The EOFY Invoicing Checklist for Australian Sole Traders

By Dan Reeve — Working handyman, founder of SMASH Invoices. About Dan →

Australian sole traders need to complete six invoicing tasks before June 30 to meet ATO obligations and avoid missing deductions. These are: reconcile all outstanding invoices, confirm all ABN details are current, check GST registration threshold, prepare a summary of income received for BAS lodgement, ensure all invoices meet tax invoice requirements, and back up or export all invoice records. Missing any of these before EOFY can result in penalties, missed deductions, or BAS errors.

Why EOFY catches sole traders unprepared every year

It's June. The financial year ends in 13 days. And somewhere in your phone, your notebook, or just your memory, there are jobs from September you haven't fully reconciled. A customer who said they'd pay "in the new year" and didn't. An invoice you sent in March with no read receipt and no follow-up.

This is normal. Not good — normal.

The ATO doesn't care that you were busy. They care that your BAS figures are accurate, your ABN is current, and your income records match what gets lodged. Sole traders who don't track their invoicing systematically year-round spend the last two weeks of June in a panic trying to reconstruct records that should have been automatic.

Here's the checklist that makes EOFY a 2-hour task instead of a 2-week scramble.

EOFY Invoicing Checklist

1. Chase every outstanding invoice before June 30

Outstanding invoices at June 30 are still income for this financial year if the work has been completed — regardless of whether payment has arrived. Sole traders using a cash accounting method only report income when received, but those using accrual accounting must report it when invoiced.

Check: Do you have any invoices sent but unpaid? Send one final payment reminder before June 30. If they're legitimately uncollectable, document this as a bad debt.

SMASH Invoices: The contacts section shows every invoice by status — sent, opened, unpaid. Run through your outstanding list now.

2. Confirm your ABN is active and details are up to date

Your Australian Business Number must be current and your registered address must be accurate. The ATO cross-references ABN records with tax lodgements. Discrepancies trigger reviews.

Check: Log into abr.business.gov.au and verify your registered address, business name, and trading name are correct.

3. Check your GST threshold

If your annual turnover has exceeded $75,000 for the first time this financial year, you are required to register for GST. You must register within 21 days of reaching this threshold.

Check: Add up all income received in the 2025–26 financial year. If you've crossed $75,000 and aren't GST-registered, contact the ATO or your accountant immediately.

4. Reconcile all income for BAS lodgement

Your BAS (Business Activity Statement) requires accurate income figures. Every invoice you sent this financial year — paid or outstanding — needs to be reconciled against your bank statements.

Check: Export all invoices from your invoicing app as a CSV. Compare against bank deposits. Every deposit should have a corresponding invoice. Every invoice should have a corresponding deposit (or be flagged as outstanding).

SMASH Invoices: CSV export is available on Pro and Unlimited plans. Go to Settings → Export → select the financial year.

5. Confirm all invoices meet ATO tax invoice requirements

A valid Australian tax invoice must include: your business name, ABN, date, invoice number, description of goods or services, total amount, and GST amount shown separately (if GST-registered).

Check: Pull three random invoices from across the year and verify they contain all required fields. If any field is missing, the invoice may not be accepted as a tax document.

6. Back up your invoice records

The ATO requires sole traders to keep business records for 5 years. Digital records are acceptable. A cloud backup of your invoicing data is sufficient.

Check: Export a full year's invoices as PDF or CSV. Save to a cloud service (Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud). Done.

The big EOFY question: what if I find jobs I never invoiced?

You can still invoice them. There is no legal minimum timeframe for invoicing completed work in Australia. If you completed work in September 2025 and haven't invoiced it, you can invoice it today.

The practical risk is customer disputation — the longer you wait, the harder it is for the customer to verify the work and amount. But if you have records of the job (photos, messages, a quote), invoice it. The money is yours.

"EOFY last year I found six jobs I hadn't invoiced. Went back through my texts — had photos from most of them. Invoiced them all. Got paid on four of them. $840 I would have just left on the table." — Ross K., Electrician, Brisbane QLD [PLACEHOLDER]

How to avoid this problem next year

The reason EOFY is stressful is because invoicing happened inconsistently across the year. Jobs got done, invoices got deferred, records got scattered.

The fix is on-site invoicing. Invoice before you leave every job. No pile builds up. No reconciliation panic in June. Every job has an invoice. Every invoice has a date. The EOFY export is 2 minutes, not 2 weeks.

SMASH Invoices was built for exactly this. Voice description at the job. Invoice sent before you drive away. Full record kept automatically. When June comes, the data's already there.

Frequently asked questions

When is the EOFY deadline for Australian sole traders? The Australian financial year ends on June 30. Sole traders must lodge their BAS (if registered for GST) quarterly, with the Q4 BAS due in late July. Individual tax returns are due October 31 unless lodged through a tax agent, which extends the deadline to May of the following year.

Do Australian sole traders need to keep physical invoice records? No. The ATO accepts digital records including PDFs, CSV exports, and cloud-stored invoicing data. Physical copies are not required. Digital records must be kept for a minimum of 5 years from the date of the transaction.

What happens if I miss an invoice in my EOFY reconciliation? A missed invoice may result in understated income, which could trigger an ATO audit if the discrepancy is detected. It also means you miss out on the corresponding income for that financial year. If you find uninvoiced work after June 30, you can still invoice it — the income will be reported in the following financial year.

What is a BAS and when do sole traders need to lodge it? A Business Activity Statement (BAS) is a tax report that Australian businesses submit to the ATO. GST-registered sole traders must lodge a BAS quarterly — for the quarters ending September 30, December 31, March 31, and June 30. Each BAS reports GST collected on sales and GST paid on purchases. The due date is approximately one month after each quarter ends.

Is there an app that makes EOFY reconciliation easier for sole traders? SMASH Invoices stores a complete record of all invoices, clients, and payment statuses. The CSV export feature (Pro and Unlimited plans) allows sole traders to export a full year's invoicing data for BAS preparation or handoff to an accountant. All invoices are GST-compliant by default.

SMASH Invoices — Invoice at the job. EOFY sorts itself. Start Free →