Finance, Accounting & Taxation

The disciplined, day-to-day recording of every rupee that moves through your business — sales, purchases, expenses, bank entries and vendor bills — into a clean, categorised ledger. A founder needs this from the very first transaction, not from the first audit, because reconstructing a year of receipts in March is where errors, missed input tax credit and panic begin. Well-kept books are the foundation everything else sits on: your GST returns, your income tax computation, your investor data room and your own understanding of whether the business is actually working.

Turning raw bookkeeping into proper financial statements — a profit and loss account, balance sheet and cash flow — prepared on an accrual basis and aligned with the applicable accounting standards and Schedule III of the Companies Act, 2013. This is what your auditor signs, what your board reads and what a lender or acquirer scrutinises. Done correctly, it tells you your real margins and liabilities rather than a rough sense of what is in the bank; done loosely, it hides losses until they are too large to fix quietly.

Preparing and filing your periodic GST returns — GSTR-1 for outward supplies, GSTR-3B for the summary and tax payment, and the annual GSTR-9 where applicable — while reconciling input tax credit against GSTR-2B so you claim only what is genuinely available. Any GST-registered business needs this on a strict monthly or quarterly cadence, and the cost of slipping is concrete: interest, late fees, blocked credit and, over time, notices. We track your thresholds, e-invoicing and e-way bill obligations so the mechanical parts never become emergencies.

Computing taxable income and filing the correct return — ITR for the company, LLP or proprietor, along with advance tax working through the year so you are not hit with interest under sections 234B and 234C. Every business with income needs this annually, and the details matter: choosing the right tax regime, claiming legitimate deductions, and disclosing correctly to avoid scrutiny. For an eligible DPIIT-recognised startup, this is also where the Section 80-IAC tax holiday is claimed, which is money left on the table if the return is filed without that lens.

Running salaries end to end each month — computing net pay, deducting TDS under Section 192, handling PF and ESIC where the headcount and wage thresholds apply, generating payslips and filing the related returns. A founder needs this the moment there is a team, because payroll errors are the fastest way to lose an employee's trust and the surest way to attract a PF or labour notice. We keep the statutory deductions, professional tax and Form 16 issuance correct and on time so your people are paid right and your compliance is clean.

Senior financial judgement applied to the decisions that actually move your business — pricing, hiring pace, unit economics, when to raise and how much runway you truly have. This is not bookkeeping; it is the person in the room who reads the numbers and tells you what they mean. Founders need it well before they can justify a full-time CFO's salary, typically when the business has real revenue, a team and choices worth thousands of decisions riding on them. It is the difference between reacting to your bank balance and running to a plan.

Building an annual operating budget — expected revenue, fixed and variable costs, hiring plan and capital spend — and then tracking actuals against it every month so variances surface early. A founder needs this the moment spending outpaces intuition, usually right after the first funding or first steady revenue. In the Indian context it also disciplines your GST and TDS cash outflows, which founders routinely forget are not their money. A budget is not a formality for investors; it is the instrument that tells you, in month three, that a line has drifted before it becomes a year-end shock.

A structured, assumption-driven projection of your business — typically three to five years, linking revenue drivers, costs, headcount, working capital and cash — built in a way an investor or lender can interrogate. Founders need this when raising capital, planning expansion or stress-testing a pricing change, and the quality shows immediately: a model with defensible assumptions earns credibility, while a hockey-stick with no logic loses it. We build models you can actually operate and defend in a diligence call, not decorative spreadsheets that break the first time someone changes a cell.

Preparing your books, schedules, confirmations and reconciliations so a statutory or tax audit runs smoothly and closes cleanly. Every private limited company is subject to statutory audit under the Companies Act, 2013 regardless of turnover, and tax audit under Section 44AB applies once you cross the prescribed limits — so this is not optional for most. Founders feel the pain when the auditor arrives to messy records and the process drags for months. We act as the bridge between your books and your auditor, so queries are answered quickly and the audit does not consume your quarter.

An independent, periodic review of your own controls, processes and records — checking that approvals, vendor payments, revenue recognition and cash handling are working as intended and that nothing is leaking. Larger companies are required to have it under Section 138 of the Companies Act, but growing startups benefit long before that threshold, particularly once multiple people can spend money. It is how founders catch weak controls, duplicate payments or process gaps before they become fraud or a qualified audit. Think of it as a health check on how money actually flows through the organisation.

Structuring your affairs legitimately to reduce tax outflow — choosing the right entity and regime, timing capital expenditure, using available deductions and exemptions, and planning founder and employee compensation, including ESOP taxation. Founders need this before decisions are made, not at filing time, because most tax is won or lost in the structuring, not the return. In India this includes the Section 80-IAC holiday for eligible startups; note that the angel tax under Section 56(2)(viib) was abolished for all investors from AY 2025-26, so a registered-valuer view now matters for FEMA pricing on foreign investment and Section 56(2)(x) exposure rather than for defending an angel-tax position. We keep planning firmly on the right side of the law — optimisation, never evasion — so nothing you save today becomes a liability tomorrow.

A regular management information pack — usually monthly — that distils your numbers into the metrics you actually run on: revenue, gross margin, burn, runway, receivables ageing and department-wise spend. Founders need this the moment gut feel stops being enough, and investors increasingly expect it as a condition of ongoing engagement. The value is in the reading, not the reporting: a good MIS tells you what changed and why in ten minutes, so you make decisions on current facts rather than last quarter's memory. We design the pack around your business, not a generic template.

Forecasting and actively managing the timing of money in and money out — collections, payables, statutory dues, salaries and loan servicing — so you never confuse being profitable with being solvent. This is the single most common way otherwise healthy startups fail: the P&L looks fine while the bank account runs dry mid-month. Founders need it from the first team salary onward, and especially through growth, when receivables stretch and GST and TDS outflows bunch up. We build a rolling forecast so you can see a squeeze weeks ahead and act, rather than discovering it on payday.

Establishing a defensible value for your company or its shares — for a funding round, ESOP grant, secondary sale or regulatory need. In India specific valuations are still genuinely needed: a Rule 11UA / registered valuer report supports share issuance, FEMA pricing rules govern valuation when foreign investment is involved, and Section 56(2)(x) governs the recipient-side tax exposure — even though the angel tax under Section 56(2)(viib) was itself abolished for all investors from AY 2025-26. Founders need this at every priced round and share transaction. We coordinate the working and the registered valuer engagement so your number stands up to both investor diligence and tax scrutiny, rather than being a figure you simply hoped for.

An ongoing, part-time senior finance function delivered as a service — combining the strategic judgement of CFO Services with the operating rhythm of accounting, MIS, cash flow, budgeting and fundraising readiness, at a fraction of a full-time hire. Founders need this when the finances have outgrown a bookkeeper but cannot yet carry a leadership salary, which is most of the journey from seed to Series A. It gives you one accountable senior person who owns your numbers, sits in your board and investor conversations, and keeps compliance, reporting and strategy moving together rather than in disconnected pieces.

A bankable project report presents your business model, costs, projected cash flows and repayment capacity in the format lenders and MSME credit schemes expect. A well-built report materially improves approval odds for working-capital limits, term loans and government-backed credit.