How to prepare clean records for your accountant
What accountants need from you at year end (or every quarter), in what order, and how to hand it over so they spend time advising rather than reconstructing.
The short answer
Accountants need a reconciled ledger (trial balance), bank statements that match it, supporting documents for transactions, an open receivables and payables list, fixed-asset and loan details, and a note of anything unusual. Deliver those, in that order, and the review is fast and cheap.
The hand-over checklist
- **Trial balance** for the period — every account with its closing balance. If it balances, the ledger is internally consistent.
- **Bank and card statements** for the whole period, and confirmation that each is reconciled to the ledger.
- **Documents**: receipts and supplier invoices attached to expenses; copies of invoices you issued.
- **Open items**: receivables (who owes you) and payables (whom you owe) at period end, with ages.
- **Assets and loans**: purchases of equipment, vehicles or software licences, and any loan agreements.
- **Payroll summary**: salaries, allowances, end-of-service accruals if you employ people.
- **VAT figures** where applicable: output and input VAT per period and the underlying detail.
- **A short note** on anything unusual: owner money in or out, a refund, a disputed invoice, a currency gain.
What makes a review expensive
- Transactions with no document and no description.
- Bank lines that never made it into the books (or made it twice).
- Personal and business spending mixed in one account.
- Invoices issued from a template that never reached the ledger, so revenue and receivables disagree.
- Foreign-currency amounts recorded at random rates.
Quarterly beats annual
Handing over four small, reconciled packets is cheaper than one large messy one, and problems are still fixable when they are three months old rather than fourteen.
Producing the packet from Qaid
Because Qaid keeps double-entry books, the trial balance, statements, ageing and VAT reports are generated, not assembled; every approved transaction carries its document and the AI's explanation; statement import shows what is reconciled. Export reports as PDF, or request a full data export. Team access for accountants is planned; today many accountants simply operate the client's Qaid company. See for bookkeepers.
This article is general information, not accounting, tax or legal advice. Rules differ by country and change over time; confirm your obligations with a licensed adviser or the relevant authority. Qaid assists with bookkeeping and does not file returns.