Skip to content

Close a tax year

The readiness checks Kontala runs before a Self Assessment tax year can be closed, and what closing one locks.

Last updated 31 August 2026.

Closing a tax year is the point at which its figures become final and the year locks: nothing can be dated into it afterwards.

Tax years close oldest first.

The readiness checks

Kontala lists anything standing in the way, each with the detail you need to fix it:

  • It is too early. A year cannot be closed until a week after it ends - bank feeds and exchange rates are still arriving.
  • Unexplained bank transactions. Every transaction dated on or before the year end must be explained, and the count is shown. See Explain a transaction.
  • Unfiled VAT returns. Every VAT return ending on or before the year end must be filed. See Submit a VAT return.
  • The previous tax year is not closed. Close it first.
  • Your accounts are not made up far enough. Your year end is not 5 April, so this tax year draws on two sets of accounts and one of them is missing. See Your accounting date and the tax year.
  • This tax year ended before you started trading. There is nothing to close. Check your dates under Settings, then Accounting Dates.
  • Opening balances still to allocate. Part of what the business owned and owed on your start date has not been recorded, so the profit rests on it. See Opening balances.
  • An asset needs the car question answered. On the cash basis a car keeps its capital allowances and everything else is deducted when you pay for it, so until you answer, Kontala can give you neither. Answer it on the asset's own page under Reports, then Capital Assets.
  • Capital bought before 6 April 2024. You may be owed a one-off deduction for whatever was left unrelieved in your capital allowances pools when you moved onto the cash basis. Kontala cannot tell which year you moved, so it has not been given - record the basis you used for each earlier year, or ask your accountant for the figure.

What closing does

The year's figures are fixed and the year locks. After that, invoices, bills, credit notes, expenses and bank explanations dated on or before the year end are refused, with a message naming the lock.

Filing

Closing a year in Kontala is not filing it. Kontala does not submit Self Assessment to HMRC - take the SA103 figures to HMRC's own service, to your filing software, or to your accountant.

Related

I need help with...

View all categories

Articles in this section