It’s that time of year again! The end of the financial year (EOFY)!
As it’s one of the busiest times of year for any business, there are a variety of tips for the EOFY. One way businesses get ready for EOFY is by organising their documents, whether it be storing, filing and/or shredding them.
So what are the top 10 tips to organise your documents for the EOFY?
1. Gather all receipts
This is crucial for anyone, let alone a business, especially when it comes to claiming deductions on a tax return. While it’s better to have a system to store your receipts throughout the financial year, if you’re getting ready for EOFY, it’s time to start gathering them all together now.
2. Reviewing and reconciling accounts
Similarly to storing and gathering receipts, businesses should regularly be reviewing and reconciling accounts, but it is especially crucial for getting ready for EOFY. Reviewing and reconciling accounts can help you keep your finances up-to-date, complete correct BAS reports, and makes things easier during tax season. Not to mention, reviewing and reconciling accounts is recommended and beneficial if you’re storing, filing and/or shredding documents.
3. Calculate your income and expenses
While this can be done during your tax return, and reviewing and reconciling your accounts, it’s a lot easier to calculate your income and expenses now is a great tip for the EOFY through a profit/loss statement.
4. Buy stationery and hard drives
It’s recommended that businesses keep both print and digital copies of their documents. When getting ready for EOFY, for print documents, buy stationary such as boxes, binders, folders for storing and pens for labelling. With digital copies, buy a hard drive or two for storage and keep them in a safe place, perhaps away from the premises.
5. Store/move documents to a convenient location
Storing documents in a convenient location goes without saying, that being said the EOFY is a good time to question whether the location for your documents is convenient, and if not what to do about it. Moving documents that are being shredded to a convenient location is also important, so they can be disposed of quickly.
6. Make repairs to the office
While you may think that making repairs to the office is irrelevant to storing documents, it actually isn’t. Documents have to be stored somewhere and holes in the walls can let mice in, leaks in the walls and roof can lead to documents being soaked and ruined, and so on. Before you kick off the new financial year, make sure any repairs that need to be done to the office are done.
7. Buy some office furniture
While storing documents in a convenient location is important, to store in this location you need office furniture. Filing cabinets, portable drawers, shelves and cupboards are good, simple and affordable choices.
8. Clean the office
This is crucial for storing printed copies of documents and for shredding old documents. Cleaning the office enables easy storage and discovery of documents when the need arises, as well as enables quick and easy shredding if old documents are in one place.
9. Organising specific EOFY documents
A crucial tip for getting ready for EOFY is to organise specific EOFY documents for your tax agent. These include but are not limited to: PAYG summaries, accounts receivable/payable and superannuation records.
10. Backup and secure data
Before you move, file and/or shred documents, it is best to backup and secure the data—both printed and digital—beforehand, so you have nothing to worry about.
Now you know the top 10 tips for the EOFY. There are only a few days left, so get cracking!
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