The new financial year is the one moment the whole business resets at once — and most owners waste it. The tax return can wait (you have months). What can't wait are the deadlines that land in the next few weeks and the setup decisions that shape the next twelve. Here's the checklist we work through with clients every July, in order of urgency.
First: the hard deadlines
Finalise Single Touch Payroll by 14 July. Your STP finalisation declaration tells the ATO your payroll data for FY26 is complete, and it's what lets your employees see "tax ready" income statements in myGov. Before you hit finalise, reconcile gross wages, PAYG withholding and super in your payroll software against your general ledger. If the numbers don't tie out, find out why now — not when an employee's accountant calls in August.
Pay your final quarterly super by 28 July. The June quarter is the last one under the old quarterly super regime. From 1 July 2026, payday super applies and contributions are due within days of each pay run — but the April–June quarter is still owed under the old rules, and 28 July is the deadline for it to reach employees' funds. Pay early; processing delays count against you.
Prepare for the June quarter BAS. Standard lodgement is 28 July if you lodge yourself, later if you lodge through a registered agent. Don't leave the reconciliation to the deadline week.
Then: close FY26 cleanly
A clean close isn't about perfection — it's about making sure the numbers you'll rely on all year are trustworthy.
- Reconcile every bank, loan and credit card account to 30 June statements. Unreconciled accounts are where errors hide.
- Review your debtors list. Anything you genuinely won't collect should be written off as bad debt before the return is prepared — you may be entitled to claim the deduction and recover the GST.
- Review your creditors list. Old payables that will never be paid distort your position.
- Count stock and update work in progress if you carry either. Your closing figures become FY27's opening figures.
- Check the fixed asset register. Remove assets that were sold, scrapped or lost, and confirm anything purchased near year-end is recorded correctly.
- Tidy loan and director accounts. Movements between you and the company need to be documented properly — this is one of the most common things accountants have to untangle.
Then send the file to your accountant. Early. The owners who send a clean file in July get their planning advice when it's still useful.
Finally: set FY27 up properly
Update payroll for the new year. Confirm your software has applied the current tax tables, check any award rate changes that apply to your team from the first full pay period in July, and — critically this year — confirm your payday super settings are live and working. The first pay run of the year is the one to check line by line.
Set a budget, even a simple one. A twelve-month revenue and cost budget, phased monthly, turns every management report for the next year from "interesting" into "actionable." (If you've never built one, start with last year's actuals and adjust deliberately.)
Book the rhythm. Put a monthly finance review in the calendar now — same day each month, 60 minutes, non-negotiable. The discipline matters more than the agenda.
Check whether payroll tax is now on your radar. Each state and territory has a wages threshold above which payroll tax applies, and growing businesses cross it without noticing — particularly once contractors and super are counted in the wages definition. July, with a full year of wages data in hand, is the moment to check your total against your state's threshold and register if you're over (or budget for it if you're close).
Review what annoyed you last year. Slow month-ends, chasing timesheets, invoice errors, software that doesn't talk to itself — July is the cheapest time to fix process problems, because you have a full year to collect the benefit.
FAQ
When is the FY26 tax return actually due?
If you lodge through a registered tax agent and have a good lodgement history, most companies and individuals have until well into 2027. The return itself is rarely urgent — but the inputs (clean books, reconciled payroll, stocktake) are July work.
Do I need a stocktake if I'm a service business?
A traditional stocktake, no — but if you carry work in progress (jobs started but not invoiced), valuing it at 30 June matters for both your accounts and your tax position.
What's the single most valuable thing to do this month?
Reconcile and send your accountant a clean file before the end of July. Everything good — accurate tax planning, useful advice, early refunds — flows downstream from that.
Want to know how your business is set up for the new year? Our free Business Health Check takes five minutes and shows you where the gaps are.
About the author
Nick Lucock
Chief Executive Officer, Valont
Nick leads Valont's day-to-day operations across Finance, People, Operations and Growth. He writes about how the work actually gets done — the processes, systems, and tools that keep Australian SMEs compliant and growing.
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