Professional Accounting Services

The scope covers accounting system design and chart of accounts build, accounting software selection and implementation, day-to-day transaction recording, bank and intercompany reconciliation, fixed asset register and depreciation accounting, inventory reconciliation and petty cash control, VAT and Corporate Tax accounting support, and backlog accounting where a company has fallen behind. These are delivered as a coordinated function rather than separately priced fragments, though clients can also engage PNPC for a narrower subset of this scope.

Basic bookkeeping typically means logging transactions as they occur, often without reconciliation, tax-code discipline, or management reporting. Professional accounting, as PNPC delivers it, includes that transaction recording but adds reconciled bank and intercompany balances, a properly maintained fixed asset register, VAT and Corporate Tax-ready coding, and a monthly close cycle that produces audit-ready working papers. The distinction matters most at filing time and during an audit, when unreconciled bookkeeping is far harder to defend.

Yes, in most cases. Accurate accounting is good practice for any trading company regardless of VAT registration status, since it underpins management decisions, bank relationships, and eventual VAT registration once you cross the AED 375,000 mandatory threshold (or choose voluntary registration from AED 187,500). Building accounting discipline before you are legally required to register makes the eventual VAT transition far smoother than starting from scratch under deadline pressure.

Corporate Tax under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022 taxes income above AED 375,000 at 9%, with 0% below that threshold and 0% on qualifying income for Qualifying Free Zone Persons, effective for financial years starting on or after 1 June 2023. The Corporate Tax computation is built directly from the accounting ledger — taxable income, allowable deductions, and related-party positions all trace back to how transactions were recorded and reconciled throughout the year. Professional accounting ensures those underlying records are accurate, consistently coded, and retained to the standard the FTA expects.

We work across the platforms most commonly used by UAE companies, including Zoho Books, Tally, QuickBooks Online, and Xero, as well as ERP-integrated accounting modules for larger or multi-entity clients. Selection depends on transaction volume, multi-currency needs, bank feed integration capability, and whether the client needs true multi-entity or inter-branch functionality rather than isolated single-entity files.

Yes. This is a common starting point, particularly for newly incorporated companies or founder-managed businesses moving off spreadsheets. We design the chart of accounts, select and configure appropriate software, establish opening balances, and train the client's internal team (or take on the recording function ourselves) as part of the onboarding process.

This is handled as a backlog accounting engagement, a defined subset of professional accounting services focused on reconstructing missed periods from bank statements, invoices, and available records. We agree a practical cut-off point with the client (and auditor, where relevant) rather than attempting an exhaustive historical rebuild back to incorporation when that is not commercially justified, then transition the client onto an ongoing monthly cycle once current.

We build and maintain a fixed asset register covering acquisition date, cost, useful life, and depreciation method for every capitalised asset, and post depreciation consistently each accounting period. We also review whether items expensed as repairs or maintenance should in fact have been capitalised, and vice versa, since this misclassification distorts both the balance sheet and the Corporate Tax computation if left uncorrected.

Yes, both are within scope. Inventory reconciliation compares physical or system stock counts against the ledger on an agreed cadence appropriate to the business's inventory value and turnover, while petty cash control matches vouchers against the float and manages replenishment on a controlled basis. Both are common sources of unexplained variance if left unmonitored between year-end counts.

The core accounting methodology is the same across entities, but the chart of accounts and reconciliation process are designed so intercompany balances between the free zone and mainland entities are clearly tracked and reconciled mirror-image. This matters directly for Corporate Tax purposes, since the nature and volume of transactions between a Qualifying Free Zone Person and its mainland-related entities affects whether income continues to qualify for the 0% rate.

Monthly, as standard. Each month-end close produces a reconciled trial balance, bank and intercompany reconciliation statements, and a management summary, formatted from day one as audit-ready working papers rather than raw system exports that would need reformatting later for an auditor or the FTA.

There is no single UAE statute that names 'professional accounting' as a standalone mandatory service. However, VAT-registered businesses are legally required under UAE VAT law to maintain accurate books and records supporting every return filed, and Corporate Tax law requires taxable persons to maintain records sufficient to support the tax return, generally for at least seven years. In practice, meeting these statutory record-keeping obligations to a defensible standard is not realistically achievable without professionally maintained accounting.

For a single-entity company with moderate transaction volume, system design and software implementation typically take two to three weeks, with day-to-day recording and reconciliation running as a standing monthly process from that point. Companies with multiple entities, foreign currency exposure, or significant backlog will take longer, and timelines depend heavily on how quickly the client can supply source documents and system access.

Cost depends on transaction volume, entity count, currency complexity, and whether backlog recovery is required alongside ongoing accounting. Professional accounting is typically priced as a monthly retainer once steady-state volume is understood, following an initial scoping call. PNPC does not publish a flat headline number, since a single-entity, low-volume company and a multi-entity group with foreign-currency trading are not comparable engagements.

The recording, reconciliation, and reporting work can be fully outsourced to PNPC, but an internal contact is still needed to provide source documents and bank access, respond to queries, and approve correcting journal entries where a judgement call is required. Full autonomy without any internal sign-off is not advisable, since some transactions need business context only the client can provide.

Incomplete or unreconciled accounting records make it difficult to demonstrate that VAT returns and the Corporate Tax computation are supported by accurate figures, which is a core FTA expectation. This can extend the length and scope of an audit, generate requests for further documentation, and in cases where discrepancies suggest under-declared tax, can result in penalties and interest under the relevant UAE tax procedures legislation.

Auditors substantively test cash, receivables, payables, and fixed assets as standard year-end procedures, and a company presenting clean, monthly-reconciled books moves through fieldwork noticeably faster than one where the auditor's team must first reconstruct basic reconciliations before testing can begin. Professional accounting delivered as a monthly discipline produces exactly the working papers an auditor expects.

Yes. Where a UAE entity has an Indian-linked group structure, PNPC coordinates directly with the India-side finance team or chartered accountants for intercompany reconciliation, accounting for differing financial year-ends, currency translation between INR and AED, and reporting formats typically used on each side. This sits alongside — but is distinct from — Indian transfer pricing and FEMA considerations, which the client's India-side advisors handle separately.

At minimum: the trade licence and entity documents, bank statements for the period in scope, access to any existing accounting software or trial balance, sales and purchase invoices, payroll records if staff are employed, and details of any related entities for intercompany purposes. The full document checklist is set out earlier on this page and covers entity registration, banking, transactions, fixed assets, tax cross-references, and governance sign-off.

Banks and investors assessing a facility application or conducting due diligence expect reconciled trial balances, clean bank reconciliation statements, and coherent management accounts as supporting evidence that the underlying finance function is under control. Companies that can produce these on request move through facility approval or diligence noticeably faster than those where the reviewing team has to reconstruct the financial position itself.

At minimum: prompt monthly access to bank statements or online banking, timely submission of sales and purchase invoices, a designated internal contact who can respond to queries within a few working days, and continued separation of personal and business transactions through the company account. Where PNPC manages the full accounting function, this discipline is largely maintained proactively; where the client retains some in-house involvement, PNPC provides templates and checklists to keep the same standard.