Accounting & Bookkeeping

Almost every problem that arrives as a tax problem started as an accounting problem. A credit that cannot be substantiated, a cash balance that could not physically have existed, a related-party payment recorded as an expense — each becomes expensive at assessment, and each was cheap to prevent at entry.

Bookkeeping is treated here as the foundation of the compliance position rather than as a clerical output.

What the work covers

Books maintenance. Recording of transactions, ledger scrutiny, bank and cash reconciliation, and maintenance of the subsidiary records the statute requires. Work is carried out on the software the business already uses.

Payroll. Salary processing, TDS on salary, provident fund and ESI computation, and payslip generation, with the statutory deposits and returns tracked to their due dates.

Periodic reconciliation. Bank, debtor and creditor reconciliation, GST turnover to books, and TDS credits to the deductee statements. Carried out monthly, differences stay small; carried out annually, they become archaeology.

Financial statements. Preparation of the balance sheet, statement of profit and loss and the associated notes in the format applicable to the entity's constitution.

MIS reporting. Monthly or quarterly reporting shaped around the decisions the business actually makes — segment margin, receivable ageing, working capital movement — rather than a generic pack.

Who this is relevant to

• Growing businesses whose transaction volume has outrun a part-time arrangement
• Businesses whose books are maintained internally but need periodic professional review and closing
• Enterprises with lender reporting obligations requiring reliable monthly numbers
• Startups establishing a books and payroll process for the first time
• Businesses preparing for audit, funding or diligence, where the state of the records determines the timeline

How the work runs

Setup. Review of the existing chart of accounts and opening balances, and agreement on the document flow — what is shared, in what form, by when.

Monthly cycle. Recording to an agreed cut-off, reconciliation, and a closing review before the numbers are used for anything else.

Reporting. Financial statements and MIS on the agreed cadence, with variances explained rather than merely presented.

Handover to compliance. Because the books, GST returns and income tax position are worked from the same underlying record, the three agree with one another by construction rather than by reconciliation after the fact.

Where books commonly go wrong

• Cash balances that could not have existed. A negative or implausibly high cash balance at any point in the year is a standing invitation at assessment.
• Expenses without a payment trail. Payments outside banking channels beyond the permitted limits are disallowed, and the disallowance is difficult to contest after the fact.
• Unreconciled TDS. Credits claimed in the return that do not appear in the deductee statement generate an intimation and a demand.
• Related-party transactions recorded loosely. Loans, drawings and payments to connected parties are examined closely, and the record needs to support the characterisation given to them.
• Year-end journal entries. A book adjusted once at year-end to reach a desired figure looks precisely like what it is.

Frequently asked questions

Which accounting software do you work on?
The one the business already uses. Migrating software mid-year creates more problems than it solves, and is only worth doing at a year boundary and for a clear reason.

Can you take over books that are behind?
Yes. Bringing arrears up to date is separate from ongoing maintenance and is scoped after reviewing how far behind and in what condition the records are.

Can you also audit the books you maintain?
No. Independence requirements prevent it. Where accounting is handled here, statutory audit is undertaken by another firm.

Do you handle payroll for a small team?
Yes. The statutory obligations attach well below the point at which most businesses think about them, and the deposit deadlines are unforgiving.

General information only, not professional advice.