Build a closure budget without hiding assumptions

Use a working table with the item, owner or entity, source document, amount status, timing and person checking it. Amount status can distinguish an invoice, a confirmed quotation, an estimate and a question not yet priced.

Potential categories for investigation include premises commitments, customer obligations, employee matters, professional work and the services needed during the wind-down. The list is a prompt, not a statement that each category applies or that it is complete.

Avoid copying a remembered figure into the confirmed column. Locate the current agreement or ask the relevant person to verify it. If the scope of quoted work is unclear, record that uncertainty alongside the amount.

Equipment estimates and outstanding customer payments may inform the wider financial discussion. They should not be used to hide unresolved costs in a net figure.

Show their source and confidence, then ask the accountant how to assess the position. If there is doubt about the business's ability to pay its obligations, obtain appropriate qualified advice promptly before entering further commitments.

The official GOV.UK company closure overview makes financial position relevant to the available closure route. A budget worksheet does not establish solvency or choose a legal procedure.

A fictional budget contains a premises line marked "unknown". The useful next action is to identify which agreement and professional assessment will resolve it. Adding a round allowance may make the total look complete while leaving the underlying question untouched.

Name the person checking each significant gap and the information they need. Review the budget when a contract answer, scope change or timing decision affects it.

Use the weekly cash timing map after identifying the underlying obligations. The order in which money may arrive and bills fall due needs its own review.

Ask UK Auction Group to explain the asset-disposal proposal and its assumptions. Give that information to the advisers reviewing the full closure budget, keeping quoted costs, estimated proceeds and unresolved items clearly distinguished.

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