In September, your diary fills up and projects get back into full swing. And in exactly four months’ time, your financial year will come to an end. Four months is both a long time and a very short time… depending on how you approach this period.
For many business leaders, the year-end accounts feel like a chore to be dealt with at the last minute, with missing documents and decisions taken too late to have any real impact. Yet it is precisely now that everything is decided. Planning ahead for your financial year-end gives you the opportunity to optimise your french tax position, refine your results, and approach the end of the year with peace of mind.
Here are the best practices to put in place right now to ensure your December 2026 financial statements are finalised under the best possible conditions.
Up-to-date accounts: the foundation for everything else
The first thing to do (and yet the one most often overlooked) is to ensure that your accounts are genuinely up to date. In practice, many business owners find themselves in November with several months’ worth of supporting documents to submit, outstanding expense claims and bank accounts that haven’t been reconciled with their statements.
The problem is that this backlog creates a knock-on effect. Your accountant is forced to work under pressure, checks become less thorough, and you lose sight of your interim results just when you should still be able to take action on them.
The good habit to get into from September onwards is to submit your invoices, expense claims and bank statements as you go along, and to check that your accounts receivable and payables are up to date. The less catching up there is to do in December, the more your accountant can focus on advising you rather than on processing paperwork.
Receivables and payables: an assessment to be carried out without delay
Before closing your accounts, you need to know exactly where you stand in your financial dealings with your customers and suppliers.
On the customer side: go through any outstanding invoices. Some may warrant a friendly reminder. Others, if their recovery is uncertain, may be subject to a provision for doubtful debts (this will have a direct impact on your taxable profit). Don’t leave this until the last minute.
On the suppliers’ side: check that all your payables are correctly recorded, including invoices received but not yet posted. You should also bear in mind accrued expenses; that is, services you received in 2026 but for which you have not yet received an invoice, such as certain fees or rent currently being finalised.
This review, carried out in September or October, gives you an accurate picture of your financial position before the year-end and helps you avoid the unpleasant surprises that all too often crop up in December.
Fixed assets and depreciation: prepare the relevant documents now
If you have made any investments during the year — such as equipment, a vehicle, software or fitting-out of premises — or if you have sold or scrapped any equipment, gather the supporting documents now and inform your accountant before the year-end.
These factors directly affect your accounting and results. An asset that has been sold but not written off continues to generate unnecessary depreciation charges. Conversely, an incorrectly classified investment may miss out on the correct rates or dedicated schemes.
For certain items of equipment, there are schemes that allow you to accelerate depreciation or benefit from additional deductions. These opportunities need to be planned well in advance (and shouldn’t be discovered on 30 December!).
General optimisation: the window of opportunity closes on 31 December
This is undoubtedly the most strategic aspect of the entire year-end preparation process, and one that is most often under-utilised.
Certain tax decisions must be taken before the year-end to have an effect on the current financial year. Depending on your situation, some of the options to discuss with your accountant include: incurring deductible expenses before the end of the year, setting up an employee savings scheme, creating strategic provisions, or adjusting your executive remuneration in line with the projected results.
This window of opportunity for optimisation is often what distinguishes a financial year-end that is merely endured from one that is truly managed. It naturally depends on each company’s specific situation — which is why it is assessed on the basis of profit simulations, not generic formulas.
2026: an additional point to bear in mind regarding electronic invoicing
The year 2026 brings a new regulatory requirement that directly affects your day-to-day accounting management. From 1 September 2026, all VAT-registered businesses must be able to receive electronic invoices, regardless of their size. For large enterprises and mid-sized companies, the obligation to issue invoices in electronic format via a Partner Digitalisation Platform also came into force on the same date.
In practical terms, if your organisation is not yet set up to receive and process these electronic invoices, this may cause complications when reconciling your accounts payable and thus complicate the December month-end closing. For SMEs, the obligation to issue electronic invoices is not due to come into force until September 2027, but preparing for it now will avoid a rushed roll-out.
This is a technical matter that affects both your internal organisation and your systems. Alliés Conseils supports you through this transition so that compliance becomes an opportunity to optimise your administrative processes rather than a burden.
Working with your accountant: don’t wait until the accounts arrive
The quality of a year-end closing depends largely on the quality of the relationship between the business owner and their accountancy firm throughout the year. Sending documents as and when they become available is all well and good. But the next step is to schedule a proper progress review with your accountant by the end of October.
The aim of this meeting is to gain an interim view of your results, identify areas where further optimisation is possible, and anticipate any future issues relating to the balance sheet, asset planning or financing. The earlier this dialogue is established, the more actionable it can be.
At Alliés Conseils, we don’t just focus on the year-end closing once the financial year is over. We get involved at an early stage to ensure that each year-end is a genuine opportunity for strategic steering and that the decisions taken are tailored to the reality of your business, rather than to a situation that has already been set in stone.
Conclusion: a successful year-end is prepared for before the rush sets in
The year-end accounting process is not merely an administrative formality to be dealt with in a few days in December. It is a time for taking stock, making decisions and planning ahead. Managers who approach it with confidence are those who have started preparing several months in advance, whilst keeping their data up to date, identifying available tax reliefs and maintaining regular dialogue with their accountant.
Every business situation is different. The decisions to be made before 31 December depend on your results, your structure and your plans for 2027. That is why a personalised analysis is always better than a list of generic advice.
Would you like to take stock of your situation before the December financial year-end? The team at Alliés Conseils is on hand to support you, simulate your interim results and identify the right decisions to take before the end of the year.
