The 7 most common mistakes in financial statements
Mit dem Jahresabschluss wird die Buchführung eines jeden Geschäftsjahres abgeschlossen. Der Jahresabschluss hat große Relevanz, unter anderem, weil er die gesamtwirtschaftliche Situation eines Unternehmens repräsentiert. Ein Jahresabschluss kann jedoch auch nichtig sein. Wir von der Steuerkanzlei Martin Bleckmann in Köln erklären Ihnen, ab wann das der Fall ist und welche rechtlichen Folgen ein nichtiger Jahresabschluss mit sich bringt.
The annual financial statements enable a Accounting overview of a company. This includes costs, assets and income incurred over the course of the year. Depending on the size of the company, the Financial statements be very extensive. An error creeps in quickly. The following seven mistakes are common. Our tax office Martin Bleckmann will be happy to advise you.
The most important things in brief
- Financial statement errors are easy to make and can have serious financial consequences.
- In particular, incomplete documents and lack of preparation quickly lead to careless errors.
- With the help of professional auditors, companies minimize the risk of errors in their financial statements.
Mistake 1: Not enough preparation
In the annual financial statements, all expenses and revenues Be accounted for. For larger companies in particular, this means a flood of documents. If they are not already well sorted and organized throughout the year, the risk of mistakes is high. If documents only appear after the annual financial statements, this can result in fines.
Mistake 2: Failure to comply with the storage obligation
In order to be able to review entries in the annual financial statements even retrospectively, the supporting documents must be complete. Die Retention period is ten years in this area. When carrying out an external audit, you must be able to prove the supporting documents. The following therefore applies to the annual financial statements: It is better to store too much than too little.
Mistake 3: Failure to comply with formalities
Several signatures are required for the annual financial statements to be valid. First, the individual signature required by the commercial register or that of two is required. Those responsible from the Accounting and the finance department need to sign. You should also note the contact details of external auditors involved.
Mistake 4: Misjudgement of company size
If your company is a GmbH, you must estimate it based on its size. If the size is misjudged or ignored, the annual financial statements show serious differences. You are required by law to make a correct assessment.
Mistake 5: Wrong order of posts
In financial statements, you cannot indiscriminately sort the individual items. You should follow the current rules regarding the order. Only so is a Comparability with previous years possible. But errors are also more likely to be noticed in a structured order.
Mistake 6: Forgetting hidden reserves
If you work with hidden reserves in your company, changes to them should be noted accordingly. An increase or loss must be comprehensible in accounting. Otherwise, there is a difference that is difficult to understand in retrospect.
Mistake 7: Inadequately trained personnel
In rather rare cases, staff misjudgement occurs. If the accounting staff is still inexperienced or not familiar with the latest regulations, Accounting errors occur. The wrong number of employees for the size of the company can also be a problem.
That is why a professional audit makes sense
The good work of your bookkeeping is of little use if the basic requirements, for example in the form of complete documents, are not available. This can be remedied by an auditor who acts as neutral support acts.
This provides the following benefits:
- Looks at all finances neutrally from the outside, which means that mistakes are noticed more quickly
- Is knowledgeable in all areas of financial statements
- Reveal potential irregularities
- Is familiar with the current legal situation
