What happens after year-end? Audit and sign-off explained

Year-end often gets treated like the finish line.
In reality, it’s the handover point.

Once the financial year closes, a new phase starts. Audit preparation, fieldwork, queries, adjustments, final accounts and sign-off.

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking “What are auditors actually doing right now?” or “Why are we still being asked for things months after year-end?” this article is for you.

Let’s break down what typically happens after year-end, why it matters, and how to make the process calmer.

Step 1: The year-end close, but not the end of the work

A year-end close is when you stop posting normal transactions into the old year and move into the new one.

But finance work doesn’t stop. After year-end, most teams are still:

• Tidying late invoices and timing differences
• Checking balances are sensible
• Ensuring approvals and evidence are in order
• Confirming the reporting position trust-wide
• Making sure nothing important is sitting in odd places (like suspense/holding codes)

This is the moment when a good finance routine pays off. If month-end has been consistent throughout the year, year-end clean-up is usually lighter.

Step 2: Audit planning and the PBC list (the “Please Bring/Provide” list)

Before auditors begin fieldwork, they normally request a list of information and evidence. This might include things like:

• Key reports and supporting schedules
• Confirmation of key balances (bank, creditors, etc.)
• Major contracts and agreements
• Payroll summaries or pension-related information
• Governance evidence (approvals, delegated authority, minutes)
• Explanations for unusual movements

It can feel like a lot, but the purpose is simple. Auditors need a starting point that helps them assess risk, plan their testing and understand how your trust operates.

Step 3: Audit fieldwork (testing, sampling and questions)

This is the stage most people think of as the audit.

Auditors will usually:

• Test a sample of transactions
• Review evidence and approvals
• Check key balances and year-end adjustments
• Assess whether controls are operating as expected
• Review the consistency and logic of reporting and disclosures

This is also when questions land. Often they’re not because something is wrong, but because the auditor needs:

• Clarification
• More evidence
• A stronger explanation of why something happened
• A document that proves a decision or approval

The faster you can answer questions with clear evidence, the smoother this stage becomes.

Step 4: Audit adjustments and what changed

It’s very normal for auditors to propose adjustments. That could be for:

• Accruals and prepayments
• Reclassifications (putting items into the right place)
• Pensions or complex areas
• Correcting things that are technically accurate but not presented correctly

A key point: adjustments don’t automatically mean something has gone wrong.
They’re often part of ensuring the accounts reflect the correct position in the correct format.

What matters is having a clear record of:

• What changed
• Why it changed
• Who agreed it
• Where evidence sits

This helps with sign-off, and makes next year easier too.

Step 5: Draft accounts and review

Once auditors are comfortable with the numbers and evidence, they’ll produce a draft set of financial statements.

This is where finance teams and leadership will review:

• Whether the narrative and disclosures make sense
• Whether explanations match reality
• Whether trust-wide reporting aligns with expectations
• Whether anything needs further clarification before finalisation

This step often involves back-and-forth, but it’s an important quality check. It’s not just a compliance document. It’s a formal record of the trust’s financial year.

Step 6: Final accounts, audit clearance and sign-off

Sign-off is the point where:

• Final accounts are approved
• The auditor finalises their opinion
• Governance steps are completed (trustee approval etc.)

From here, the trust moves into submission and publication stages, depending on the required deadlines and your trust’s circumstances.

This is also why teams often feel year-end runs on, because the finish line includes approvals and governance steps, not just closing the books.

What makes post year-end painful, and how to avoid it

Most post year-end pain comes from three places:

1) Evidence scattered across too many places

If documents and approvals live in emails, shared drives and screenshots, audit questions take longer to answer.

2) Inconsistency across schools and departments

For MATs, differences in coding and process create more queries and more corrections.

3) Fixing issues too late

If key controls weren’t consistent during the year, the clean-up happens under time pressure after year-end.

The fix isn’t dramatic. It’s repeatable habits:

• Consistent month-end checks
• Visible approvals and clear audit trails
• Tidy balance sheet accounts
• Better visibility during the year so issues are spotted earlier

Where XfE helps (without adding admin)

A smoother audit is usually the result of cleaner, more consistent data and quicker access to evidence.

XfE supports schools and trusts by improving trust-wide consistency across schools and departments, providing real-time reporting and in-system KPIs so finance teams can spot issues earlier, and supporting stronger control through secure approvals and clearer audit trails.

That means fewer last-minute surprises, faster responses to audit queries, and a calmer route to sign-off.

If you’d like to see what that looks like in practice, book a walkthrough:
https://www.xfeonline.co.uk/book-a-demo

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