Year-End Bookkeeping Checklist for Austrian Small Businesses
The steps to close your books cleanly at year end, prepare records for your Austrian Steuerberater, and avoid the most common mistakes that delay your tax filing.
Year-end bookkeeping in Austria follows a similar rhythm to Germany but with Austrian-specific deadlines, thresholds, and forms. If you’ve kept clean records throughout the year, December and January should be a review and handoff process.
November: Preparation
Review outstanding invoices. Under Austria’s Einnahmen-Ausgaben-Rechnung (EAR), income is recognized when received. Unpaid invoices at year end don’t count as income yet, but outstanding amounts affect your cash flow projection and your Steuerberater’s planning.
Check your turnover against thresholds. Did you approach or exceed the 35,000 EUR VAT registration threshold? Did you cross 700,000 EUR in turnover, which would trigger mandatory double-entry bookkeeping next year? December is the time to discuss structural implications with your Steuerberater.
Check for missing receipts. Go through your bank statement and identify any expense transactions without a supporting Beleg (receipt). Request duplicates from suppliers now rather than in January.
December: Final Processing
Process all December documents. Get December invoices uploaded, extracted, and categorized before January 1st.
Complete your bank reconciliation for December. Every transaction should be matched to a document. Unmatched transactions carry into the new year as open items.
Check your UVA totals. Your quarterly Umsatzsteuervoranmeldungen (UVA) should match your actual VAT collected and paid. Discrepancies need to be addressed in your annual Umsatzsteuererklärung (VAT return).
SVA contributions. Confirm your SVA quarterly payments are up to date. If you expect a significant retroactive adjustment because your income exceeded the SVA’s initial estimate, discuss with your Steuerberater how to provision for this.
January: Handoff
Export your annual records. Generate a structured export of all income and expense records for the full year, organized by category and with source documents linked.
Prepare the EAR summary. Your Steuerberater needs income and expense totals by category for the annual Einkommensteuererklärung (income tax return). A clean export covers this.
Note unusual items. Significant purchases, foreign currency transactions, car usage, or home office claims all need a brief explanatory note for your Steuerberater.
Confirm your FinanzOnline access. If your Steuerberater files on your behalf, confirm they have active access to your FinanzOnline account.
Filing Deadlines
For self-filers: income tax return due June 30th. With a Steuerberater: deadline extends to March 31st of the following year.
How KontoMatch Helps
If you’ve used KontoMatch throughout the year, your December documents are already processed, your bank reconciliation is current, and a full-year export is generated in a single step. You arrive at your Steuerberater with organized records, clean categorization, and all source documents retained, rather than reconstructing the year from memory in January.