Whether your financial year ends on 31 December or another date, the weeks after it bring the same request from your accountant or bookkeeper: send everything. Bank statements, sales invoices, receipts, payroll records, loan statements, tax forms. A tidy, complete set of PDFs saves your accountant hours and saves you money and follow-up questions.
Ask for the list first
Every accountant has a preferred list and format. Ask for it early, in writing, and ask:
- Which documents they need, and for which period.
- Whether they want one PDF per document type or one combined file per month.
- How they want to receive them: a secure portal, shared folder or encrypted email.
Gather by category
Create one folder per category, for example:
- Bank and credit card statements.
- Sales invoices issued.
- Purchase invoices and receipts.
- Payroll and contractor payments.
- Loans, leases and asset purchases.
- Tax correspondence.
Download statements as PDFs directly from your bank rather than scanning printouts. For paper receipts, scan them; see organizing expense receipts as PDFs.
Name files consistently
Use a pattern your accountant can sort: 2026-11 Bank Statement Current Account.pdf, 2026 Sales Invoices Q4.pdf. Starting with the year and month keeps everything in order.
Combine where it helps
A year of monthly statements is easier to review as one PDF in date order than as twelve files. Docento.app can merge and reorder files in the browser without uploading them, which suits financial documents. See how to combine PDF files.
Check that every month and every page is present. Missing pages are the most common reason for follow-up questions.
Make scans searchable
If you scanned receipts, run OCR so your accountant can search for amounts and suppliers. See how to make a PDF searchable.
Send securely
These documents contain account numbers, income and personal details. Use the accountant's secure portal if they have one. If you must email, password-protect the PDFs and share the password by phone or text. See sending documents securely by email and how to password protect a PDF.
Add a short cover note
A short note listing what you have sent, and anything unusual (a large one-off payment, a new loan, a gap in statements and why), answers questions before they are asked.
Keep your own copy
Keep the exact set you sent, together with the accountant's acknowledgement. Most tax authorities require records to be kept for several years. See document retention policies and PDF for tax returns.
Takeaway
Get your accountant's list early, gather documents by category, name them by date, combine related files in order, make scans searchable, send through a secure channel with a short cover note, and keep a copy of everything you sent.
