New Zealand year-end close checklist for a smoother financial close

Most year-end closes don’t fall apart because teams have a misunderstanding of accounting. They fall apart because small gaps compound under pressure, timelines collide and manual processes stop scaling just when scrutiny increases.

This year-end close checklist is designed to help leaders step back, assess readiness and identify where risk is hiding before March forces everything to the surface.

What is the year-end close process?

At a high level, the year-end close is the point where companies compile, review and finalise every financial transaction from the previous fiscal year.

Unlike month-end closes, where estimates can roll forward and finance teams can monitor variances, year-end requires resolution. Once the books are closed, changes are no longer routine corrections – they become exceptions that require explanation.

This pressure is often amplified by lean teams, multiple entities or mixed Goods and Services Tax (GST) treatments. The year-end close becomes less about processing transactions and more about whether the underlying processes can withstand external review or potential audits.

The annual close typically includes:

• Finalising revenue and expenses
• Reconciling accounts payable and receivable
• Recording accruals and provisions
• Aligning GST and fringe benefit tax (FBT) positions
• Preparing income tax and provisional tax inputs
• Reviewing fixed assets and depreciation
• Ensuring Companies Act and financial reporting compliance
• Supporting audit or external review

What separates a controlled year-end close from a painful one isn’t the presence of these tasks. Every finance team does them. The difference is when the work happens and how much of it relies on year-end clean-up rather than disciplined processes throughout the year.

Key dates and regulatory considerations

A 31 March year end looks simple on the calendar. In reality, it sits at the intersection of multiple reporting timelines that rarely align neatly.

Common pressure points include:

• 31 March financial year end: The point at which all balances, accruals and judgments must be complete and accounted for.
• GST filing deadlines: GST due dates vary by filing frequency. For many businesses, the March period return is due in late April, while six-month filers lodge 7 May.
• Companies Act regulations: Financial statements must be prepared consistently, approved by directors and, where required, filed within statutory timeframes.

Most year-end delays aren’t caused by misunderstanding the rules. They’re caused by misalignment. The teams that manage this well start by mapping firm dates to internal milestones and planning backwards from there.

Common year-end close challenges

When finance teams talk about difficult year-end closes, the conversation often focuses on a single blocker. A late adjustment, audit query or missing reconciliation can create waterfall effects of delays in closing.

Small issues that felt manageable during the year compile when the ultimate deadline looms. In reality, those are usually symptoms of a greater problem. Lean teams. Spreadsheet-dependent processes. Approvers outside finance who don’t experience close pressure directly.

But this is why year-end often feels disproportionately harder than month end: The work is similar, but the margin for error is not.

The most common blockers include:

• Late expense submissions mean finance has to estimate numbers instead of using real information, leading to changes later in the close.
• Manual bank reconciliations are harder to manage as activity increases and make it easier for issues to slip through unnoticed.
• Last-minute accruals happen when information arrives late, leaving little time to validate the numbers.

GST differences across entities often only show up when everything is brought together, creating extra work and delays at the worst time.

7 tips for a faster year-end close

Speed at year end is often misunderstood. Teams don’t close faster because they push harder in March. They close faster because there’s less to fix in March.

Here are tips to consider for optimising your year-end close and spreading the work throughout the year, rather than cramming it in February and March.

• Reconcile accounts monthly: Keep bank, GST control and balance sheet reconciliations updated throughout the year to prevent unresolved differences from slowing the 31 March close.
• Set and enforce clear cut-offs: Communicate firm deadlines for expenses, invoicing and accrual inputs before year-end to reduce last-minute estimates and rework with minimal effort.
• Document judgments as you go: Record reasoning for accruals, provisions and estimates during the year to cut time-consuming explanations during audit, tax review or director sign-off.
• Align payroll and finance early: Reconciling payroll, leave balances, holiday pay and PAYE to the general ledger before year end prevents employee-related adjustments from becoming a late-stage blocker.
• Prepare early: Review your business close readiness in January and February to identify issues early, when they are easier to fix.
• Plan around NZ compliance dates: GST, FBT, provisional tax and audit timelines don’t move, so mapping them early avoids collisions during the close.
• Limit manual processes: Manual reconciliations, approvals and data handoffs become bottlenecks at year end when transaction volumes and review standards increase.

How automation simplifies year-end close

Year-end pressure has a way of exposing process design flaws. Manual AP workflows, approvals buried in inboxes and reconciliations that depend on spreadsheet logic all behave reasonably at low volume. At year end, they become bottlenecks.

But automating processes can smooth out the wrinkles of year-end close in the following ways: 

• Payroll management: If payroll data lives outside finance systems or is reconciled late, leave balances, PAYE and accruals often need correcting at the worst possible time. Automated payroll integration keeps payroll, liabilities and the general ledger aligned throughout the year, so year-end financial close isn’t spent fixing errors.
• Accounts payable and receivable: Manual invoice processing and approvals push work into inboxes and spreadsheets, making it hard to see what’s complete and what’s missing. At the end of the year, that lack of visibility turns into late accruals, rushed approvals and rework. Automation brings invoices, approvals and payment status into one controlled flow, so liabilities and receivables are known earlier and easier to review.
• Revenue recognition: Without automation, revenue close often relies on manual checks across billing schedules, spreadsheets and contracts, which increases the risk of cut-off errors and inconsistent treatment. Automated revenue processes apply rules consistently and surface exceptions early, reducing last-minute adjustments and audit questions.‍
• Audit data: When audit support is spread across emails, cloud drives and spreadsheets, year-end turns into a scramble to explain GST treatments, FBT calculations and balance movements after the fact. That’s when finance teams lose time responding to tax and audit queries instead of reviewing results. Automation creates a clear, consistent trail for transactions, approvals and reconciliations, making it far easier to support GST, FBT and year-end positions with confidence during audit or external review.