Financial year-end in Australia: Everything you need to know

As Australian businesses enter the “End of Financial Year” (EOFY), this is a vital period for CFOs and finance managers to meet compliance and prep for the new financial year. For a hassle-free close, plan early, record your financial data accurately and meet key deadlines. To reduce manual work and minimise errors during this timeframe, make sure your finance team has access to the right systems, reporting tools and workflows.

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What is the financial year-end and why does it matter?

The Australian financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June. For most businesses, this is both the tax year and the accounting year. This means the close at 30 June triggers a collision of obligations: payroll finalisation, GST reporting, super contributions and financial reporting all land within weeks of each other.

For CFOs and Finance Managers, EOFY is not primarily a compliance exercise. It is a governance exercise. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) publishes its financial reporting and audit focus areas annually, updating them for years ending 30 June and 31 December. Meanwhile, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) uses Single Touch Payroll data for real-time monitoring. Auditors test revenue cut-offs, inventory valuation, impairment estimates and provision adequacy. If you have treated the year-end as an annual scramble, the consequences of rushed work might show up in audit adjustments, rework and reputational friction with your board and lenders. The businesses that close cleanly are the ones that treat EOFY as the final checkpoint of a year-round discipline, not a once-a-year sprint.

Key dates in the Australian financial year

In Australia, important dates for the financial year include:

Deadline	Date	What it covers
End of financial year	30 June	Close of accounting period
STP finalisation (most employees)	14 July	Single Touch Payroll year-end declaration
June quarter BAS	28 July	GST and PAYG activity statement
Super guarantee (June quarter)	28 July	Quarterly SG contribution due to funds
STP finalisation (closely held payees)	30 September	Separate deadline for directors, shareholders and family employees
TPAR	28 August	Taxable Payments Annual Report for qualifying industries
Corporate financial report (disclosing entities)	30 September	3 months after year-end for disclosing entities and registered schemes
Corporate financial report (other entities)	31 October	4 months after year-end for other reporting entities
ACNC Annual Information Statement	31 December	For standard financial year charities

Looking forwards: Your month-end checklist

Successfully closing off the financial period at the end of every month is vital. It also delivers practical benefits for both the finance team and the business.

The month-end close process enables you to ensure that the accounts are accurate and identify any discrepancies. It promotes good financial planning and ensures smooth tax management and year-end processes.

Download month-end checklist

The 2026 watch items every CFO needs to know

Payday Super commences 1 July 2026

This is the most significant operational change for Australian finance managers in several years. From 1 July 2026, employers must pay superannuation guarantee contributions on the same day as salary and wages, replacing the current quarterly system.

Feature	Current system (pre-2026)	Payday Super (from 1 July 2026)
Payment frequency	Quarterly (28 days post-quarter)	Same day as wages
Clearance deadline	28 days after quarter ends	7 business days from payday
Calculation basis	Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE)	Qualifying Earnings (QE)
Small Business Clearing House	Available	Retired 30 June 2026

Businesses can no longer hold SG amounts for up to three months. The ATO will use STP data for real-time monitoring of compliance and late payments trigger an automatic Superannuation Guarantee (SG) Charge that includes the shortfall, notional interest and administrative uplift.

Payroll systems and clearing house arrangements must be tested before 1 July. For many mid-market businesses on legacy payroll or older HRIS platforms, this is a system change, not just a process change.

Instant asset write-off: 30 June cut-off

Eligible small businesses (turnover under $10 million) can immediately deduct assets up to $20,000 for the 2025-26 income year, provided the asset is installed and ready for use by 30 June 2026. This is not an automatic deduction for assets ordered before 30 June. The asset must physically be in service by the deadline. CFOs with capex decisions in flight should validate eligibility and commissioning dates now.

Common year-end challenges for Australian finance teams

Compliance deadline collisions

The most acute risk is timing. STP finalisation, BAS and super guarantee all fall within 28 days of each other in July. For finance teams already carrying the weight of close, this is a resourcing and sequencing challenge. The answer is preparation in May and June, not recovery in July.

Data accuracy and audit trail quality

ASIC's financial reporting focus areas consistently include revenue recognition, asset impairment, provisions and contingencies and disclosure adequacy. These are not edge cases. They are the standard audit battlegrounds. Finance teams that enter close with clean reconciliations, documented estimates and a journal governance policy will spend significantly less time in audit fieldwork.

Manual processes under end-of-year pressure

High-volume manual processes (bank reconciliations, invoice matching, accrual entry, intercompany eliminations) carry their highest error risk when teams are working under deadline pressure.

Record retention obligations

ATO guidance requires most business records to be kept for a minimum of five years, with certain records requiring longer retention depending on the nature of the transaction. Records must be retrievable, consistent and complete. The standard for "audit-ready" documentation is not a filing cabinet of PDFs. It is a system of record with a clear audit trail.

The AU EOFY close timeline

A clean close requires working backwards from 30 June, not forwards from chaos. The table below maps the critical windows.

Window	Priority	What to execute
Mid to end April	Highest	Lock close calendar and task owners. Confirm audit timetable. Set cut-off rules for revenue, AP, inventory and payroll. Check TPAR exposure for qualifying service categories.
May	Highest	Pre-close clean-up: reconcile subledgers, resolve aged items, run impairment and provision workshops, refresh fixed asset register, plan stocktakes.
Early June	High	Freeze structural changes to chart of accounts and item master. Finalise capex decisions. Validate instant asset write-off conditions and cut-off dates.
Mid-June to 30 June	High	Execute stocktakes. Lock WIP and project cut-offs. Close payroll year settings. Collect post-balance-date event watchlist from executive team.
1 to 14 July	Highest	Close core ledger fast (bank, AR, AP, payroll clearing, inventory). Draft management accounts. Run STP finalisation and resolve exceptions.
15 to 28 July	Highest	Lodge June quarter activity statement. Execute quarterly SG payment and retain evidence. Finalise close pack for board and auditors.
August	High	Finalise TPAR data and lodge by 28 August. Complete audit fieldwork pack. Resolve audit queries promptly.
September	Medium to High	Complete closely held payee STP finalisation by 30 September. Run close process retrospective. Plan systems improvements for FY27.
September to October	High (reporting entities)	Prepare and lodge corporate financial reports within 3 or 4 months of year-end depending on entity type.
November to December	High (NFP and charities)	Finalise Annual Information Statement and financial report for ACNC. Ensure audit or review report is complete.

Your EOFY action plan

Close and controls

Publish a close calendar with named owners and a hard cut-off for late journals.
Document revenue, AP, inventory and payroll cut-off rules. You will require evidence for any exceptions.
Assign every balance sheet account an owner with a documented reconciliation.
Enforce journal approval governance: purpose, supporting evidence, separate preparer and approver.
Run an estimates workshop covering impairment triggers, provision adequacy and key accounting judgements. Document assumptions and sensitivities.
Maintain a post-balance-date events log from mid-June through to report sign-off.

Tax and compliance

Create an obligation register covering BAS, PAYG, TPAR, company reporting and any ACNC obligations. Confirm which apply to your entity type and group structure.
Prepare BAS workpapers and reconcile GST control accounts in May, before the July deadline pressure arrives.
Confirm TPAR scope, enforce contractor master data completeness and lock vendor coding by end of May.
Confirm record retention categories and ensure documents are retrievable from your system of record, not just filed somewhere.
Validate instant asset write-off eligibility and ensure assets are installed and ready for use by 30 June if applicable.

Payroll and super

Reconcile payroll to the general ledger and clear exceptions before 30 June.
Run STP finalisation by 14 July for most employees. Identify closely held payees and apply the 30 September deadline separately.
Ensure quarterly SG (including the April-to-June quarter) is paid and evidenced before 28 July.
Map Payday Super cash flow and process changes ahead of 1 July 2026. Confirm payroll system and clearing house capability against the 7-business-day clearance window.
Reconcile leave provisions and validate award or contract rules for correctness.

Reporting and governance

Prepare a CFO narrative pack covering drivers, risks, one-offs and forward outlook. Boards and auditors assess credibility through narrative consistency, not just numbers.
Run a disclosure completeness review mapped to ASIC's current financial reporting focus areas.
For multi-entity groups, lock intercompany policies, reconcile intercompany balances and validate eliminations and FX translation before close.
After close, run a retrospective: the top ten adjustments, the top ten reconciliation issues and the time sinks. Convert EOFY pain into FY27 improvements.

Preparing for Year-end Reporting: Your Action Plan

With so much to do to get through year-end, it makes sense to prepare your Finance team in advance and have a clear plan in place on how to tackle all the various tasks needed. Facing mounting pressure to close the books, meet compliance deadlines, and ensure the company’s financial health is accurately reported, this period can become overwhelming without proper organisation.

That’s where a year-end accounts checklist becomes indispensable. By following this guide, you’ll be able to simplify your year-end process, stay organised, and keep your team on track.

Download year-end accounts checklist

EOFY priorities by industry

The industries below reflect the segments where the financial year-end creates the most specific risk. Generic advice does not serve these teams well.

Professional Services

Professional services firms carry year-end risk in their work-in-progress balances and revenue cut-off.

Enforce timesheet cut-off and completeness by service line before 30 June.
Reconcile WIP and unbilled revenue between your project system and your general ledger.
Map contract terms to revenue recognition triggers under AASB 15.
Review contractor payments and identify TPAR exposure for subcontractor payments in qualifying categories.
Analyse margin by project and investigate negative-margin jobs before close, not after.

Not-for-profit

NFPs carry dual reporting obligations: ATO compliance on the tax side and ACNC annual reporting on the charity side.

For standard financial year charities, the Annual Information Statement is due 31 December.
Reconcile restricted funds and grant acquittals to the general ledger and to funder reporting requirements.
Classify income between AASB 15 (contractual) and AASB 1058 (non-reciprocal) based on whether there are specific performance obligations and enforceability conditions.
Medium and large charities must arrange audit or review ahead of the ACNC deadline.

Manufacturing

Stocktake governance is the central EOFY risk for manufacturers.

Lock a stocktake plan including sampling approach, observer roles and variance sign-off.
Validate inventory measurement and write-down logic under AASB 102, specifically the cost versus net realisable value test.
Reconcile WIP and finished goods movement reports to the general ledger.
Review overhead absorption rates and investigate material variances.
Refresh the fixed asset register and verify capex cut-off dates, which affect both tax treatment and depreciation.

Wholesale

Inventory ageing and supplier rebate accruals are the dominant close risks for wholesale businesses.

Run inventory ageing and write-down governance under AASB 102.
Validate supplier rebates, volume incentives and marketing support accruals for both timing and documentary evidence.
Reconcile chargebacks, returns and credits. Ensure the cut-off for sales adjustments is consistent.
Verify GST coding and BAS readiness early to avoid July congestion.
For distribution groups with intercompany trade, reconcile intercompany balances and eliminations before close.

Transport and logistics

TPAR scope is the first question for transport and logistics operators.

Courier and road freight services are qualifying categories under the ATO's TPAR rules and contractor master data quality determines whether the report can be lodged accurately and on time.
Validate fleet asset registers, disposals and lease completeness under AASB 16.
Tie proof-of-delivery and billing cut-offs to revenue recognition evidence.
Review subcontractor payment governance for rate disputes and contractor-versus-employee classification risk.

All Finance teams need to be cognisant of the pace of change. Businesses are increasingly looking to respond to ever changing market conditions and how they can
compete and be successful in the markets that they play in. Our role in finance is to help support that.

Rob Binns, CFO The Access Group

Our financial management software can make year-end even easier

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