End of year: What to look out for
With 2022 just around the corner, it’s time to round off your year.
That means closing your accounts and creating the basis for your 2021 financial reporting (your annual report). You have to do this for tax purposes, but it also provides valuable information on managing your business. We’ve set out the following 6 tips to help you:
- Prepare well and in good time
Preparing properly means you’ve already done half the work. And that also applies at the year-end. So before you start, make sure you gather together all the relevant information and agree a timetable with your bookkeeper. Do this in good time because the first quarter of each year is traditionally a busy period.
- Collect all your invoices payable and receivable
It may seem obvious, but make sure you’ve recorded details of all your purchase and sales invoices in your administration. This doesn’t just mean receipts for cash amounts paid or received, but also, for example, periodic bills for rent, telephones and utilities. Because these payments are made often, businesses sometimes forget to record them.
- Check outstanding payables and receivables
When gathering together all your purchase and sales invoices, it’s a good idea to check whether the statement of incoming and outgoing items is correct. Start early to make sure you have time to sort out any outstanding issues. And if you come across an invoice from 2020 in 2021, adjust the VAT by filling in a supplementary return form on belastingdienst.nl.
- Make sure all your bank transactions are accounted for
Remember your bank transactions when you’re closing off the year. It can get so busy in December that transactions can sometimes get overlooked and not be accounted for in your administration. So make sure your records are up-to-date and that the balance in your bookkeeping is the same as on your bank statements.
- Depreciation
Any operating equipment you bought for €450 or more in 2021 has to be depreciated. That means writing off the costs over the period you use the equipment rather than writing them off in one go.
- Check your inventories
Any inventories must be shown in your year-end balance sheet. That means counting your inventories when you close off the year on 31 December and recording them in your accounts.
