With year-end closing procedures, we determine the financial position of a company usually on 31/12 each year (without excluding 30/6 or other year-end dates) and additionally its dynamics based on the financial result of the closed year. The financial statements that reflect the respective financial position and financial result of the year are the "Balance Sheet" and the "Income Statement" along with the other financial statements that we will analyze in this book.

In recent years, with the rapid development of information systems technology and the support provided by accounting software, even small businesses have the ability to determine their financial position more frequently. It is possible to prepare a balance sheet and income statement in a short period of time without requiring account transfers or any other accounting entries. Depending on the level of organization in a business, the accounting officer can produce results 2 times (semi-annually), 4 times (quarterly), or even 12 times (monthly) during the year.

The usefulness of interim financial statements is unquestionable, but their accuracy - as well as their frequency - depends on the organization of the business and the methodology followed in the preparation of the results.

In addition, some year-end closing procedures, such as detailed physical inventory and detailed accounting audit, are time-consuming and may not be possible on a monthly or quarterly basis.

However, the main reasons why year-end closing procedures are given significant importance and prestige are their harmonization with the Income Tax Code (Law 4172/2013), the Greek Accounting Standards (Law 4308/2014), and the applicable Commercial Law for each type of company (Law 2190/1920 for SA, Law 3190/1955 for Ltd., Law 4072/2012 for LLCs & sole proprietorships). In other words, accounting, tax, and commercial legislation have as their object the annual financial statements, requiring their approval by the management as well as their signature by the management, the authorized accountant, and often the certified auditor-accountant. To complete the closing of a fiscal year, it must be ensured that income tax has been calculated, VAT and withheld taxes have been correctly accounted for, and annual summary declarations have been submitted (e.g. income certification).

Tax laws aim to ensure the correct determination of taxable income and the collection of taxes due to the Greek State. The Commercial Law (Law 2190/1920, 3190/1955, 4072/2012) refers to the audit of financial statements with the aim of ensuring that the shareholders or partners are properly informed by the management about the company's performance.

This year, for the third time, businesses will be required to present their financial statements based on the provisions of the Greek Accounting Standards (Law 4308/2014). In the process of preparing financial statements, and based on the principle of Prudence, the specific characteristics of the company and its exposure to potential risks must be taken into account in order to appropriately adjust its financial figures (e.g. the formation of provisions is an adjusting accounting entry).

The tax law does not recognize many of these adjustments and this results in a different "tax" result compared to the accounting result of the financial statements. Many large businesses, mainly multinational ones, have been drawing their conclusions about their performance for many decades by applying the so-called Management Accounting, which imposes the application of even more adjustments (e.g. a unit that produces machinery deducts amounts from its results that will be given as guarantees in future years). For this reason, they employ additional personnel in their financial services. Therefore, it is very important to prepare financial statements that take into account the specificities of the company and provide complete information regardless of the need to comply with the applicable legislation. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) gather all the specificities of different sectors of businesses and are addressed to a wider audience, including shareholders, investors, and employees. At this point, it should be noted that the provisions of the IFRS specify which entities are required to prepare their financial statements based on IFRS, while at the same time they allow any other entity, if desired by its management, to apply them optionally (see Article 1 of this law). We will see in detail in this book how a proper closing process ensures compliance with the existing legislation as well as the reliability of financial statements in terms of drawing accurate conclusions and making decisions by the management. Presentation of the "closing process" The year-end tasks involve a high workload during the closing period and in practice are distributed among different staff members who take on different sections of the overall work. These tasks are either performed by a team of staff or by an accountant and are not carried out sequentially but in parallel. In addition, very often the allocation of tasks is based on the IFRS groups, for example, fixed assets, customers, available. Therefore, we have chosen as a presentation method in each chapter a different section based mainly on the accounts of accounting. However, it should be emphasized that the sequential order of tasks must be strictly followed regardless of the section in which we included them. In any case, the checks of the entries and the agreements with the counterparties (customers, suppliers, or third parties) must precede the other tasks. We provide examples that highlight the need to follow the sequence of tasks during the closing process: a) In order to carry out the costing mentioned in the 1st chapter, the audit of all the accounts mentioned in subsequent chapters must have been completed, so that we have accurate data for purchases, labor costs, and COGS. b) The accountant of a company, before recording the write-off difference of an inventory item E, it would be advisable to check the account agreement with the supplier of E because there is a possibility that he has not recorded a purchase invoice from this specific supplier.

The same should be done for fixed assets before depreciation calculation.

Key topics:

- Legislation and numerous detailed examples by category of funds (inventory, fixed assets, receivables, liabilities, net position, income, expenses)
- Tax treatment of end-of-year issues
- Legislation for the preparation and publication of financial statements
- Detailed example of year-end closing and preparation of balance sheet and income statement
- Excel support files for the preparation of balance sheet and income statement
- Model Management Report and calculation of indicators

Book structure
The new edition of the book "E.L.P. - End-of-year tasks" includes numerous detailed examples for each topic and is divided into 8 parts as follows:
1. Inventory valuation: Detailed presentation of the process of valuing the value of all categories of inventory (goods, products, etc.), methods of physical inventory of quantities and values, treatment of write-off differences, reasonable value.
2. Valuation of fixed assets - Depreciation: Valuation of tangible and intangible fixed assets, self-used and non-self-used, Fixed Assets Register, Financial leases of fixed assets, Accounting and tax depreciation, long-term depreciation expenses, investment properties & reasonable value.
3. Audit & adjustment of assets & liabilities accounts: Account reconciliation, adjustment entries, valuation of financial assets, reasonable value, accounting-tax treatment of capital surplus, customers, receivables, accounting and tax treatment of provision for doubtful debts, foreign exchange differences, provisions for employee compensation, accrued income-expenses, accounting-tax treatment of government subsidies, financial obligations.
4. Net position & income statement: Increase and decrease of capital (accounting-tax treatment), valuation of own shares, reasonable value differences, capital write-off, reserves (regular - tax exempt), income, profits.
5. Income taxation: Deductible and non-deductible expenses, intra-group dividends, exempt income, loss carryforward, tax exemptions, determination of income tax, submission of income tax return, deferred tax, tax reform.
6. Determination of results - Distribution of profits - Financial statements: Results based on E.L.P., distribution of profits (dividends, first dividend, example), principles of financial statement preparation, balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in net position, statement of cash flows, appendix, consolidated financial statements.
7. Audit & submission of financial statements: Approval, Management Report, Appointment of auditors, publication, General Assembly invitation.
8. Simplifications & exemptions: Entity categories, exemptions for medium, small and very small entities keeping double-entry books.
Finally, our book is accompanied by electronic material which includes helpful excel files that serve as a useful tool for preparing the balance sheet