The 2026 year-end close: what to prepare from November

The most expensive weeks of an audit are the ones in which the finance team hunts for documents it could have prepared in November. Three things make the difference: a shared calendar, reconciliations done before 31 December, and estimates documented as they are made.

A shared calendar

Agree with your auditor the date of the inventory count, the close package and the final fieldwork. A calendar agreed in the autumn avoids clashes with group reporting and tax returns, and gives you time to plan key people's leave outside the final fieldwork. Share the calendar with teams outside finance too, such as the warehouse, sales and HR, who provide some of the documents.

Reconciliations before 31 December

Bank, customer, supplier and intercompany reconciliations, done monthly from November, shorten the final fieldwork significantly. Balance confirmations sent early have time to come back, and differences found in November can be corrected in the books before the close, rather than as audit adjustments.

Documented estimates

Provisions, write-downs of inventory and receivables and useful lives need documentation the auditor will ask for. Prepare it with the calculation, not afterwards: the assumptions, the data used, who approved it, and how last year's estimate compared with what actually happened.

Step by step: the close calendar

November: the calendar agreed with the auditor, count instructions, the list of balances for confirmation, reconciliations at 31 October.
December: balance confirmations sent, intercompany balances agreed with the other entities, the inventory count, cut-off documents (the last deliveries and receipts).
January: reconciliations at 31 December, the fixed asset register, the estimates and the file supporting them.
February: the close package, draft financial statements and notes.
February–April: final fieldwork, the auditor's proposed adjustments, the management representation letter.

A short checklist

Every bank account has a reconciliation at 31 December with the statement attached.
Customer and supplier balances agree with the sub-ledgers, and differences are explained.
Intercompany balances are confirmed by both sides.
The inventory count has signed count sheets, and differences are booked.
Every provision and write-down has its calculation and assumptions in a single file.
Income and expenses from the last days of the year sit in the right period.

An example

An illustrative example with round numbers. At the end of November a company finds a RON 400,000 difference between the balance it owes its parent and the balance the parent reports. Reconciling it then shows two service invoices booked by the group in November but not yet booked by the company. The difference is corrected before the close, in a day's work.

The same difference found in March, during final fieldwork, means correspondence with the group, an adjustment proposed by the auditor, revised financial statements and, often, a missed group reporting deadline.

If it is your first audit

For a company with its first statutory audit, the close starts earlier. The auditor also needs the opening balances, that is, the unaudited figures at the end of the previous year: the reconciliations at that date, the inventory listing, the fixed asset register and the provision calculations. Gather them in a single file from November, so you are not looking for them in March. For when the requirement arises, see our article on the statutory audit threshold.

Common mistakes

An inventory count with no written instructions and no test counts.
Balance confirmations sent in February, when there is no time for them to come back.
Estimates documented only when the auditor asks.
Intercompany balances reconciled once a year.
Year-end adjustments booked after the draft financial statements have gone to the auditor.

When to ask for help

The full list is in our free guide, Checklist for the 2026 year-end close and statutory audit. If your finance team does not have the capacity to work through it in time, or if last year's audit ended with many adjustments, we can look at your situation in the free 60-minute assessment.