EOFY Collections Checklist: What Australian Finance Teams Should Do Before 30 June

# EOFY Collections Checklist: What Australian Finance Teams Should Do Before 30 June

For Australian businesses, the end of the financial year on 30 June each year is not just an accounting deadline — it is a collections deadline. Debt still outstanding at EOFY affects your reported revenue, your tax position, your bad debt deductions, and your balance sheet presentation.

The weeks before 30 June each year are also a period when customers are under the same financial scrutiny — which makes them more responsive to payment requests than at almost any other time of year. This checklist applies every financial year, not just the current one.

Six Weeks Out: Full Ledger Review

Pull a complete ageing report. Identify every account over 60 days. For each, make a decision: active collection, dispute resolution, or provision for doubtful debt. Accounts you have not consciously categorised by mid-May will cause EOFY problems.

Four Weeks Out: Personal Outreach on Large Balances

Every account over your materiality threshold — typically $10,000 or $25,000 depending on business size — that is overdue should receive a personal phone call before the end of May. Not an email. A call, from someone with authority to negotiate payment arrangements.

Three Weeks Out: Payment Arrangements in Writing

Any customer who cannot pay in full before 30 June should have a signed payment arrangement in place by 7 June. Payment arrangements that exist only as verbal commitments are nearly impossible to enforce and do not protect your EOFY position.

Two Weeks Out: Bad Debt Provision Decisions

Work with your accountant to identify debts that should be provisioned or written off before 30 June. Bad debts written off before EOFY are deductible in the current year. Get advice specific to your situation and accounting basis.

Final Week: Credit Holds and Statement Run

Issue a final statement to all overdue accounts. Place credit holds on any account that is significantly overdue and has not communicated. New orders should not be dispatching against accounts with large outstanding balances in the final week of June.

After 30 June: Do Not Drop the Pressure

A common mistake is treating 1 July as a reset. Customers who did not pay before EOFY are now 30 days further into the new financial year. EOFY is a useful forcing event but it is not a reason to pause collections in the weeks that follow.