End of financial year work closes off the year to 30 June: reconciling income and bank accounts, finalising payroll and super, reviewing the asset register and stock, then handing clean books to whoever lodges. Take every date and threshold from the ATO directly, because they move.
The checklist, in the order it has to happen
The sequence matters more than the list, because each step depends on the one before it. Reconcile first, finalise payroll second, deal with assets and stock third, and only then produce anything anyone lodges or signs.
| What it involves | Who should own it in a growing company | |
|---|---|---|
| Reconcile income and banking | Match every bank and merchant account to the ledger, chase unallocated receipts, and clear the suspense account. | Bookkeeper or financial accountant, monthly. If this only happens in June, the rest of the checklist will not hold. |
| Finalise payroll and super | Reconcile wages to the ledger, check leave balances, confirm contractor treatment, and make sure super has been received by funds. | Whoever runs payroll, with a second pair of eyes. Contractor classification is the line most often got wrong. |
| Review expenses and deductions | Code the year properly, separate capital from expense, and identify anything needing a specific position such as R&D. | Prepared internally, reviewed by the tax agent. Judgement calls belong with the agent, not the spreadsheet. |
| Assets and stock | Count stock, write off what is gone, and reconcile the fixed asset register to what physically exists. | Finance with operations. A register nobody has walked past in a year is a list, not a record. |
| Lodge and report | Produce the statutory accounts, meet the ATO obligations, and satisfy any ASIC reporting the entity carries. | Registered tax agent, on books handed over clean. Directors still carry the reporting obligation regardless of who prepares. |
Everything above sits on records you are required to keep anyway. The ATO's record-keeping rules for business set what has to exist and for how long, and the companion guidance on business records covers the formats. A year end that turns into a scramble is almost always a record-keeping problem surfacing in June rather than a June problem.
Where the binding dates actually come from
Do not take deadlines from a checklist, including this one. Lodgement dates, payroll finalisation dates and super due dates change, and they differ depending on whether you lodge yourself or through a registered agent. Take them from the source each year.
Superannuation is the one worth pulling forward in the calendar, because contributions have to be received by the fund rather than paid by you to count, and the deductibility question follows from that. The ATO sets both who you have to pay super for and how much and by when. If you have a company, directors also carry financial reporting responsibilities through ASIC, separate from anything the ATO asks for, and depending on the size and type of the company those can extend to lodging financial reports. They catch out first-time founders more often than tax does.
What you can do yourself, and what you cannot
Reconciliation, payroll finalisation, the stocktake and the asset register review are internal work. A competent bookkeeper or finance person handles all of it. Lodging a company tax return on someone else's behalf, and giving tax advice, is regulated work that belongs with a registered tax agent, and the position you take on anything genuinely uncertain should be theirs rather than yours.
The middle ground is where mistakes live: research and development claims, employee share scheme reporting, capitalised development costs, and anything involving an overseas entity. Prepare the working papers internally, then have them reviewed. That is cheaper than having your accountant reconstruct twelve months in July.
Who owns end of year as the company grows
In a small startup this lands on whoever is closest to the numbers, which is usually the founder plus an external accountant. It works until it does not. The first finance hire in an early-stage company is primarily a problem solver with a finance lens, focused on getting things done, and that explicitly includes the legal and compliance work nobody else wants.[1] Year end is exactly that kind of work, and it is a reasonable part of the case for making the hire.
The order these seats arrive in is fairly consistent. By the time a business is hiring its first CFO, it usually already has a bookkeeper and an assistant accountant plus a financial controller or Head of Finance, with the controller or Head of Finance often being the first operational finance hire, sometimes preceded by a fractional CFO before a permanent CFO comes in around Series A or B.[2] Compliance and year end sit with that operational layer, not the top of it.
Which is the point worth holding onto if you are about to hire. The ideal finance leader for a growth phase is a commercial person focused on growth and outcomes, not just compliance.[3] Hiring a leader mainly to make June easier gets you a June that is easier and a business that has not changed. A raise is the exception. VCs would ideally like a finance person in place pre-Series A for the capital raise, compliance and the data room, but more often founders use a fractional finance professional for the raise itself with a mandate to hire permanently afterwards.[4]
If year end is falling on the founder every June, the underlying question is structural. Here is how a startup finance team should be structured as it scales.
Common questions
When does the Australian financial year end?
30 June. The new year begins 1 July. Lodgement deadlines after that date depend on your circumstances and on whether you lodge yourself or through a registered tax agent, and they move, so check the ATO for the current year before you plan around them.
What should be on an end of financial year checklist?
Five stages in order: reconcile income and banking so the ledger matches reality; finalise payroll and super, including checking contractor classification and confirming super has been received by the funds; review expenses and separate capital from expense; count stock and reconcile the fixed asset register to what physically exists; then produce accounts and lodge. Each stage depends on the one before it, which is why the order matters more than the list.
What can I do myself and what needs an accountant?
Do the internal work yourself: reconciling, finalising payroll, the stocktake and the asset register review all sit comfortably with a competent bookkeeper or finance person. Only a registered tax agent can lodge a company return on someone else's behalf or give tax advice. The grey area is R&D claims, employee share scheme reporting, capitalised development costs and anything with an overseas entity: prepare the working papers internally, then have them reviewed.
Should we hire a finance person to handle year end?
Not on its own. Year end is a reasonable line in the business case but a poor reason by itself, because the ideal finance leader for a growth phase is commercial and outcome-focused rather than compliance-focused. If June is the only pain, a bookkeeper plus a good external accountant is usually the cheaper fix. If the same person is also building the model, running the board pack and answering investors, that is a hire.
References
- What changes as a business scales: in early-stage companies they are primarily a problem solver with a finance lens, focused on getting things done, including legal and compliance tasks.
- The sequence Tom Hunter sees in practice: it is typical for the first CFO hire to already have a bookkeeper and an assistant accountant plus a financial controller or Head of Finance in place, as the Head of Finance or FC is often the first operational finance hire, sometimes preceded by a fractional CFO, before a full-time CFO is brought in at Series A or B. He sets out the same progression in an interview on the Honest Wealth Builders podcast.
- What the brief actually called for: the ideal CFO is a commercial person focused on growth and outcomes, not just compliance, who can help drive towards an IPO or exit.
- What I see at that stage: while VCs ideally want a finance person pre-Series A to help with capital raising, compliance and the data room, more often than not founders use a fractional finance professional for the capital raising project with the mandate to hire a permanent finance person post-raise.