The finance back office must get it right every month. Yet, most businesses staff it last.
Bookkeeping, payables, receivables, reconciliations, statutory filings and the monthly close are not strategic work, which is precisely why they get squeezed. They are also unforgiving: a missed return has a date attached to it, a supplier paid late has a tax consequence that cannot be undone by paying later, and a ledger that cannot produce an audit trail has an auditor's report problem waiting at the year end. We run this function for businesses that would rather own the decisions than the data entry.
- Written against the position in August 2026, including the new Income-tax Act, the rebuilt goods and services tax rate structure, and the reporting framework change that now reaches limited liability partnerships and firms.
- Every date, threshold, section number and form number on these pages sits in a claims register with its source. Where we could not read the primary text, the page says so.
- We are explicit about the boundary. Bookkeeping and compliance sit here. Judgement, forecasting and board-facing work sit with a finance lead, and we run that as a separate service rather than blurring the two.
Three services that are often sold as one, and are not
A lot of confusion, and a lot of disappointing engagements, come from treating the finance function as a single thing. It is at least three, and they need different people, different price points and different service levels.
1. Transaction processing
Recording what happened. Invoices in and out, bank and vendor reconciliations, expense processing, ledger maintenance. Judged on accuracy and turnaround. This is the core of what is on this page.
2. Compliance and reporting
Turning the record into filings and statements. Withholding, goods and services tax, annual accounts, statutory returns, management information. Judged on dates met and positions defensible. Also on this page.
3. Finance leadership
Deciding what to do about the numbers. Forecasting, capital structure, pricing, investor reporting, restructuring. Judged on decisions, not on outputs. That is a Virtual CFO engagement and it is a different service.
Payroll sits alongside all three and has become a specialism of its own since the Labour Codes commenced in November 2025. We run it, and it has its own set of pages because the statutory position changed too much to summarise in a paragraph here.
Four businesses that outsource the finance back office
A growing company that has outgrown one accountant
Volume has passed the point where one person can process, reconcile, file and close, but has not reached the point where a three-person team is justified. This is the most common trigger and the one where outsourcing is most obviously cheaper than hiring.
An overseas group with an Indian entity
The Indian subsidiary needs statutory books, Indian filings and a reporting pack in the group's format and calendar. The hard part is rarely the bookkeeping. It is translating between two sets of expectations about what a month end means.
A business whose records did not survive growth
Ledgers behind, reconciliations not done, filings caught up in arrears. The first engagement here is remediation, and it should be scoped and priced as remediation rather than folded into a monthly retainer.
A company preparing for something
An audit, a funding round, a buyer's diligence or a listing. Each of these tests the record rather than the reporting, and the questions they ask are answerable only if the underlying books were maintained properly all along.
How a handover is done
1. Take stock before quoting
Transaction volumes, entity structure, states of registration, the systems in use, the state of the ledger, and how far behind anything is. A retainer quoted before this is a guess.
2. Fix the base
Opening balances agreed, reconciliations brought current, arrears filed. This is a defined project with an end, not part of the ongoing service.
3. Agree the calendar and the owners
Every recurring obligation, its date, and who does it. Visible to you, not held inside our office. Most outsourcing failures are calendar failures.
4. Run the month
Processing to an agreed cut-off, reconciliations, close, filings and a management pack that answers the questions you actually ask.
5. Review the framework annually
Thresholds move and reporting obligations follow them. The small company definition changed in December 2025 and the framework for limited liability partnerships changed in 2026. Neither announced itself to the businesses affected.
Five guides, following the work from scope to framework
Guide 1 sets the boundary. Guide 2 is about the record itself and the obligations that attach to how it is kept, which is where most of the 2023 to 2026 change landed. Guide 3 is the operating rhythm. Guide 4 is the single rule most likely to cost a client real money this year. Guide 5 decides what the year end output looks like.
What an Outsourced Finance Function Actually Covers
Where the boundary sits between bookkeeping, controllership and finance leadership, what a handover looks like in practice, and the three failure modes that make outsourced finance go wrong.
Books of Account, the Audit Trail Rule and Where Your Data Must Live
What the Companies Act requires you to keep and for how long, the audit trail obligation and how your auditor reports on it, and the requirement that electronic books be backed up daily on servers physically in India.
The Compliance Calendar: Withholding, Goods and Services Tax, and What Changed
The monthly, quarterly and annual filing rhythm an outsourced finance function actually runs, with the 2025 and 2026 changes that break an older calendar: new section numbers, new form numbers, a rebuilt rate structure, and corrections that now have to be made upstream of the summary return.
Paying Suppliers: the MSME Payment Rule and What It Costs
The disallowance that turns a late supplier payment into a tax cost with no way back, the revised classification thresholds, the half-yearly return, and how to build accounts payable so the rule does not bite.
Choosing a Reporting Framework: Ind AS, AS, and the New Rules for LLPs and Firms
Which framework applies to your entity and why it is rarely a choice, the road map thresholds, and the change that gives limited liability partnerships and other non-corporate entities a prescribed format for the first time.
Send an enquiry
Tell us the shape of it: transaction volumes, how many entities, which states, what systems you use, and how far behind anything is. That is enough for us to come back with a scope and a price rather than a brochure.
This page is general information, not professional advice. Indian financial reporting and tax compliance moved substantially between September 2025 and June 2026. The Income-tax Act 2025 replaced the 1961 Act on 1 April 2026 and renumbered every section and every form; the goods and services tax rate structure was rebuilt on 22 September 2025; the small company definition changed on 1 December 2025; and prescribed financial statement formats began to apply to limited liability partnerships and other non-corporate entities. Take professional advice before acting on anything on this page. We are happy to be that adviser, but we do not act on a web page, ours or anyone else's, without one.