1. Physical stock, valued properly
Count what is actually there and reconcile it against the system, recording differences with reasons rather than adjusting silently. Value at landed cost — the supplier invoice plus freight and loading — not at invoice value, because that is what the stock really cost. And be honest about dead stock: carrying unsellable goods at cost makes both your closing figure and your apparent profit wrong.
2. Receivables, party by party
Confirm the closing balance for every credit party, and send each of them a statement asking them to confirm it. Differences found now are recoverable; differences found in eighteen months usually are not. This is also the right moment to look honestly at accounts that have not moved for a year and decide whether they are receivable at all.
3. Payables and supplier reconciliation
Reconcile against each major supplier's statement while the year is fresh. The differences are almost always a small number of specific documents — a credit note never recorded, a load billed twice, a payment applied to the wrong account. Found now they are corrected; carried forward they become a permanent unexplained gap in both sets of books.
4. Cash and bank
Close the cash book and match it against what is physically in the drawer. Reconcile the bank against your records, checking for uncleared cheques, deposits recorded on one side only, and charges you never entered. If you have been closing daily this takes minutes; if not, this is the year to start.
5. GST for the year
Check that your annual sales in the books agree with what you reported across your returns, that input credit claimed matches what your purchase records support, and that nothing sits unreconciled against 2B. Any correction has a deadline attached, so this is a conversation with your CA in the first weeks after year end rather than in October.
6. What starts fresh on 1 April
Invoice numbering restarts in a new unbroken series for the financial year, and so do your other document series. Opening balances for parties and suppliers carry forward, as does stock. Set the new series before you raise the first bill of the year rather than correcting it afterwards, because a numbering mistake in April is one you explain for twelve months.