Seven tips to make your financial year-end less taxing

Getting ready to file year-end tax returns can be an annual recurring nightmare for advisers. These simple tips will help reduce your year-end financial stress and streamline your filing process in 2015 and beyond.

 For many advisers the financial year-end is synonymous with a last-minute rush to sort through unruly piles of paid and unpaid invoices and wads of half-faded and unrecorded receipts. And that's before contemplating getting apportioned usage costs and depreciation right and beating crowds of other businesses to your accountant or tax adviser's door.

 It is possible to get through your tax filing without too much stress or burning of the midnight oil and to help you achieve this TMM has compiled some handy tips which will see you meet the impending 2014/15 tax year deadline, and future tax-filing deadlines, with a minimum of fuss.

Short-term tips

1. Start now

Yes – start now! The deadline is July 7, if you don't use a tax agent who has an extension. It might seem far away, but if you don't start preparing your documentation now the deadline will soon be looming large, and at that point it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work involved or by a general dislike of crunching numbers and balancing books. 

It's natural to want to put off unpleasant tasks until later, but procrastination is not going to get the job done and will only increase your stress levels later. The sooner you start, the sooner it will be done, leaving you less stressed and with more time to focus on your clients' needs and best interest, and on growing your business.

2. Break your tax filing chore down

Getting started is usually the hardest part. A large and daunting task is much easier to start if you break it down into manageable chunks – so find ways to break your tax filing tasks into smaller, less daunting sub-tasks. You could decide to invest an hour a day, or to tackle one month's worth of paperwork backlog at a time - until the work is done. 

Breaking tasks down not only makes it easier to start, there's also that feeling of satisfaction you get when you cross items off that list of things to do – and once you're making headway on a project, it's much easier to keep going.

3. Use a reward system

Use rewards to stay motivated and get through those arduous-seeming tax-related chores. Pick a reward that work for you - whether it's catching up with social media posts or surfing the web (this obviously involves a social media or internet ban until you've completed the task), a pint at the pub, a chocolate treat, an overdue visit to the gym, or a good yarn with a mate. 

Once you've reached your work target for the day, you're free to enjoy that well-deserved reward. It might seem silly or contrived, but it will help to keep you focused and on track.

Longer-term tips

4. Don't redline that filing deadline

Don't leave things to the last minute and have your accounts team (even if your accounts team is a team of one – you) racing full throttle up to the deadline. Rushing your accounts can introduce errors and is not the best environment for making sound business decisions. Don't plan to file by the deadline – give yourself some wiggle room and the headspace to make the right decisions.

5. Use technology to your advantage

Computerised accounting packages can save you a lot of time, hassle and money. They are easy to use and make it far simpler to keep your financial records up to date. Packages that store your accounts information in the cloud give you even greater flexibility and allow you to send an invoice or enter a purchase remotely when you are out of the office. 

Computerised spreadsheets, online banking and e-filing are other technologies you can use to make your tax filing simpler, easier and faster.

6. Keep your records safe

You will need to keep a record of receipts and payments, bank statements, invoices (including GST invoices), as well as wage records for all employees. Inland Revenue requires you to keep these records for seven years (or possibly longer, if they start an audit of your business) so make sure you keep your all the required information for at least seven years before you throw anything away.

7. Treat your tax filing as a project

Treat your tax filing like a project within your business. Create a list of all the tasks you'll need to complete, work out a deadline (allowing for some inevitable contingencies) and make somebody responsible for each task. 

 Monitor your progress and refine your list as you go along – and you'll be well on your way to stress-free tax filing, with the added bonus of having up-to-date financial information at your fingertips. 

 This article by Shaz was published in The Mortgage Magazine (TMM) in 2015.