Limited Company Year End Checklist (Free Download)

Before anything else, reconcile your bank accounts to your bookkeeping software, tidy up any uncategorised transactions, and make sure every sales invoice raised during the year is recorded, whether or not it has been paid. A clean set of underlying records is the single biggest factor in how smoothly year end goes.

If you use a separate business credit card or run petty cash, reconcile those too; small gaps here are a common source of last-minute queries once the accountant starts preparing the accounts.

List anything bought during the year that should be treated as a fixed asset rather than an expense, such as equipment, vehicles or software with lasting value, and confirm nothing has been scrapped or sold without being removed from the records. If you hold stock, do a physical count at or close to the year end date and value it at the lower of cost and net realisable value.

Check whether the director owes the company money, or the company owes the director, at the year end, and make sure every personal expense paid through the business, and every dividend or salary drawn, has actually been recorded. An overdrawn director's loan account has tax consequences if it is not cleared within nine months of the year end, so it is worth reviewing well before the accounts are finalised.

Check the company still qualifies as a micro-entity, meeting at least two of turnover £1 million or less, balance sheet total £500,000 or less, and 10 or fewer average employees for periods starting on or after 6 April 2025, or has moved up to the small company band (turnover up to £15 million, balance sheet total up to £7.5 million, up to 50 employees).

This affects both the format of the accounts and the level of notes required, so it's worth confirming early rather than discovering it partway through preparation. See our full guide to the thresholds (micro-entity-accounts-requirements) for the detail.

Make sure VAT returns for the year reconcile to the figures in your bookkeeping, payroll year-end submissions have been filed with HMRC, and any workplace pension contributions have been paid over on time. These feed directly into the year-end accounts and any discrepancy tends to surface as an accounts query.

Private company accounts are due at Companies House 9 months after the year end (21 months after incorporation for a first set of accounts), and the Company Tax Return (CT600) is due at HMRC 12 months after the year end, though corporation tax itself is due earlier, 9 months and 1 day after the year end.

Missing the Companies House deadline triggers an automatic penalty starting at £150 and rising to £1,500 the longer the delay runs, doubling if you were also late the year before, so build in time for review rather than starting the week before the deadline.

Year end is a natural point to also check your confirmation statement due date and, since 18 November 2025, whether every director and person with significant control has completed Companies House identity verification. Neither is part of the accounts themselves, but both are easy to overlook once the accounts are underway.

For the full run-through of deadlines across the year, see our filing deadlines guide (limited-company-filing-deadlines).

We've put the steps above into a printable, one-page checklist you can work through each year: download the limited company year-end checklist at /downloads/limited-company-year-end-checklist and keep it with your records as evidence of what was checked and when.

We are an independent firm of Chartered Accountants, not Companies House or HMRC.

We prepare and file year-end accounts, CT600s and the underlying records review for owner-managed companies (year-end-accounts). See our accountant fees guide (limited-company-accountant-fees) or current pricing (fees) if you're comparing costs.

Rates, thresholds and deadlines quoted here reflect the 2026/27 UK tax year. Check current GOV.UK guidance, or ask us, before relying on them for your own company.