Mid-year financial review: how are your finances tracking?

If your financial year ends on 31 March, you’re now past the halfway mark. You have seven months of results to learn from, and nearly five months to act on them before balance date.

Year-end accounts tell you what happened. A mid-year financial review tells you what’s happening while there’s still time to change it. Here are five checks worth making now, and what to do if the numbers show a loss.

Your mid-year financial review: five checks

1. Compare your results with your budget

Set your actual results from April to October against the budget or forecast you set at the start of the year. Look at revenue, gross margin and overheads separately, because each tells a different story.

Whether you’re ahead or behind, the useful question is why. Growth driven by one large customer carries more risk than growth spread across many.

2. Look ahead at your cash flow

Profit and cash aren’t the same thing. A profitable business can still run short of cash if customers pay slowly or stock builds up.

Map out the next three to six months: wages, supplier payments, GST, PAYE, provisional tax, and any quieter trading over summer. If you can see a gap coming, it’s far easier to arrange a solution now than in the week a payment falls due.

3. Make sure your tax is up to date

Check that your GST, PAYE and provisional tax payments are current. Then check that your provisional tax still reflects how the year is actually going.

If profit is running well ahead of last year, a voluntary payment may reduce interest at year-end. If it’s well down, you may be able to pay less. Talk to us before you change your approach, as getting it wrong can cost you interest. Our key tax dates article lists what’s due over the coming months.

4. Check in on your people and customers

The numbers only show part of the picture. Is your team coping with its workload heading into the busy pre-Christmas period? Are your key customers happy, and are any important relationships at risk? Do the priorities you set at the start of the year still make sense?

5. Update your forecast to year-end

Use what you’ve learned to reforecast through to 31 March. This sets realistic targets for the second half of the year and gives you an early view of your year-end tax position, so there are no surprises.

What if the numbers show a loss?

A loss isn’t always a warning sign. Losses are common when a business is starting out, investing in growth or changing direction, and they can be part of a deliberate plan. What matters is whether the loss is expected and temporary, or the start of a pattern.

If your business is consistently spending more than it earns, the cause usually sits in one of two places:

• Pricing and sales. Sales may have slowed, or your prices may not have kept pace with your costs. Review your margins by product or service, not just overall.

• Costs. Supplier prices, wages and overheads can creep up without anyone deciding they should. Start with your largest costs and test whether each one still earns its place.

  
  

Slow-paying customers don’t cause a loss in your accounts, but they can make a difficult year much harder to get through. Clear payment terms and consistent follow-up on overdue invoices protect your cash while you work on the underlying problem.

The sooner you identify what’s driving a loss, the more options you have.

How tax losses can be used

A tax loss can usually be carried forward and offset against your taxable income in future years, but conditions apply.

For companies, carrying a loss forward generally requires at least 49% continuity of shareholding between the year the loss arose and the year it’s used. If ownership changes beyond that, the loss may still be available under the business continuity test, which looks at whether the business has carried on without major changes.

These rules are worth considering before you sell shares, bring in a new shareholder or restructure. Different rules apply to look-through companies and partnerships.

Make the second half count

If you’d like help reviewing your mid-year results, updating your forecast or working out what’s behind a loss, get in touch with our team. We’ll help you turn the numbers into a clear plan for the rest of the year.

Last reviewed for accuracy 3 November 2026

Disclaimer: The information in this article is general in nature and does not constitute tax or financial advice. Talk to us before making decisions based on this content.