Year-end reporting
Annual Financial Statements South Africa
Turn the year-end ledger into coherent financial statements supported by reconciliations and review-ready working papers.
Annual financial statements are the formal record of a company’s year. They feed the ITR14, they are what a bank or funder asks for first, and they are what a buyer’s due diligence starts from, so they are worth getting right for reasons well beyond compliance.
We prepare AFS from your trial balance, resolve the year-end judgements, and produce a set that reconciles to the tax computation rather than diverging from it.
Who this is for
Built around your operating reality
- Private companies
- SMEs applying IFRS for SMEs where appropriate
- Businesses preparing for audit or independent review
- Foreign-owned local entities
What we deliver
A controlled, documented service
- Year-end trial-balance review
- Accounting adjustments
- Financial statement preparation
- Supporting schedules
- Audit or review liaison
- Final approved record pack
Common situations
When you need this
- The financial year has ended and the statements are due
- A bank, funder or investor has asked for the last two years
- The ITR14 deadline is approaching and the statements are not final
- You are unsure whether you need an audit, a review or a compilation
- Prior years were never properly finalised
- A due diligence or sale process is starting
Audit, review or compilation
Not every company needs an audit. Which assurance level applies depends on your public interest score, whether the statements are internally or independently compiled, and what your Memorandum of Incorporation requires.
Getting this determination right matters in both directions: an unnecessary audit is an expensive mistake, and a missing one is a compliance failure. We establish the requirement before quoting the work.
Preparation runs on six-month timing
Companies must prepare annual financial statements within six months of financial year end. That is a separate deadline from the ITR14, which follows twelve months after year end, and from the CIPC annual return, which follows your incorporation anniversary.
Three different clocks, three different start points. This is the most common reason a company that feels compliant discovers it is not.
Where the year-end judgements sit
Most of the work in a set of AFS is not arithmetic. It is the judgements: cut-off, provisions and accruals, whether debtors are recoverable, whether stock is worth what the ledger says, how assets are depreciated, and how related-party and loan account balances are treated.
Each judgement needs to be defensible, because it flows straight into the tax computation and will be the first thing a due diligence tests.
The statements and the tax return must agree
The ITR14 is built from the AFS. Where the two diverge, a different profit figure, an adjustment made in one and not the other. The difference will eventually need explaining, usually under query and usually years later.
We prepare both sides with that in mind, so the computation reconciles to the statements by design rather than by coincidence.
Clear steps and responsibilities
Close and reconcile the year
Prepare adjustments and statements
Resolve review points
Approve and issue
Learn from other people’s mistakes
Where AFS cause problems later
Signed off without reconciling to tax
A profit figure in the statements that does not agree with the ITR14 is a question waiting to be asked.
Director loan accounts left unexplained
These attract attention from both SARS and any prospective buyer, and are far easier to document at the time than to reconstruct.
The wrong assurance level
Discovering an audit was required after the statements were compiled means redoing the work, usually against a deadline.
Prior years never finalised
Each year opens with the last year’s closing position. An unfinalised prior year contaminates everything after it.
Getting started
What we need to prepare the statements
- Final trial balance for the year
- Bank statements and reconciliations at year end
- Fixed asset register with additions and disposals
- Stock count and valuation at year end, where applicable
- Loan, lease and finance agreements
- Debtor and creditor listings at year end
- Prior year signed statements and the prior year tax computation
Connected work
What usually goes with this
Frequently asked questions
What to know before you begin
If your situation is not covered here, ask, the answer usually turns on facts a page cannot know.
Does every company need an audit? +
No. Audit, independent-review and compilation requirements depend on the company and applicable rules.
Can you fix incomplete books first? +
Yes, through a separately scoped catch-up and reconciliation phase.
Do statements include the tax return? +
No. Corporate tax filing is a connected but separate service.
Do we need an audit? +
It depends on your public interest score, how the statements are compiled and what your MOI says. Many owner-managed companies need an independent review or only a compilation. We determine it before quoting rather than assuming the most expensive option.
When are the statements due? +
Within six months of your financial year end. That is a different deadline from your ITR14 and from your CIPC annual return, and the three do not align.
Can you prepare several years at once? +
Yes, and they must be done in sequence because each year opens on the prior year’s closing balances. It is common where a company has fallen behind.
Talk to M&J about year-end reporting
Tell us where you are and what is outstanding. We will come back with a scope and a clear next step rather than a generic quote.
- Year-end trial-balance review
- Accounting adjustments
- Financial statement preparation
Prefer to talk? +27 87 078 2478
Request a consultation
An M&J consultant will come back to you with the next step.