Bookkeeping in Singapore – Simple, Clear and Done Right

I once met a small business owner at a hawker centre in Toa Payoh. He ran a cleaning company with 10 workers. When I asked how bookkeeping was going, he laughed and said, "Every year I tell myself I will be more organised… and then March comes, and I panic again."

If you run a business in Singapore, this might sound familiar. Many owners are great at what they do – running a gym, selling online, managing a renovation crew, or even offering consulting – but bookkeeping is the part that often gets left to "later."

This page is here to help you understand bookkeeping in Singapore in a way that is simple, direct, and useful. No big words. No confusing accounting talk. Just real guidance that helps businesses stay compliant, avoid stress, and make better decisions.

Whether you are a small business in Ang Mo Kio, a logistics company in Jurong, an e-commerce seller using GrabPay and PayNow, or a childcare centre dealing with daily fee collection, proper bookkeeping matters. It keeps you out of trouble with IRAS and ACRA. It also helps you know where your money is going – something most business owners really want.

What Bookkeeping Actually Means in Singapore

Bookkeeping isn't just recording transactions. It's making sure you know:

• How much cash you actually have
• Whether clients owe you money
• If you're spending too much on something
• Whether you're ready for GST filing
• What your tax bill will look like

The Companies Act says you need proper accounting records. But more than that, you need records that actually help you make decisions.

I worked at KPMG and Deloitte for years before starting this. Big companies have entire teams doing this daily. Small businesses? You're expected to figure it out yourself while also dealing with customers, suppliers, hiring, and everything else. That's not realistic.

Why Bookkeeping in Singapore Matters Today

A lot has changed in the last few years. Companies are filing GST online, handling e-invoicing, connecting bank feeds, and syncing payments through Xero, QuickBooks, and other cloud systems. More payments are digital, which means you can easily lose track if your bookkeeping is messy.

Here are things I often see:

• Expenses done through personal accounts
• Receipts missing
• Bank transactions not recorded
• Sales recorded in Excel with errors
• GST input taxes forgotten
• No proper documents when IRAS asks questions

And when IRAS or ACRA sends a letter asking for past records, panic starts. Good bookkeeping is not just about filing numbers. It is about making sure your business can sleep well at night.

What Good Bookkeeping Should Give You

When done properly, bookkeeping should:

• ✔ Help you avoid penalties and late filing issues
• ✔ Show your business cash position clearly
• ✔ Make tax filing easier and cheaper
• ✔ Make ACRA annual filing smooth
• ✔ Save time and reduce stress
• ✔ Help you grow by understanding your real numbers

I have seen many business owners in Singapore turn things around once their bookkeeping becomes organised. One client in Tampines told me after switching to proper monthly records, "For the first time, I can see where my money is going each month." That is the power of clean books.

Challenges Small Businesses Face

Here are common issues business owners tell me:

• "I am too busy running operations."
• "I am scared I will do something wrong."
• "I don't know which items are tax-deductible."
• "I don't understand GST rules."
• "My records are on WhatsApp, email, and old receipts in a drawer."

If you feel the same, you are not alone. Many companies in Singapore go through the same thing.

Monthly Bookkeeping: How It Actually Works

We use Xero because it's the best accounting software for Singapore SMEs. You can see your numbers anytime, from your phone.

Here's what happens each month:

You send us your invoices, receipts, bank statements. Drop them in WhatsApp, email, Google Drive, Dropbox or upload to Xero. We're not picky.

We categorise everything, match bank transactions, record payments. If something looks weird (like a $5,000 meal expense), we'll ask about it.

We prepare your monthly reports. You get:

• Profit and loss statement
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow summary
• Debtors aging (who owes you money)
• Creditors aging (who you owe money)

We chat about the numbers. "Your office rent is 30% of revenue - that's high." Or "You haven't invoiced Client X for two months." These conversations matter more than the reports.

One restaurant owner in Bedok told me: "I thought I was profitable because I was always busy. Then you showed me food costs were 45% of sales. That's why I never had cash." We dropped it to 38% by switching suppliers. Simple fix, but he couldn't see it without proper books.

What You Send Us Each Month

This is simpler than you think:

Sales:

• Sales invoices you issued
• Payment receipts from customers
• Credit notes if you gave refunds

Purchases:

• Supplier invoices
• Receipts for expenses
• Petty cash records

Bank statements: Just download from your bank. Or we can fetch them directly from Xero if you connect your bank account.

Payroll: If you use a payroll provider, just send us the summary. If you're doing CPF manually, send us those details too.

That's it. No complicated forms to fill. No accounting knowledge needed.

Tax Preparation Services: Getting Ready for IRAS

Bookkeeping and tax filing are connected. You can't do one without the other. Every year, you need to file:

• Form C-S or Form C (corporate tax return)
• ECI within 3 months of financial year end
• GST returns if you're registered

Good bookkeeping makes tax filing simple. Bad bookkeeping means scrambling in November trying to reconstruct the whole year. I've seen businesses pay $5,000 in late filing penalties because their books weren't ready. The $2,000 they saved by not doing monthly bookkeeping? They lost it threefold in penalties.

Here's what happens when your books are up to date:

• January-November: Books are current. We know your profit each month.
• December: Your financial year ends (for most companies).
• By end of March: We file your ECI. Takes 30 minutes because we have all the numbers.
• By November: We file Form C-S. Another 30 minutes.

Compare that to businesses that do bookkeeping once a year:

• January-November: No bookkeeping done. Just throwing receipts in a folder.
• December-February: Panic. Trying to remember what that $3,000 expense from March was for.
• March: ECI deadline hits. You estimate. Probably get it wrong.
• September-November: More panic. Trying to complete a whole year of bookkeeping in two months.
• November 30: Form C-S deadline. You file something, but you're not confident it's right.

Which sounds better?

Accounting Firm Quality Without the Price Tag

Big accounting firms charge $15,000-$50,000 per year for bookkeeping. You're paying for fancy offices in Raffles Place and multiple layers of managers reviewing the same work.

We charge $500-$1,500 per month depending on how many transactions you have. That's $6,000-$18,000 per year. Same quality work. We're chartered accountants who worked at those big firms. We just don't have the expensive office and ten people reviewing the same spreadsheet.

One construction company switched to us from a mid-sized firm. They were paying $1,500 per month and getting quarterly reports. With us, they pay $600 per month and get monthly reports, faster responses, and direct access to their accountant (me) instead of a junior staff who needs to check with their senior before answering anything.

Bookkeeping Services for Different Business Types

Trading companies: You buy stuff, sell stuff. We track inventory, cost of goods sold, gross profit margins. You need to know: "Am I making money on each sale?"

F&B businesses: High volume, small margins. We watch food costs, staff costs, wastage. Daily takings need to match bank deposits.

Service companies: No inventory, mostly staff costs and office expenses. We track billable hours vs costs, project profitability.

E-commerce: Multiple payment gateways, marketplace fees, shipping costs, returns. Gets complicated fast. We've handled Shopee sellers, Amazon FBA businesses, Lazada merchants.

Professional services: Lawyers, architects, consultants. You bill by the hour or project. We track work-in-progress, unbilled time, collections.

I had an interior design firm (revenue about $800K) tracking everything in Excel. The owner was spending 10 hours per week on bookkeeping, still getting it wrong, and missing payment follow-ups. We got them on Xero, set up proper categories, and now they spend zero hours on bookkeeping. They collect payments faster too because the system sends automatic reminders.

Chartered Accountant Standards

We're chartered accountants (ACCA qualified, practiced in Singapore). That means:

We follow SFRS: Singapore Financial Reporting Standards. Your financial statements are prepared properly, not some made-up format.

We know what IRAS wants: ECI, Form C-S, tax computations - we know the requirements. No guessing.

We stay updated: Tax rules change. GST rates changed. ACRA requirements change. We attend training every year.

This matters more than you might think. I've seen "cheap accountants" file Form C-S for companies that should file Form C. The company got rejected by IRAS, missed the deadline, faced penalties. The cheap accountant said "not my problem." With chartered accountants, if we mess up, we fix it at our cost.

Tax Advisor Services: Beyond Just Filing

Bookkeeping gives us data. We use that data to help you save tax legally. Common things we spot:

• You're buying business equipment? Claim capital allowances immediately instead of spreading over years.
• You're hiring? Make sure you're claiming employment credits (up to $7,000 per employee).
• You bought a van for deliveries? That's tax deductible. Your personal car? Not deductible.
• You're taking clients for dinner? Deductible. Taking your family? Not deductible.
• Your revenue is approaching $1 million? Time to register for GST before you hit the limit.

Last year, a logistics company was about to pay $15,000 in tax. We showed them they hadn't claimed capital allowances on their lorries. Their tax dropped to $8,000. Legal, proper, just things they didn't know they could claim.

Another company was paying directors' fees to shareholders. We restructured it as dividends instead. Saved about $5,000 per year in tax. These things add up.

GST Filing and Bookkeeping

If you're GST-registered, you file GST returns every quarter. That's four deadlines per year you can't miss. Miss a deadline? $200 penalty immediately. Then another $200 for each month it's late, up to $10,000.

GST filing needs proper bookkeeping. You need to know:

• Your sales (standard-rated, zero-rated, exempt)
• Your purchases and what GST you can claim
• Imports and reverse charge supplies
• Bad debt relief if customers didn't pay

Get it wrong and IRAS will audit you. I've seen companies face $50,000+ tax bills because they claimed GST on things they shouldn't have. With monthly bookkeeping, GST filing takes 15 minutes per quarter. Everything's already categorised correctly. We just pull the numbers from Xero and file.

What Happens When You Fall Behind

Here's a client: He hadn't filed anything since 2021. IRAS sent letters. He ignored them (big mistake). IRAS estimated his tax at $60,000. Way higher than actual.

He panicked and called us. We spent six weeks reconstructing his books. Bank statements, supplier records, old invoices we dug up from email. Cost him $8,000 in accounting fees to fix what should have been $2,400 per year if done properly.

His actual tax? $18,000. So IRAS refunded $42,000. But he also paid $5,000 in late filing penalties. And aged 10 years from stress. Don't be that guy.

Overdue and Catch-Up Accounting

Sometimes you're already behind. That's fine. We fix it. We've caught up companies that were:

• 6 months behind
• 6 years behind
• Never done proper bookkeeping since incorporation for over 30 years

The process:

1. Figure out what records you have
2. Request what's missing from banks, suppliers, IRAS
3. Reconstruct the books month by month
4. Get you current
5. Switch to monthly bookkeeping so you never fall behind again

How Fast We Actually Respond

We promise responses within 24 hours. Usually it's within one hour. Why does this matter?

• You're about to sign a lease and the landlord wants to see your financial statements. You need them today, not next week.
• You're applying for a bank loan. They want three years of accounts. You need them formatted properly, right now.
• A supplier is chasing payment and you can't remember if you already paid. You need to check immediately.
• IRAS sent a letter asking about some transaction. You need to understand what they're asking and respond fast.

This is your business. When you have a question, waiting a week for an answer isn't acceptable. We're on WhatsApp. Message us. We'll reply.

Xero Setup and Training

We set up Xero for you properly:

• Chart of accounts matching your business type
• Bank feeds connected
• Invoice templates with your logo
• Payment gateways integrated
• Sales tax codes for GST
• Inventory tracking if you need it
• Multi-currency if you deal overseas

Then we train you on what you need to know:

• How to create invoices
• How to record payments
• How to check who owes you money
• How to read your profit and loss
• How to download reports for your bank

You don't need to become an accountant. Just enough to handle day-to-day stuff. We handle everything else.