Here we are in the new year 2024. We wish you all good health, good luck and of course professional success and may it carry us through this year.
At the beginning of the new year, we will be closing the previous one in the accounts.
Don’t leave the delivery of last year’s and December’s documents to the last minute. It will be the last month to be closed and the documents can be claimed for the whole year on this VAT return.
You may argue that VAT can be claimed for three years. This is true, but the expense is no longer in the proper year, it has to be accounted for by means of an imputation and it will add extra work for the accountants.
As the year closes, we are faced with inventories and stock-taking. They are an integral and important part of the accounts. The obligation to take inventories is a direct requirement of the Accounting Act. It ascertains the factual accuracy, i.e. the actual state of assets and liabilities (assets and liabilities) and also ascertains the correct valuation of assets. The inventory itself is part of the inventory and represents the physical and documentary determination of the actual stocks. Physical inventories are used where assets can be visually verified, for example, tangible assets, goods in stock, valuables, cash in hand. Documentary inventories shall be used for accounts payable and for those assets where the actual condition cannot be visually determined. Inventories are therefore carried out by establishing the facts in the books of account.
Inventories have a rule that they may be started no earlier than four months before and completed no later than two months after the balance sheet date. Usually the balance sheet date is 31 December of the year.
However, it is recommended that inventories be taken as close to the balance sheet date as possible, as there are changes in the condition of assets in the period before or after the balance sheet date and these changes must be documented and retained in the accounts.
Inventories need not all be taken on the same day. For larger companies, you can divide them over several days, for example, by warehouse, branch…
Finally, any inventory differences, namely shortages or surpluses, are accounted for in the accounts.
Companies and entrepreneurs are obliged to prove that they have carried out inventories for up to five years after they have been carried out. It is advisable to have an internal company directive that sets out the procedure and organisation of all inventories.
We wish you a peaceful entry into inventories, inventories, closures. We believe that in the case of continuous bookkeeping, these tasks are only control activities.
