end accounts checklist
What happens if I'm missing receipts?
Tell your accountant which costs have no receipt and look for other evidence, such as a bank or card statement, an order confirmation email or a copy invoice from the supplier. Most suppliers will resend an invoice if you ask. If the cost includes VAT you want to reclaim, you’ll usually need a valid VAT invoice, so request a copy rather than relying on the bank entry alone.
Can my accountant pull data from Xero?
Yes. You can invite your accountant as a user on your Xero organisation, usually with adviser access, and they can then review transactions, run reports and make year-end adjustments directly. You stay in control of who has access and can remove it at any time.
Does a dormant company still need to send year end records?
Yes, though the list is much shorter. A dormant company still files annual accounts, so your accountant needs bank statements confirming no trading took place and confirmation that nothing changed in the company’s shares or assets. If any money moved through the account, tell them, because it may mean the company wasn’t dormant after all.
Do I need to send my personal bank statements?
Only if you used a personal account for company transactions. In that case, send the statements with those transactions highlighted so your accountant can record them through your director’s loan account. If business and personal spending were kept fully separate, your personal statements aren’t needed for the company’s accounts.
What format should I send my records in?
Digital copies are fine for almost everything. Photos or scans of paper receipts, PDF bank statements and exports from your accounting software all work, as long as they’re readable and complete. Avoid sending the same document twice through different routes, as it can create duplicate entries.
What happens after I send everything to my accountant?
Your accountant prepares draft accounts and a draft Company Tax Return, then comes back with any questions. As a director, you review the accounts and approve them before they’re filed with Companies House and HMRC. Read the drafts properly, because approving them makes you responsible for what they say.
Should I send my personal tax information at the same time?
It helps, if your accountant also prepares your Self Assessment return. Your salary and dividends from the company feed into that return, so handling both together avoids figures that don’t match. Your personal return is still separate from the company’s accounts and follows its own timetable.
