Updated August 2026 · 9 min read
General information for Irish trade businesses, not tax or accounting advice. Deadlines and rules are Revenue's and your accountant's territory; this piece is about the records, which are yours.
In simple terms: your accountant needs a complete record of money in, money out, bank movements, VAT and payroll where they apply, plus anything unusual flagged: major purchases, materials on hand, jobs in progress, money you took out, and RCT paperwork if you subcontract. The accounting and tax treatment is their job. Having the records is yours.
There's a version of year end where your accountant sends a polite list in October, you spend three evenings excavating a shoebox, a van glovebox and four apps, and the bill at the end reflects every hour they spent reconciling what you couldn't find. And there's a version where you hand over one tidy bundle, they ask two questions, and the fee reflects that too. The difference isn't the accountant. It's the records, and the records are decided months earlier, one invoice and one receipt at a time.
This is the list: what your accountant actually needs from a trade business at year end, why each thing matters, and the items trades forget every single year.
Why the shoebox costs you twice
An accountant's year-end job is reconstruction: turning your year into accounts and returns that hold together. Every gap in your records is an hour of their reconstruction, billed. Every question they have to ask you in November about a bank line from February is a delay. And the quiet third cost: an accountant working from patchy records has to make conservative guesses, and guesses rarely fall in your favour. Clean records are cheaper, faster, and give your accountant a far better starting point, which is a rare alignment of laziness-avoidance and self-interest.
Year-end checklist for a trade business
The bundle, item by item.
The sales side. Every invoice for the year, in sequence, with nothing missing (what belongs on those invoices in the first place is its own piece); the record of what's been paid and what hasn't (your debtors, the people who owe you at year end); and the credit notes, with the reasons. If you invoice through software, this is an export. If it's a folder of PDFs and a memory of who still owes what, start there, because incomplete sales records are the single most expensive gap.
The buying side. Purchase invoices and receipts for materials, tools, fuel, insurance, the phone, the software, the accountant themselves. The ones that vanish are the small frequent ones: the trade counter receipt, the parking, the consumables. And what you owe suppliers at year end (your creditors) matters as much as what's owed to you.
The bank. Statements for every business account for the full year, plus the details of anything business-related that went through a personal account. Your accountant will reconcile the bank against the records above. The bank always wins arguments, so the fewer surprises in it, the better.
VAT, if you're registered. The returns filed during the year and the workings behind them, so the annual picture ties back to what was actually submitted. This is also where the RTD lives (the Return of Trading Details, the annual VAT breakdown every VAT-registered business in Ireland has to file), and your accountant will want the figures that feed it broken down by VAT rate.
People, if you employ them. Payroll records for the year: what was paid, what was deducted, and the leave picture. If it's just you, what you took out of the business for yourself belongs on the list instead, because drawings that only exist as bank lines are one of the reconstruction jobs accountants quietly bill for.
The things trades forget
Accountants who serve trade businesses tend to have the same list, so here it is in advance.
The van, the tools, the big kit. Anything substantial you bought for the business (a vehicle, serious equipment, machinery) is treated differently from day-to-day costs, and your accountant needs the invoice and the finance agreement if there is one. Buy a van in March, mention it in November as an afterthought, and you've made their week worse and possibly your outcome too.
Materials on the shelf and jobs half done. What's in the van and the shed at year end, and which jobs were in progress across the year boundary, are questions your accountant will ask, because part-finished work and stock on hand affect the accounts. You don't need to value any of it yourself; you need to be able to say what was there. A photo of the shed and a list of open jobs on the day is genuinely useful.
Jobs paid in cash. Record them like every other job, invoice them like every other job, keep the same supporting records. The year-end version of this conversation is much easier than any other version of it.
The money you took. Drawings, the personal spending that went through the business account, the business spending that went through the personal one. Flag it rather than leaving it for the reconciliation to find, because the reconciliation always finds it.
If you're a subcontractor under RCT. RCT (Relevant Contracts Tax, the construction withholding system) generates its own paper trail through the year: deduction summaries, the amounts principals withheld. Your accountant needs all of it, and it's worth saying plainly that this is one for their expertise; we're covering how RCT actually works in its own piece in this series.
Making next year end boring
The bundle above is either a three-evening excavation or a non-event, and the difference is habit, not virtue: invoice every job from one system so the sales record builds itself; photograph or forward every receipt the day it exists; run the business through one account so the bank tells one story; and record the odd items (the van purchase, the drawings, the job paid in cash) the week they happen, not the November they're remembered. None of this is extra work. It's the same work, done once, at the time, instead of twice under deadline.
Where JobFlow fits
The sales side of the bundle is what the Accountant Pack exists for. One click produces five reports for the period, zipped: the sales register, the VAT summary built on your actual VAT basis (cash receipts or invoice basis), payment collections, aged debtors so your accountant can see who owed you what, and credit notes and voids. Xero-ready and Sage-ready versions of the sales register come in the same file. The RTD data export downloads on its own beside the pack rather than inside it. And the sequential invoice record is simply how the system worked all year.
The honest limits: JobFlow covers the sales and jobs side of your records. Your purchase receipts, bank statements and payroll live elsewhere, and RCT is your accountant's territory, with JobFlow supplying the job records behind it rather than handling RCT itself.
Questions trade businesses ask about year end
What does an accountant need from a trade business at year end?
The full sales record (invoices in sequence, who still owes you, credit notes), the purchase side (invoices and receipts, who you owe), bank statements for every account the business touches, VAT returns and workings if registered, payroll records if you employ, and the odd items: major purchases like a van or equipment, materials on hand, jobs in progress at year end, and what you took out of the business.
What records should a sole trader keep for year end?
The complete records of your sales, purchases, business bank activity, VAT where it applies, and payroll if you employ anyone, plus the flagged extras: major purchases, drawings, materials on hand, jobs in progress, and any RCT paperwork. Your accountant can tell you what else applies to your particular business.
How do I prepare my accounts for my accountant?
Think in four buckets: sales, purchases, bank, and people-and-VAT where they apply. Then separately flag the unusual items: vehicles and major equipment bought, materials on hand, jobs in progress, drawings, and RCT records. The aim is to hand over a complete record rather than a collection of documents to reconstruct.
How can a tradesperson reduce their accountancy fees?
A large share of a year-end bill is time spent chasing gaps: reconciling the bank against missing receipts, reconstructing transactions, asking you about February in November. Complete records remove most of those hours. Invoicing every job from one system, capturing receipts as they happen, and running the business through one bank account are the habits that do it.
What do trade businesses most often forget at year end?
The recurring ones: the invoice and finance agreement for a van or equipment bought during the year, materials on hand and jobs in progress at the year boundary, jobs paid in cash left unrecorded, and personal money movements through the business account. Mentioning them early is free; leaving them for the reconciliation to find costs time and sometimes outcome.
When is year end for a trade business in Ireland?
It depends on the legal and accounting structure of the business; sole traders and companies can have different year-end arrangements, and filing dates are Revenue's and vary with circumstances. Take the dates from your accountant or Revenue directly rather than from a blog post, this one included.
Money and VAT guides for Irish trades. Also in this series: the RTD explained, cash receipts or invoice basis and creating a valid VAT invoice.
General information, not tax or accounting advice. Confirm specifics with your accountant or Revenue.