End of financial year advice for retail newsagents

The end of the financial year is less than a week away. Here is some advice for those wanting to be prepared. If stock on hand data in your computer system is accurate through structured and consistently followed inventory arrival, sales and return processes, a stock take is not necessary according to ATO advice. However, you need to provide a stock listing that can be relied upon.

Here is end of financial year advice:

1. Take an additional backup of your business data on June 30th. Mark it as your END OF FINANCIAL YEAR BACKUP and store it in a safe place. You will need this in case you want to get information from that particular date.
2. Print a Debtors report on June 30th, listing all debtors and their respective balances. You can then save this report as a PDF and/or e-mail a copy to yourself and your accountant.
3. Write off any bad debts.
4. Write off any old stock which will never ever sell and remove it fro the business.
5. Complete a stocktake (if your stock on hand data is not accurate) and print a Stock Listing Report for your accountant.  If you have been managing stock using best practice methods, this may not be necessary.
6. Print a Monthly Sales Comparison Report to compare the performance in the current financial year to the previous. Read this. Assess the results. Develop a plan of action for the ew financial year if not done already.

The end of the financial year is an opportunity to reset and reconsider. If you are not happy with the performance of your business, change is essential.