Year-end checklist for a small limited company

At the year end you close off the books, then use them to file. The order matters: each step relies on the one before it. Get the bank and journals right first, and the accounts, the tax computation and the CT600 follow from the same figures.

Last checked against GOV.UK on 28 October 2026.

A4O Accounts files your accounts and CT600 from the same figures. Get started free, no card required.

The checklist, in order

1. Reconcile the bank

Import the statements up to the year-end date and match every line. The closing balance in your books should equal the closing balance on the statement. Do every account: current, savings, and any card or loan accounts in the company’s name. A difference here carries into everything after it, so don’t move on until it’s zero.

2. Catch up on invoices and bills

Enter any sales invoices and supplier bills dated in the year that aren’t in yet. Look at what’s still unpaid:

• Customers who owe you at the year end are debtors on the balance sheet. Chase or write off anything you won’t get.
• Suppliers you owe are creditors. A bill that arrives after the year end for work done before it belongs in this year.

See entering and paying a bill and recording a payment against an invoice.

3. Post the year-end journals

These are the adjustments the bank doesn’t show:

• Accruals: costs for this year that you haven’t been billed for yet, such as the accountant’s fee or the last month’s electricity.
• Prepayments: costs paid this year that cover next year, such as insurance paid in advance.
• Depreciation on equipment and vehicles. Tax ignores it and gives capital allowances instead (see the computation in step 7).
• The director’s loan account. If a director owes the company money at the year end, see step 8.

Post each one, and check none are left as drafts.

4. Count stock

If the company holds goods to sell or materials to use, count them on the year-end date, or as close to it as you can. Value the stock at what it cost, or less if it’s damaged or won’t sell for that. Closing stock reduces the cost of sales, so it changes the profit and the tax. Skip this step if the company holds no stock.

5. Check the trial balance

Run the trial balance at the year-end date. Debits must equal credits. Then read down it: the bank figures should match step 1, the debtors and creditors should match step 2, and nothing should be sitting in a suspense account.

6. Statutory accounts

Prepare the accounts from the trial balance and file them with Companies House. A private company has 9 months from the end of its financial year; first accounts have 21 months from the date the company was set up. Filing late brings an automatic penalty. See filing company accounts with Companies House. A small company can file micro-entity accounts, and a company that hasn’t traded files dormant company accounts.

7. Tax computation

The computation takes the profit in the accounts, adds back costs tax doesn’t allow, takes off capital allowances and losses, and works out the tax. It has to start from the same figures as the accounts you filed. See what goes in a Corporation Tax computation.

8. CT600, and paying the tax

File the CT600 with the accounts and computation in iXBRL. The return is due 12 months after the end of the accounting period, but the tax is due first: 9 months and 1 day after it ends. See how to file a CT600 and Corporation Tax deadlines.

If a director still owes the company money 9 months after the year end, the company pays extra tax on the loan (s455), reported on the CT600A. Repaying it within the 9 months avoids the charge. See loans to participators (CT600A).

When it’s done

• Keep the records, including the bank statements, invoices, bills and stock count sheets. GOV.UK says to keep them for 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate to, and longer in some cases, such as equipment expected to last more than 6 years or a return filed late. Keep the stock count sheets too: GOV.UK lists them.
• Note next year’s dates. The year end itself doesn’t change unless you change it at Companies House.
• The confirmation statement is separate from the accounts and has its own date. See filing a confirmation statement.

Doing it in A4O Accounts

A4O Accounts lists these steps for the year you’re working on and ticks each one off from your records: bank accounts reconciled to the year end, draft journals still to post, the trial balance, then the accounts, the computation and the CT600. The accounts and the computation are built from the same books, and the CT600 is filled in from the computation. See what you can file.