Annual report checklist: what to prepare

When should you start preparing the annual report?

Start as soon as the financial year ends.

The report is due within 6 months of that date, and before it is filed the board must approve and sign it and the shareholders must decide on it — so the documents need to be complete well before the deadline itself.

1. The year ends

   Day one

   Ask for the last bank statements and the invoices that arrive after the year end but belong to it.

2. Documents to the accountant

   The first weeks

   Everything on the list below, for the whole year: a gap found now is easy to fill.

3. The accounts are drawn up

   The balance sheet, the income statement, the notes and the sales revenue by field of activity.

4. The board approves and signs

   At least one board member signs the report, stating the date of approval.

5. The shareholders decide

   On the report, and on the board’s proposal for the profit or loss.

6. The board files it

   By the deadline

   In the e-Business Register, with the profit proposal and the sales revenue breakdown.

Your own deadline, counted from your year end, is in the annual report deadline calculator.

Which documents does your accountant need?

Every document behind the year’s transactions: the bank statements of every account, the sales invoices you issued, the purchase invoices and receipts for your costs, and the contracts that run past the year end.

Payroll, stock and a capital contribution add their own papers, if the company had them.

• Bank statements

  For every account the company held during the year — a payment service or an online wallet included — from the first day to the last.

  Yes

• Sales invoices

  Every invoice the company issued in the year, credit notes included.

  Yes

• Purchase invoices and receipts

  For every cost paid from the company’s accounts.

  Yes

• Contracts that outlast the year

  Loans, leases and long service contracts: they show what the company still owes, or is owed, at the year end.

  If

• Payroll and board fees

  The documents behind each month’s form TSD, if the company paid any.

  If

• Stock at the year end

  If the company sells goods: what was in stock on the last day of the year, and at what cost.

  If

• A contribution to the capital

  The payment, and the month it was reported on form TSD.

  If

• Statements from platforms

  Payouts and fees from marketplaces and payment platforms, if the company sells through them.

  If

What do the board and the shareholders decide?

Three decisions turn the accounts into a filed report: the board approves the report and at least one member signs it, the shareholders decide whether to approve it, and the profit or loss proposal is settled.

That proposal — keep the profit, pay a dividend or cover a loss — is completed before the report is filed.

• The board approves the annual report; the day it does is the report’s completion date.
• At least one board member signs it, stating that date.
• The board presents the report and the profit or loss proposal to the shareholders, who decide on approving it.
• Paying a dividend? It rests on the approved report — the conditions are in the corporate tax guide.

What goes into the report you file?

The annual accounts — for a micro or small company, a balance sheet, an income statement and notes — plus the sales revenue split by field of activity and the profit or loss proposal.

A micro company that follows the Estonian standard need not file a management report.

• Balance sheet
• Income statement
• Notes
• Sales revenue by field of activity — the largest becomes the company’s main activity in the register
• The profit or loss proposal
• A management report — unless a micro company leaves it out

What each part holds, and when an audit applies: what goes into an Estonian annual report.

Where and how is the report filed?

Online, in the e-reporting environment of the e-Business Register, signed by a board member — or through a notary.

You can file at once or choose the day the report goes to the register; from that day it is public, so check the figures before it comes.

An accountant can be given the right to enter and submit the report in the portal; the signature stays with the board. What happens when a report is late is in the annual report guide.

What do you keep once the report is filed?

The documents behind it. Source documents, accounting registers, contracts and financial statements are kept for 7 years from the end of the financial year, and documents tied to a long-term obligation for 7 years after it ends.

Keep them where the board can reach them.

Then the next year starts — and the same list with it.

Questions about preparing the report