Most Singapore business owners start out doing their own books. It costs nothing but time, and in the first year or two a spreadsheet does the job. The harder question is knowing when to move from DIY bookkeeping to professional accounting support, because the cost of getting it wrong shows up late, usually as a rushed year end, a penalty letter, or a set of accounts nobody quite trusts.
There is no rule in the Companies Act that says a company must engage an accountant. What the law does require is that every Singapore company keeps proper accounting records, prepares compliant financial statements, and files accurate returns with ACRA and IRAS on time. Whether you meet that standard yourself or pay someone to meet it for you is a commercial decision. This article sets out the signals that usually mean it is time to hand the work over.
Who this applies to
The question of when to move from DIY bookkeeping to professional accounting support comes up most often for:
- Owner-managed private limited companies past their first full financial year
- Companies approaching the SGD 1 million taxable turnover mark, where GST registration becomes compulsory
- Businesses that have just hired their first employees and now have CPF contributions, IR8A reporting and Employment Act obligations to manage
- Founders who have taken in external investment and are now answerable to people outside the family
- Directors who have realised, usually around the AGM, that they cannot explain their own numbers
Dormant companies and holding vehicles are the clear exception. If your company does two bank transactions a quarter, a monthly bookkeeping retainer is money badly spent. The answer there is an annual compilation and tax filing.
Key rules and requirements in Singapore
Before weighing up cost, be clear on what you are legally on the hook for as a director.
Proper accounting records
Section 199 of the Companies Act requires a company to keep records that sufficiently explain its transactions and financial position, and that allow true and fair financial statements to be prepared. Those records must be kept for five years from the end of the relevant financial year. Failure to do so is an offence, and the responsibility sits with the directors, not with whoever happened to be entering the invoices.
Annual filings
Every company must hold its Annual General Meeting, or dispense with it where the conditions for a private company are met, and lodge its Annual Return with ACRA through the BizFile+ portal within the deadlines measured from the Financial Year End. Financial statements follow the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards, or SFRS for Small Entities where the company qualifies. Meeting the small company criteria exempts you from audit, not from preparing accounts.
Tax, GST and payroll
Estimated Chargeable Income is generally due within three months of the Financial Year End unless the company qualifies for the waiver, and Form C-S or Form C is due by 30 November each Year of Assessment through the IRAS myTax Portal. The burden of proving a deduction sits with the taxpayer. GST registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover exceeds SGD 1 million on a retrospective or prospective basis. Once you have staff, CPF contributions are due by the 14th of the following month.
None of this requires a qualified accountant. All of it becomes harder to do well while also running the business.
Step-by-step process
If you have decided the DIY approach has run out of road, the handover is straightforward provided you work through it in order.
- Establish where you stand. Reconcile every bank and credit card account to the last closed month. Do not hand over an unreconciled ledger and hope the accountant sorts it out, because they will, and they will bill you for it.
- Gather the source documents. Bank statements, sales invoices, supplier bills, receipts, loan and lease agreements, payroll records and CPF submissions. Digital copies are fine.
- Scope the engagement honestly. Monthly bookkeeping only, bookkeeping plus management accounts, or a full annual package covering compilation of financial statements, corporate tax computation and ECI. The scope drives the fee, and a vague scope produces a fee that moves.
- Agree the software and who owns it. Keep the subscription in the company’s name and grant the firm access. You do not want your ledger sitting inside a provider’s account that you cannot take with you.
- Fix the opening balances. This is the step people skip. The incoming firm should agree the opening trial balance to the last filed financial statements before recording a single new transaction.
- Set the monthly rhythm and keep oversight. Agree when documents go across, when the reconciliation is done, and when you receive the pack. Then read it. Outsourcing the work does not outsource the responsibility.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Waiting until year end. Handing over twelve months of unsorted receipts in month eleven costs far more than a monthly retainer would have, and leaves no time to correct anything.
- Running personal and company money through one account. Every mixed transaction has to be untangled later, and directors’ personal expenses paid by the company create a director’s loan account with tax and disclosure consequences.
- Treating the accountant as a filing service. The value is in the questions asked during the year, not in the document lodged in November.
- Choosing on price alone. A fee that looks too low usually means the scope excludes something you assumed was included, most often the tax computation or the GST returns.
- Missing the GST registration date. If you are not tracking rolling twelve-month taxable turnover, you can pass SGD 1 million without noticing and register late.
- Assuming audit exemption means the accounts do not matter. Banks, investors and IRAS all read them.
Practical examples
The founder who scaled past the spreadsheet
A design consultancy ran on a spreadsheet for two years with one director and no staff. In year three it hired four people and took on retainer clients billed monthly. Suddenly there was payroll, CPF, deferred revenue on the retainers, and a bank balance that told the director nothing useful. The trigger was not transaction volume. It was that he could no longer say whether the business was profitable this month.
The company that hit the GST threshold
An importer crossed SGD 1 million in taxable turnover midway through its financial year and registered for GST. Its DIY records had never separated standard-rated from zero-rated supplies, and input tax had not been tracked against valid tax invoices. Reconstructing the position took longer than a year of bookkeeping would have.
The dormant holding company that did not need help
A holding company with one investment and four bank transactions a year was quoted a monthly retainer it did not need. An annual compilation, ECI and tax filing was the right answer. Knowing when not to buy the service matters as much as knowing when to buy it.
How a corporate secretary can help
Bookkeeping rarely sits on its own. The accounting records feed the financial statements, the statements feed the AGM and Annual Return, and the tax computation depends on both. A corporate secretary in Singapore works at that junction, tracking the Financial Year End and filing deadlines, changes in directors, shareholders and registered office, and the statutory registers ACRA expects to be current.
Where the corporate secretarial and accounting work sit with the same firm, nobody is waiting on anybody. Raffles Corporate Services supports clients across company incorporation Singapore, corporate secretarial work, bookkeeping and compilation, corporate tax and ECI, GST returns and payroll, so the pieces are handled as one file rather than three.
Requirements may change, so always check the latest guidance from ACRA, IRAS or MOM, or consult a professional adviser.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a Singapore company legally required to hire an accountant?
No. The Companies Act requires proper accounting records and compliant financial statements, but it does not require you to engage a professional to produce them. Most companies past the earliest stage simply find that professional support costs less than the errors and time it replaces.
At what turnover should I stop doing my own books?
There is no threshold in law. The useful triggers are the SGD 1 million compulsory GST registration point, hiring your first employees, taking on investors or bank borrowing, and the moment you can no longer answer basic questions about your own numbers.
What is the difference between bookkeeping and accounting?
Bookkeeping is the recording and reconciling of transactions. Accounting builds on that to produce financial statements, tax computations and analysis. Many small companies need only reliable bookkeeping during the year plus an annual accounting and tax exercise.
How long must I keep my accounting records?
Five years from the end of the relevant financial year under the Companies Act, and IRAS applies a similar five-year expectation for tax records. Electronic copies are acceptable provided they are complete and legible.
Key takeaways
- No Singapore law requires you to hire an accountant, but the Companies Act does require proper accounting records and compliant financial statements, and that duty sits with the directors.
- The practical triggers are GST registration at SGD 1 million taxable turnover, hiring staff, taking on investors or lenders, and losing visibility of your own profitability.
- Hand over reconciled records and agreed opening balances, not a box of receipts in month eleven.
- Scope the engagement precisely. Most fee disputes come from an assumption about what was included.
- Dormant and very low-activity companies are better served by an annual compilation than a monthly retainer.
- Outsourcing the work does not outsource director responsibility.
If you would like to find out more about how Raffles Corporate Services can assist with your company’s compliance and corporate secretarial requirements, please get in touch with the team at [email protected].
Yours sincerely,
The editorial team at Raffles Corporate Services
Disclaimer: This does not constitute legal advice. If you require legal advice, please contact a lawyer.