Year-End Bookkeeping Checklist

Work through five groups of steps, tick off what's done, and print the result for your accountant.

Income

All invoices sent this period collected in one placeYour accountant needs full revenue, not just what has landed in the bank: an unpaid invoice still counts as income for the period it was earned in.
Note for: All invoices sent this period collected in one place
Invoice numbers checked for gaps or duplicatesA missing number usually means an invoice was deleted, voided without a record, or never entered. Worth explaining now rather than being asked about it later.
Note for: Invoice numbers checked for gaps or duplicates
Outstanding (unpaid) invoices listed separately from paid onesThis separates work you have already earned from cash you are still owed, which your accountant needs to work out debtors at period end.
Note for: Outstanding (unpaid) invoices listed separately from paid ones
Income received outside your usual invoicing noted (cash, one-off jobs, interest)Anything that never went through a normal invoice is easy to forget, but it is still income and still needs to be declared.
Note for: Income received outside your usual invoicing noted (cash, one-off jobs, interest)
Credit notes or refunds matched to the original invoiceWithout the match, an accountant reconciling totals only sees the original, higher figure and no explanation for the difference.
Note for: Credit notes or refunds matched to the original invoice

Expenses

Receipts or invoices present for every business expenseA line on a bank statement does not show what was bought or whether it is deductible: the receipt is the actual evidence.
Note for: Receipts or invoices present for every business expense
Business spending separated from personal spending on shared accountsMixed personal and business spending on one account is the single most common thing that slows an accountant down at year end.
Note for: Business spending separated from personal spending on shared accounts
Recurring subscriptions and software costs listed with their billing periodA monthly charge that renewed 12 times looks different from a one-off annual purchase, and your accountant needs to know which it was.
Note for: Recurring subscriptions and software costs listed with their billing period
Purchases above a set amount kept separate from routine expensesLarger purchases may need to be depreciated over several years instead of expensed all at once, so they need to be flagged, not buried in the list.
Note for: Purchases above a set amount kept separate from routine expenses
Mileage or travel log complete for the period, if you claim itTravel claimed without a log is usually the first thing questioned, so the log needs to exist before it is asked for.
Note for: Mileage or travel log complete for the period, if you claim it
Home office or workspace costs calculated for the period, if applicableThis needs a consistent method (a percentage of home costs, a fixed rate, or similar), and your accountant will ask which one you used.
Note for: Home office or workspace costs calculated for the period, if applicable

Bank and cash

Bank statements complete for the whole period, no gapsA missing month makes it impossible to reconcile income and expenses against what actually happened in the account.
Note for: Bank statements complete for the whole period, no gaps
Closing balance on the last day of the period notedThis single figure is the anchor that every other reconciliation gets checked against.
Note for: Closing balance on the last day of the period noted
Every business bank account and card included, not just the main oneA second account or a business credit card left out understates both income and expenses, not just one side.
Note for: Every business bank account and card included, not just the main one
Cash transactions, if any, recorded separately from bank transactionsCash never shows up on a bank statement, so it only exists in your records if you wrote it down yourself.
Note for: Cash transactions, if any, recorded separately from bank transactions
Transfers between personal and business accounts labelled clearlyAn unlabelled transfer looks like unexplained income or an unexplained expense until someone stops to ask about it.
Note for: Transfers between personal and business accounts labelled clearly

Assets and equipment

Equipment or assets bought this period listed with purchase date and costThis is what your accountant uses to work out depreciation and whether the purchase qualifies for different tax treatment than a regular expense.
Note for: Equipment or assets bought this period listed with purchase date and cost
Anything sold, scrapped, or stopped using during the period notedA disposal changes depreciation going forward and may need to be accounted for on its own, separately from the original purchase.
Note for: Anything sold, scrapped, or stopped using during the period noted
Loan or finance agreements for equipment documented, if anyInterest and principal are usually treated differently, and your accountant needs the actual agreement to split one from the other.
Note for: Loan or finance agreements for equipment documented, if any

Paperwork

Prior period's accounts or tax return on hand for referenceYour accountant will want to check this period against the last one for consistency, and having it ready saves a round trip.
Note for: Prior period's accounts or tax return on hand for reference
Any letters or notices from the tax authority collectedThese sometimes change how the current period should be filed, so your accountant needs to see them, not just be told about them.
Note for: Any letters or notices from the tax authority collected
Contracts or agreements signed during the period kept togetherRelevant whenever how income or an expense is treated depends on the actual terms, not just the amount.
Note for: Contracts or agreements signed during the period kept together
Business registration and insurance documents up to date and accessibleAsked for occasionally and easier to have ready in one place than to hunt for when it comes up.
Note for: Business registration and insurance documents up to date and accessible
Everything above gathered into one folder, physical or digital, ready to hand overThe point of this whole list: not scattered files in different places, one thing you can actually hand your accountant.
Note for: Everything above gathered into one folder, physical or digital, ready to hand over

What this checklist is, and what it isn't

This is not tax advice and not a complete list for any specific country's bookkeeping requirements. It's a general memory aid built to help a self-employed person gather their own records before handing them to an accountant, nothing more. Exactly which documents your accountant needs, and in what format, is a question for your accountant: this list is a reasonable starting point, not the final word.

Related tools

Next step

Take it further, in a spreadsheet

This checklist is for the one week a year you gather everything up. The free invoice template is a fine place to start if your invoices aren't organized yet, and the Small Business Finance Kit's Invoice Log and Expenses tab keep income and spending gathered all year, so this checklist takes minutes at year end instead of a weekend.

Start here: one invoice

The Free Invoice Template builds one invoice in Excel or Sheets: fill in your details once, get a print-ready invoice with its own totals. No macros, one email address.

Get the free template →

When there's more than one invoice to track

The Small Business Finance Kit is one Excel workbook that tracks every invoice, flags who's overdue, logs expenses, and calculates your profit automatically. Seven tabs, one file, no subscription.

Get the Small Business Finance Kit →