Accounts & Bookkeeping
Year-End Accounts Preparation
We prepare the file, not just the numbers. Every year-end job comes back with a complete, cross-referenced working paper set so your reviewer can form a judgement in minutes rather than rebuilding the job to understand it.
- Accountancy practices
The problem
The review burden is the real cost
Most firms that have tried outsourcing and stopped did not stop because the accounts were wrong. They stopped because the file was unreviewable — no lead schedules, no cross-references, no explanation of judgements — so the partner ended up doing the job twice. Preparation without a disciplined file is not a saving.
- Year-end work concentrates into a few brutal months around the 31 December and 31 March filing peaks.
- Basis period reform and MTD have compressed the timetable further for unincorporated clients.
- Partner time spent unpicking a poorly documented file is the most expensive time in the firm.
At a glance
- Service line
- Accounts & Bookkeeping
- Delivered for
- Accountancy practices
- Typical cadence
- Standard — Typical turnaround of five to seven working days from a complete records pack. Priority — Two to three working days for jobs flagged urgent, agreed in advance. Peak season — Capacity reserved ahead of the December and March filing peaks under a forward plan.
- Engagement models
- Available per job, on ad-hoc hours, or through a dedicated resource. Compare models.
Scope
What you get back
Scope is agreed in writing before work starts and reviewed at each service review. Anything outside it is quoted separately rather than absorbed quietly and invoiced later.
The accounts
- Statutory accounts under FRS 102, FRS 102 Section 1A or FRS 105
- Limited company, LLP, partnership and sole trader accounts
- Charity accounts under the Charities SORP where relevant
- Dormant and micro-entity accounts
- Comparative restatement and prior-year adjustments where required
The working paper file
- Lead schedule for every material balance, cross-referenced to the trial balance
- Full supporting schedules — fixed assets, debtors, creditors, accruals, stock, loans
- Directors' loan account reconciliation with s455 exposure flagged
- Disclosure checklist completed against the applicable standard
- Points-forward note listing every open judgement for partner attention
Filing-ready output
- iXBRL-tagged accounts prepared in your filing software
- Companies House and HMRC submission packs assembled for your approval
- Draft corporation tax computation prepared alongside, if instructed
- Client-facing summary of results and key movements, in your house format
Software
Platforms we work in for this service
We work inside your existing systems under named user accounts. If your stack is not listed, tell us — we will confirm honestly whether we can support it immediately or need a ramp-up period.
- IRIS
- CCH Accounts Production
- TaxCalc
- Sage Accounts Production
- VT Final Accounts
- Xero Workpapers
- Silverfin
- Capium
The boundary
What stays with your firm
This matters more than the task list. A delivery partner that blurs this line creates regulatory exposure for you, so we state it explicitly on every engagement.
Yours, always
- The client engagement and engagement letter
- Professional judgement and final review
- Sign-off, submission authority and the fee
- Client advice and the client relationship
Ours
- Preparation, processing and documentation
- Internal second-person review before release
- Turnaround against the agreed timetable
- Rework at our cost where the error is ours
Questions
Year-End Accounts — what firms ask
Who signs the accounts?
You do. We are a preparation resource working under your instruction and your quality control. The engagement with the client, the review, the judgement and the signature all remain entirely with your firm.
How is quality controlled before we see it?
Every file passes a second-person review before release. The preparer and the reviewer are always different people, and the reviewer signs a completion checklist that travels with the file so you can see exactly what was checked.
What if the file comes back wrong?
Rework on our error is not chargeable and does not consume your contracted hours. We also log the root cause and feed it back into the process note for that client so the same issue does not recur next year.
Related
Services that usually move together
Most firms start with one service line. These are the ones that most often follow.
Corporation Tax
CT600 returns and computations prepared alongside the accounts, with reliefs identified rather than assumed away.
Read moreBookkeeping
Daily, weekly or monthly bookkeeping kept reconciled and review-ready — so year-end starts from clean data instead of a clean-up.
Read moreAudit Support
Fieldwork, testing and file preparation performed under your methodology — with the opinion, judgement and sign-off staying entirely yours.
Read moreNext step
Talk to us about year-end accounts.
Bring a real example — a live job, a difficult client file, a cycle you are behind on. A concrete case tells you far more about a provider than a capability slide ever will.
What to expect
- No obligation and no minimum commitment to talk
- A written proposal within five working days
- A paid pilot before any long-term arrangement