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Year-End Accounts Checklist for UK Limited Companies: What to Do Before and After Your Year End

Most year end stress has nothing to do with the accounts themselves. It comes from missing paperwork, unreconciled bank accounts and decisions that needed making before the year finished. Whether your company's year end is 31 December, 31 March or any other date, this checklist covers what to do before the date, on the day and in the months after it.

Before your year end: what you can still change

Once the year has closed, the numbers are mostly fixed. These are worth reviewing a month or two before, while you can still act:

• Pension contributions: company contributions to a director's pension must actually be paid before the year end to count in that period. Accruing them does not work.
• Equipment purchases: if you are buying anyway, the timing can decide which year gets the tax relief.
• Dividends: check there are enough distributable profits, and keep a board minute and dividend voucher for each one.
• Director and staff bonuses: a bonus can usually be included in this year's accounts if the company is committed to it by the year end and pays it within 9 months.

On the year end date

Some information is far harder to recreate later, so capture it at the time:

• Count your stock and work in progress, and keep the signed count sheets
• Note the last sales invoice and purchase invoice numbers for the period
• Run aged debtors and aged creditors reports dated to the year end
• Download statements to the final day for every bank account, credit card and payment platform such as Stripe or PayPal
• Get closing balance statements for any loans, finance agreements and hire purchase

Getting the books ready

This is where most of the work sits, and it is much lighter if the bookkeeping has been kept up during the year. Work through each item:

• Reconcile every bank account to the final statement balance
• Check sales and purchases are in the right period, and write off debts you will never collect
• Add accruals for costs incurred but not yet billed, and prepayments for costs paid in advance
• Update your fixed asset register with additions and disposals, and keep the invoices
• Agree the VAT control account to your VAT returns
• Agree PAYE, net wages and pension balances to your payroll reports
• Split loan and finance payments between capital and interest
• Clear the suspense account and remove any personal spending from business costs

Check the director's loan account

This one deserves its own line because it is expensive to get wrong. Go through every movement and make sure the closing balance is right, including drawings that have not yet been declared as salary or dividends.

If a director owes the company money and it is still outstanding 9 months and 1 day after the year end, the company pays an extra tax charge under section 455. The rate is 35.75% on loans made on or after 6 April 2026, and 33.75% on earlier ones. You can reclaim it once the loan is repaid, but that can take a long time. Balances above £10,000 at any point in the tax year can also create a taxable benefit, unless a commercial rate of interest is charged.

Know your deadlines

A private limited company has three separate dates after its year end:

• Accounts to Companies House: 9 months after the year end
• Corporation Tax payment: 9 months and 1 day after the year end
• CT600 and accounts to HMRC: 12 months after the end of the accounting period

For a 31 December 2026 year end, that means 30 September 2027, 1 October 2027 and 31 December 2027. Notice the tax is due before the return, so you need your figures well ahead of the filing date. New companies have different dates for their first accounts, which we cover in our Companies House deadlines guide, and very profitable companies may need to pay in instalments, as explained in our Corporation Tax guide.

Missing them gets costly. Companies House penalties start at £150 and reach £1,500 for accounts more than 6 months late. HMRC charges £200 as soon as the CT600 is a day late, and another £200 at 3 months.

Before you sign and file

A final review catches the mistakes that would otherwise sit on the public record:

• Compare the figures to last year and make sure you can explain any big swings
• Confirm your company size. For periods starting on or after 6 April 2025, a small company meets two of these three limits: turnover up to £15 million, balance sheet total up to £7.5 million and 50 employees. For a micro-entity the limits are £1 million, £500,000 and 10 employees.
• Check the accounting reference date on the Companies House register matches your accounts
• Have a director approve and sign the accounts
• Make sure directors have completed identity verification

It is also worth asking what software your accounts will be filed through, as Companies House currently plans to make commercial software mandatory for all accounts filing from April 2028.