Year-End Accounts for Swiss SMEs: Checklist for 8 Critical Steps

For many SME owners, year-end accounts are the most unpleasant quarter of the year — not because the work itself is difficult, but because it has accumulated over months. Anyone who systematically works through the following eight points will provide their accountant with clean records and avoid costly correction rounds.

Why year-end accounts are so error-prone for SMEs

Small businesses often keep their day-to-day accounting themselves or with accounting software — and then hand over the closing work to their accountant. The problem: between the last recorded receipt and the handover, gaps often appear. Outstanding items are not reconciled, accruals are missing, and the VAT settlement does not match the account. This costs hours and therefore CHF.

The following checklist covers the most common weak points. It applies equally to capital companies (GmbH, AG) and sole proprietorships with simplified bookkeeping, even though statutory obligations vary in scope.

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The 8-Point Year-End Checklist

1. Reconcile bank statements completely

Download all bank statements as at 31 December and reconcile each entry with the corresponding account in your accounting software. Open discrepancies should be commented — "payment in transit" is not enough; you need the receipt.

Tip: If you have a business account with a Swiss bank, you can usually export the complete annual statement as a PDF. This is the central reference document for your accountant.

2. Clean up your debtors list

Create a list of all outstanding customer invoices at year-end. This raises three questions:

• Which invoices are genuinely uncollectible? These must be written down or written off.
• Which invoices are open but realistically collectable? These remain as debtors.
• Are there payments in January that relate to the previous year? These must be allocated to the correct period.

Anyone who operates a consistent dunning process will have significantly less work at this point. For details on how a structured dunning process from reminder to debt collection works in Switzerland, see our comprehensive guide to the Swiss dunning process.

3. Review the creditors list

Outstanding supplier invoices relating to the expired financial year but paid in January must be recorded as liabilities as at 31 December. The same applies to invoices not yet received but for which the service has been provided (provisions).

Typical examples: annual software licences, outstanding accountant fees, insurance premiums.

4. Reconcile VAT settlement

For VAT-liable businesses, reconciling VAT accounts is one of the most time-consuming steps. Compare the total of all recorded VAT amounts (input tax and output tax) with the returns submitted to the tax authorities.

If the figures don't match, the error is usually one of three: wrong tax rate recorded, a forgotten receipt, or a correction entry not reconciled with the return. Current applicable rates (8.1%, 2.6% for accommodation, 3.8% reduced rate) and all obligations are summarised in our article on Swiss VAT basics for 2026.

5. Wage accounts and social security contributions

Do the recorded wages match the wage statements you must issue by the end of January? Also check that all AHV/IV/EO contributions and BVG contributions for December are correctly recorded and paid. Although the compensation fund sends reminders, a missing December contribution discovered only in March creates unnecessary correspondence.

6. Depreciation and fixed assets

Create or update your asset schedule: which fixed assets were purchased during the year? Which were disposed of? Have you capitalised new equipment or vehicles over CHF 1,500 or expensed them directly? The decision and justification should be documented.

The standard depreciation rates set by the tax authority (maximum tax-allowable values) are a good starting point, even if they sometimes differ from commercial reality.

7. Provisions and accruals

Accruals are entries where expenses or income are shifted to the correct financial year. Classic cases for Swiss SMEs:

Situation	Entry
Rent for January paid in December	Prepaid expenses
Maintenance invoice for January relating to December	Accrued expenses
Expected warranty obligations	Provision
Outstanding bonuses to employees	Provision

Without these entries, the reported result does not match the economic reality of the year.

8. Prepare documentation for your accountant

If you delegate closing work to an accountant, remember: the better the records, the lower the invoice. Prepare:

• All receipts digitally or physically, complete and in chronological order
• Bank statements from January to December for all business accounts
• Cash journal (if you still work with cash)
• Completed data sheet from your accounting firm (many have their own templates)
• List of open questions you noted during the year

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Simplified vs. Orderly Bookkeeping

Sole proprietorships and partnerships with less than CHF 500,000 annual revenue can use simplified bookkeeping (Art. 957 CO): income-and-expense accounting plus an asset statement. This means less work, but the points mentioned above — especially VAT and wage accounts — must still be correct.

GmbH and AG companies are required to use proper double-entry bookkeeping. Here, the year-end accounts serve as the basis for the tax return of the legal entity and must meet the requirements of the Swiss Code of Obligations.

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At a Glance

• Reconcile bank statements and document discrepancies
• Write down debtors, record creditors in the correct period
• Reconcile VAT settlement with accounting records
• Check AHV and BVG contributions for December
• Update depreciation and asset schedule
• Record provisions and accruals
• Prepare complete, organised documentation for your accountant

Anyone who works through these eight points by the end of January at the latest creates the foundation for smooth closing — and for a tax return without nasty surprises. If you also want to professionalise your invoicing, SnapBill offers a direct entry point into compliant invoice creation according to Swiss standards.