Accounts Start Date & Accounts Year End

Pennywise

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Going with the financial year has one significant disadvantage: EVERYONE is busy getting their end of year accounts done, so the accountants are usually very busy.

As an accountant, the deadlines etc are a major problem, but a problem which having a different year end won't solve. Every sole trader or partnership has to complete an SA return for each year ended 5 April and they have to be submitted by 31 January. That gives a ten month window to do everyone's tax returns. You can't complete a tax return before 5 April (as things like interest & dividends won't usually be known) so you're always held up until mid to late April before starting anyone's anyway.

Where a different year end will help an accountant is for limited companies that don't work on the same strict 5 April-based deadlines. For ltd's, any year end can be adopted, and the returns and tax payments are due at a fixed time after the year end date, so it is helpful for your accountant if you have a limited company and can be flexible enough to allow your accountant to say when he'd like your year end to be. Most like 31 December company year ends so that the work can be done during Feb to April which are the months when little if anything can be done for personal SA clients.

Baz_2

Pennywise wrote: »

Of course, if you have been unlucky enough to buy a dinosaur software product like Sage that doesn't faciliate easy changing of your year end, then you do have to make a decision, long before it becomes necessary, which, sad to say, is fairly typical of that kind of old fashioned software.

Settings - financial year - change - yes - yes - pop in new start date.

Simple, the only thing you lose are the historical data, i.e the prior year totals, not the actual transactions.

I don't like sage these days since they pimped it up, but to say it is old fashioned says more about your ability to use it than the software itself.

chrisb1357

I have yet to make a sale.

I did inform HRMC on 25th June 2009

Chris

fengirl_2

If you have told HMRC that yu have started to trade, then you are stuck with it. I would have waited for my first custmer.

chrisb1357

OK lets see if i get this correct.

Informed HRMC on 25th June 2009 so this will be my Accounts Start Date.

So that makes my End of Year 31/03/2010

Is that right

Chris

fengirl_2

I would have a y/e of 31 May 2010 in order to make it a year, but you can have any date you want.

chrisb1357

So with using the dates i had put that will make the ifrst year short i guest and then next year will be a full year

Chris