Getting Your Small Business Ready for 30 June
A practical guide to wrapping up the 2025-26 financial year without the last-minute stress
Introduction
The end of the financial year is coming up fast. Whether you are well ahead or still catching up, now is the time to get organised.
EOFY does not need to be stressful. Most of the headaches I see at this time of year come from things being left too late, not from the tasks themselves. A little bit of preparation over the next few weeks can save you a lot of time, money and stress down the track.
This checklist covers the key things every small business owner should be looking at before 30 June 2026. It is written from a bookkeeping and compliance perspective, covering the practical steps you can take right now to wrap up the financial year in good shape.
Reconcile Your Accounts
This is always the first thing I do with clients at EOFY, and it is the most important.
Make sure every transaction from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 is recorded and reconciled in your accounting software. That means your bank feeds are matched, expenses are categorised correctly, and there are no unexplained transactions sitting in your accounts.
If your bookkeeping is behind, now is the time to catch up. Your accountant cannot prepare an accurate return from incomplete records, and gaps discovered in August cost more to fix than gaps found now.
If you use Xero or QuickBooks, run your bank reconciliation summary report to see where things stand. If something does not look right, get in touch and we can help you sort it out.
Chase Outstanding Invoices
If you have clients or customers who owe you money, now is the time to follow up.
Outstanding invoices affect your cash flow, your reporting, and your overall financial position at year end. The closer you can get to having everything collected before 30 June, the cleaner your books will be.
Run a debtors report in your accounting software to see what is still outstanding and how long it has been overdue. If anything is unlikely to be paid, talk to your accountant about whether it can be written off as a bad debt before 30 June.
Review Your Expenses
Take a look at your expenses over the past 12 months and make sure everything has been captured. It is easy to miss things like subscriptions, insurance payments, smaller purchases, or professional development costs that are sitting in your personal bank account rather than your business account.
If you work from home, make sure you have records to support any home office expenses. The ATO’s revised fixed rate method allows 67 cents per hour, but you need to maintain a record of hours worked from home.
Also check that your GST coding is correct. The ATO has flagged GST on private expenses and incorrect GST credits as key audit focus areas for 2026. Getting this right now avoids issues later.
👉 ATO guide on record keeping for business
The $20,000 Instant Asset Write-Off
This is a big one for 2026. The $20,000 instant asset write-off is available for eligible small businesses with a turnover under $10 million.
If you have been thinking about purchasing equipment, tools, technology, or other assets for your business, they need to be first used or installed ready for use by 30 June 2026 to qualify. Simply purchasing or ordering before 30 June is not enough. The asset needs to be in use.
Assets that cost $20,000 or more go into the small business simplified depreciation pool instead.
It is worth noting that the threshold is set to drop back to just $1,000 from 1 July 2026. So if you have been putting off a purchase, now is the time to have that conversation with your accountant.
The write-off applies per asset, so multiple items under $20,000 each can all qualify.
👉 ATO guide on simpler depreciation for small business
Check Your Super Payments
Super is one of the biggest EOFY traps for small business owners. To claim a deduction for super contributions in the 2025-26 financial year, the payment must be received by your employee’s super fund before 30 June. Not just sent. Received.
If you are paying super quarterly, the Q4 payment (April to June) is technically due by 28 July 2026. But for the first three quarters, make sure all payments have been received by the relevant funds before 30 June if you want to claim the deduction this financial year.
Check your year-to-date super guarantee amounts against the 12% rate on ordinary time earnings. Even a small shortfall can trigger the super guarantee charge (SGC), which is not deductible.
If you are a sole trader, you are not required to pay yourself super, but if your business operates as a company and you are a director taking a wage, super still applies to those wages.
👉 ATO guide on super for employers
Finalise Your Payroll and STP
If you employ staff, you need to finalise your Single Touch Payroll (STP) by 14 July 2026.
This is what allows your employees’ income statements to be pre-filled when they lodge their individual returns. If it is not finalised on time, your employees cannot access this service, and the ATO may follow up.
Before you hit that final declaration button, make sure you have reconciled all wages, PAYG withholding, and superannuation. Cross-check your payroll records against your STP submissions, bank payments, and BAS lodgements. This helps catch any discrepancies before they become a problem.
If you are behind on payroll reconciliation, now is the time to get it sorted rather than rushing it in July.
Lodge Any Overdue BAS
If you have any outstanding BAS lodgements, get them lodged before 30 June.
Outstanding BAS can trigger ATO penalties and interest, and they complicate your end-of-year return preparation. The ATO has also noted that if you submit your BAS late, they may require you to start lodging monthly instead of quarterly.
Even if you cannot pay the full amount owing, lodge on time. Staying up to date with lodgements signals to the ATO that you are engaged and willing to meet your obligations. It also puts you in a stronger position to negotiate a payment plan if needed.
Download Your SBSCH Records
If you use the ATO’s Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH) to process your super payments, this is urgent.
The SBSCH is closing permanently on 1 July 2026. From 11:59pm AEST on 30 June, you will no longer be able to log in, submit payment instructions, or view any records. There will be no read-only access after that date.
Download all your employee payment transactions and employee details now. You may need them in future for audits, employee queries, or record keeping requirements.
If you have not already found an alternative provider, check whether your current payroll software (Xero, QuickBooks, etc.) already has super payment functionality built in. Most do.
👉 ATO guide on transitioning from the SBSCH
Prepare for Payday Super Starting 1 July
While this is technically a new financial year issue, EOFY is the perfect time to get ready for it.
From 1 July 2026, employers must pay superannuation at the same time as wages. Contributions must reach the employee’s super fund within 7 business days of payday. The old quarterly system is ending.
Use the next few weeks to review your payroll system, check with your software provider about their readiness, and understand the impact on your cash flow.
The ATO has released a Payday Super checklist to help you prepare, and their first-year compliance approach (PCG 2026/1) confirms that employers making genuine efforts to comply will not be the focus of compliance action in year one.
Keep Your Records
Once EOFY is done, make sure you hold onto everything. The standard requirement is to keep most records for at least five years from when you obtain the record or complete the transaction, whichever is later. Payroll and employee records must be kept for seven years.
It is also worth knowing that the ATO can go back further than five years if they identify issues during an audit. There is no hard cutoff if they start looking into things. So keeping thorough, organised records is always in your best interest.
If you are still storing receipts in a shoebox, now is a great time to go digital. Scan or photograph everything and store it somewhere accessible. Your future self will thank you.
Final Thoughts
EOFY does not have to be a scramble. The key is starting now, not in the last week of June.
Get your bank accounts reconciled, chase up your invoices, check your super, and make sure your payroll is in order. If you are planning any asset purchases under $20,000, get them in use before 30 June. And if you use the SBSCH, download your records before it closes for good.
If you would rather hand all of this over to someone who does it every day, that is exactly what we are here for. We offer a free one-hour consultation to chat through your needs and make sure you are covered.
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