Bookkeeping checklist for Ireland: weekly, monthly, VAT period and year end

Small weekly tasks stop the books drifting.

• Bring in bank and card activity for any account not connected automatically.
• Capture receipts and forward supplier bills.
• Confirm or correct the transactions your software could not code on its own.
• Send any invoices for work finished this week.
• Chase invoices that became overdue this week.

Reconcile every account to its statement, review money owed to and by the business, post payroll if you have staff, and record accruals for costs not yet billed. Then read the profit and loss and the cash position. A month that is closed properly is one you never have to revisit.

Most VAT-registered businesses have two-month periods starting in January, March, May, July, September and November. The return is due by the 19th of the next month, and ROS filers have until the 23rd to file. Review the VAT figures around the 10th, check unusual rates and reverse-charge items, then enter the return and pay.

Revenue can authorise less frequent returns for smaller liabilities, so confirm the cycle that applies to you.

Use the quarter as a checkpoint for things that drift slowly: supplier and customer records, duplicate contacts, fixed assets bought in the period, and any loans or hire purchase balances. If you sell to consumers in other EU countries through the One Stop Shop, the quarterly OSS return falls here too.

At your accounting year end, count stock if you hold any, review debts you are unlikely to collect, and agree director or owner balances. File the Return of Trading Details with the final VAT3 of the year; Revenue’s guidance puts it due on the 23rd of the month after the month your accounting year ends. Then give your accountant access to prepare the accounts and tax returns.

Revenue expects the documents behind your figures, including sales and purchase invoices, receipts and bank statements, to be kept for six years, and longer where a claim, appeal or inquiry is open. Attaching each document to its transaction as you go means you never need a separate filing session.

Checklists fail when they live in a drawer. Put the weekly items in your calendar as a recurring half-hour slot, the monthly close on the first working Monday, and each VAT review around the 10th of the filing month. If you work with a bookkeeper or accountant, share the same calendar so everyone works to the same dates.

After three months, review what you actually did. Drop items that never find anything, and add any check that would have caught a problem you found the hard way. A checklist that fits your business is worth more than a long generic one.

Keep a simple log of the date each VAT return and RTD was filed and the confirmation reference. It takes seconds and answers the question every accountant asks at year end.

HelloBooks takes care of much of the weekly list: its AI proposes accounts and Irish VAT treatment, reads receipts and bills, and matches payments, leaving you to confirm. At each VAT period it computes the VAT3 figures for you to enter in ROS, and the rate-by-rate totals for the RTD come from the same ledger.

Statement upload works for every Irish bank today, with direct connections rolling out.