With the end of the financial year coming up I thought it was worthwhile putting out a reminder about some issues you may need to address.  There are so many things that could go on this list but these are some of the major ones.

financial year

  • Have you organised for the audit to take place and set the dates?  Depending on the type and structure of your organisation you have mandatory deadlines you must comply with that relates to, for example, ASIC, Australian Taxation Office and grant funding bodies that require acquittals or financial accountability requirements.
  • Are your account reconciliations up to date?  This not only assists with planning and being organised for the audit but makes it easy for the preparation of the end of year reports.
  • Check whether there are any accounts or payments that need to be made before the end of the financial year.  These may relate to the need to comply with funding guidelines that require tranches to be fully expended before the next one is remitted.
  • Have you started the preparation of the budget as often the June Board meeting is used to review and approve the following year’s budget?
  • In addition to the budget, the strategic plan should be reviewed and key objectives for the upcoming year should have been established and agreed upon by the Board.
  • The maintenance and or upgrade of equipment should be reviewed to ensure it is in order and safe to use or because it needs to be replaced and should form part of the budget process.
  • Review any contracts to ensure they have not expired.  This can include, for example, staff employment contracts, insurance contracts, equipment and maintenance contracts or security contracts.
  • Do a review of all funding agreements to ascertain whether recurrent funding agreements need to be submitted.
  • Start planning for your Annual General Meeting.  See the next post for more discussion on this point. 

As mentioned at the start, there are many other things that you could have on this list that depends on the type of organisation you are operating.  Being prepared is the key to a smooth transition.