A limited company's year end is never a single date. It is a cluster of them: the last day of the accounting period, the day the bank statements stop, the day the accounts are due at Companies House, the day the corporation tax lands. Each date brings its own paperwork, and the companies that sail through them are almost always the ones that collected the paperwork as they went.

What follows is a month-by-month checklist for a typical twelve-month accounting period and the weeks that follow it. A shop holding stock and a consultant with three invoices a month will not need every line, but the shape is the same: keep the records clean during the year, tidy the loose ends just after the year end, then file.

One caveat before you start. Deadlines depend on your company's own dates and on whether it qualifies as small or micro-entity. Treat this as a working framework and confirm the specifics with your accountant.

Know your dates before anything else

Everything hangs off your accounting reference date (ARD) — the anniversary of the last day of your first accounting period. From it you can work out:

• the period the accounts must cover;
• the deadline for filing at Companies House, generally nine months after the ARD (first accounts get longer — twenty-one months from incorporation, or three months after the first anniversary of the ARD if that is later);
• the corporation tax payment date, usually nine months and one day after the end of the period;
• the CT600 return deadline, twelve months after the end of the period;
• the separate confirmation statement deadline, which has nothing to do with the accounts but is easy to forget.

Write those dates in your diary now. Payroll has its own calendar too — P60s to employees by the end of May, P11D returns by early July, Class 1A national insurance shortly after.

The month-by-month checklist

Months here are counted from the start of the accounting period, not from January.

Months 1 to 3

Set the file up properly and the rest of the year looks after itself. Reconcile every bank and credit card account monthly rather than quarterly. Number sales invoices in sequence and file purchase paperwork as it arrives. If you claim mileage or use a home office, log it as it happens — reconstructing a year of journeys in February is nobody's idea of fun. Records must generally be kept for six years from the end of the accounting period.

Months 4 to 6

VAT-registered companies will have filed a return or two by now; check that the VAT control account in your bookkeeping agrees with what was actually submitted. Keep RTI submissions going out on or before each payday. Review aged debtors and chase anything over sixty days — a customer who cannot pay before your year end is a bad debt waiting to happen.

Months 7 to 9

Compare profit against budget halfway through. It is far easier to ask awkward questions now than in the middle of the year-end run. Check that no purchase invoices are sitting unopened, and look at the director's loan account. If the company has lent you money and the balance is still outstanding nine months after the year end, a tax charge arises that is only recovered once the loan is repaid.

Months 10 to 12

This is where the technical work starts.

1. Account for prepayments — insurance, software subscriptions and rent paid in advance.
2. Account for accruals — work done for you but not yet invoiced, plus any unbilled revenue.
3. Count and value stock if you hold any, as close to the year-end date as possible.
4. Update the fixed asset register: additions, disposals and this year's depreciation.
5. Apply cut-off properly. An invoice dated 2 April for March work belongs in March.
6. Reconcile every account, including payment processors such as Stripe or PayPal, not just the bank.
7. Write off anything genuinely irrecoverable and note the reason.

The month after the year end

Gather the closing documents: bank statements to the period end date, loan and hire purchase agreements, credit card statements, petty cash count, payroll summaries for the final month, pension contribution schedules, and signed contracts for anything unusual. If you use an accountant, send the lot in one go rather than in dribs and drabs — a complete pack can knock weeks off the turnaround.

What Companies House and HMRC each want

The two are not the same submission. Companies House wants statutory accounts: a balance sheet, notes, and — depending on size — a profit and loss account and directors' report. Small and micro-entity companies can file a reduced version, and most small companies do not have to file the profit and loss account at all, though HMRC still needs it.

HMRC wants the CT600 corporation tax return, the tax computations, and accounts tagged in iXBRL format. Even when the figures match exactly, the two packages are prepared separately. Missing one is a common and expensive mistake.

Where year-end accounts usually stall

• Unreconciled bank, card or payment processor accounts
• Missing supplier invoices, especially small cash purchases
• Personal spending run through the company account and mixed in with business costs
• Director's loan balances nobody has tracked
• Stock estimated from memory rather than counted
• Income invoiced in the new year for work done in the old one
• A VAT control account that does not agree to the returns filed

Each of these adds time, and time with an accountant is not free. Fixing them in month ten costs a fraction of fixing them in month fourteen.

A short list for the final fortnight

Before you sign anything off, run through this: all bank accounts reconciled to the year end; control accounts agreeing; depreciation calculated; stock and work in progress valued; director's loan balance confirmed and, if owed, a repayment plan in place; and the trial balance read line by line for anything that looks odd.

Then diarise the filing dates and keep a PDF of everything you sent. If your circumstances are anything other than straightforward — group structures, overseas income, share schemes, grants — speak to your accountant before you file rather than after. Accounts are quicker to prepare than to correct.

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