Closing a financial year is mostly a matter of order. Do the steps below in sequence and each one makes the next one easier; skip around and you reconcile the same figures twice.
1. Bank and cash
Reconcile every bank account to its 31 March statement, including accounts you rarely use and payment gateway balances. Count the cash and agree it to the books. Unreconciled items carried into the new year are the most common reason a year never quite closes.
2. Receivables and payables
- Match customer and vendor balances against statements, and chase confirmations for the large ones.
- Apply unallocated receipts and payments to the invoices and bills they settle.
- Decide on old dues you will not recover and book the write-off with a reason on record.
3. GST input credit for the year
Compare the input credit in your books with what appears in GSTR-2B for each month of the year. Invoices that are in your books but missing from 2B need a vendor follow-up now, not next October.
Input credit for a financial year can be claimed only up to 30 November after the year ends, or the date you file the annual return, whichever is earlier (section 16(4)). Anything unclaimed by then is lost.
4. Credit notes for the year
Check creditor ageing too: input credit on a supplier bill not paid within 180 days of the invoice date must be reversed until you pay it (section 16(2)).
Credit notes that relate to this year's sales — returns, rate differences, discounts agreed after the sale — must be declared by the same 30 November deadline, or the annual return date if earlier (section 34). Raise them before you close, while the facts are fresh.
5. TDS
Check that TDS deducted on bills and payments during the year has been deposited — March's TDS is due by 30 April — and that the fourth-quarter returns are ready to file. From tax year 2026-27 the Income-tax Act, 2025 renumbers the TDS forms and sections, so check the current form names on incometax.gov.in. Match TDS deducted from you against your tax credit statement before you finalise income.
6. Stock
Count stock at each location as close to 31 March as you can, value it, and book any shortage, damage or obsolescence. Stock still sitting in transit between your own branches needs a decision on which location holds it on the closing date.
7. Fixed assets and depreciation
Add the year's asset purchases to the register, record disposals with their sale proceeds, and post depreciation for the year.
8. Accruals and provisions
Book expenses that belong to this year but will be billed next year — audit fees, rent, utilities, interest — and reverse any that were wrongly carried forward.
9. Lock the year
Once the figures are reviewed, lock the period so that nothing can be posted into the closed year by accident. Changes after that should come through as adjustments in the new year, with a reason.
Deadlines after 31 March
| What | When |
|---|---|
| New invoice series for the year | 1 April |
| March TDS deposit | 30 April |
| Fourth-quarter TDS returns | 31 May |
| Last date to claim the year's input credit | 30 November, or annual return date if earlier |
| Last date for the year's credit notes | 30 November, or annual return date if earlier |
| GSTR-9 annual return (and GSTR-9C above the audit threshold) | 31 December |
How Books by finzko handles it
Books by finzko has a period close checklist that walks through these steps for the year, with bank reconciliation, 2B matching, the fixed-asset register and TDS reports one click away. When you are done, you lock the period; posting into a locked period is refused, and every change after the lock is recorded in the audit trail.
Due dates are often extended by notification. Check the current CBIC and income-tax calendars for the year you are closing.