Contents
- Why is Accounting Important?
- Accounting jargon made simple
- Taxation services you need
- Company Tax Filing
- GST Registration and Filing
- Accounting services you can’t live without
- XBRL made simple
- Important deadlines
If you think accounting is just a bunch of jargon with a side of math that no one needs to understand, you’re in the right place! With this ALL IN ONE guide, you’ll realise how crucial accounting is, and how ScAilable can make it simple and stress-free for you.
Why you should care about accounting
Tracking Finances: Where is my money going?
With inaccurate records and a goldfish memory, it’s easy to lose track of how much you’ve spent. With our team of skilled accountants at ScAilable, we will help keep track of all your past expenses and save you from any unwanted financial surprises.
Ensure Compliance: Am I following all the rules?
Starting a business seems complicated — especially with long lists of requirements, strict regulations, and tight deadlines. But with our experienced accountants at ScAilable, we will save you all that trouble. Our team will ensure your company complies with all the laws. Put it this way: if you were a parent, your company would no longer be the rebellious problem child you have to worry about. In Scailable’s hands, it will be a perfect, obedient, straight-A student!
Make smart choices: Is my company making money?
By understanding how much you’re spending, you’ll know exactly how much you’re profiting. We will help you understand your company’s health- is it on the verge of bankruptcy, surviving by a thread or thriving? – and formulate a game plan from there.
Accounting Jargon Made Simple
Profit margin
A measure of how much a business makes from its revenue
Return on investment (ROI)
Depreciation
The decrease in the value of an asset
Break-Even Point
The point at which the company’s revenue is equal to its cost
Financial year/Fiscal Year
12-month period used by companies and governments for accounting
Financial Year End (FYE)
The final day of a company’s accounting period
General Ledger
A complete record of all the financial transactions of a company
Audit
Examination of a company’s financial statement to check if they are accurate and compliant
Balance Sheet
A record of a company’s financial position — includes assets, liabilities and equity
Income statement (Profit & Loss Statement):
Report showing how much money the company has made or lost
Assets
Anything of value that the company owns
Liabilities
Money the company owes to other stakeholders (eg loans, debts)
Equity
Value of the company’s assets minus liabilities
Drowning in the details? ScAilable is your lifeline—we’ll help you stay afloat and handle it all!
Tax Services You Need
Company Tax Filing
GST Registration and Filing
What is
Company Tax Filing?
Company tax filing is like a regular check-in with the government. The government wants to know how your business is doing so you report, and of course pay, the taxes your business owes to the government. It’s not just a one-time thing – you need to file regularly, either annually or quarterly, depending on your business.
Why do you need it?
Company tax filing is required by the law. If you don’t file, you risk penalties or fines, and your company could get into legal trouble with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS). With ScAilable, we make sure you’ll file precisely, accurately and never miss a deadline.
What is GST?
In Singapore, GST (Goods and Service Tax) is a tax that is applied to most goods and services sold.
Who needs to register?
If your business’s taxable turnover exceeds SGD 1 million per year, you need to register for GST. But even if you don’t hit that number yet, you can always choose to register voluntarily. If you’re paying for GST for your expenses, registering lets you claim that GST back.
How does GST Filing work?
GST returns must be filed regularly, usually on a quarterly or half-yearly basis. This means reporting how much GST you’ve collected from customers and how much GST you’ve paid and spent on your business expenses.
When you file, you’re balancing the GST collected and paid:
- If you’ve collected more GST than you’ve paid, you’ll need to pay up the extra to the tax authorities.
- If you’ve paid more GST than you’ve collected, you can get a refund.
Accounting Services You Can’t Live Without
Financial Reporting
Financial reporting is a strategic tool. It’s about presenting and sharing about your company’s financial health to key stakeholders who need to understand how your business is performing. It’s like sharing your financial story, where you started, where you are at now and what’s to come. This keeps things transparent and builds trust with different stakeholders — could be investors, who are looking to invest big money into your business, or regulatory bodies who are keeping you in check. There’s a lot on the line, so it’s important to do it right.
At ScAilable, we specialise in accounting services, particularly for small businesses in Singapore. Let’s say you’re just getting started, or still trying to wrap your head around all the regulations. That’s where we come in. Our specialised team of accountants are sure to produce comprehensive, detailed and compliant financial statements that allow stakeholders to accurately gauge the financial health of your business.
Are Financial Statements and Financial Reporting the Same Thing?
No, but they’re closely linked. Financial reporting refers to the overall process of sharing about your company’s business health. Meanwhile, financial statements are just one component of financial reporting. It refers to the formal documents typically generated by accountants, like our team at ScAilable. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a genius to understand them. Essentially, it’s your company’s report card. It comprises of three main reports:
- Profit & Loss Statement: How much you’ve earned or lost
- Balance sheet: How much you own and owe
- Cash flow statement: How much cash comes in and goes out
Bookkeeping
People often use Bookkeeping and Accounting interchangeably, so what’s the difference? Essentially, bookkeeping is like numbers while accounting makes the formulas. Bookkeeping is the foundation of accounting. It keeps track of every single penny that goes in and out day-to-day. You’re capturing the raw data and recording it down.While bookkeeping is focused on the numbers, accounting is where you make sense of it. Accounting provides you with an overall analysis and interpretation of the data, in order to make strategic decisions and create financial reports for your business. For a new business owner, bookkeeping can be quite the challenge. At ScAilable, our professionals provide unmatched bookkeeping services to ensure that no penny goes unnoticed. Our team thoroughly manages all the numbers, so you don’t have to go through that hassle.
Payroll Services
Payroll is about making sure your team gets paid accurately and on time, while also complying with all the laws and regulations. It’s about balancing what’s owed, what’s extra and what must be deducted. If done right with ScAilable, payroll is about keeping your employees happy, and keeping the business running smoothly.
Why is Payroll Important?
Employee Satisfaction: Imagine you’ve put in your blood, sweat and tears all month, and then payday comes. You check your payroll and the paycheck is wrong. Or even worse, you didn’t get a paycheck at all. With our payroll services, this ensures your employees don’t need to go through any of that pain.
Compliance: Proper payroll ensures your business adheres to the necessary legal requirements and doesn’t get into any trouble.
Efficiency: Let’s face it, payrolls are pretty complex– compliance, deductions, bonuses. But with payroll services like the ones we offer at ScAilable, you can skip all the boring bits. Our team handles the complexities for you. All you have to do is focus on what’s most important: Growing your business and keeping your customers happy.
Demystifying XBRL
XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. It’s definitely a mouthful, but think of it this way: it’s a language used to categorise all your data in a standardised way. This is so that everyone, from investors to regulatory bodies, can understand exactly what all the numbers mean.
Why do you need it?
Imagine you have financial reports in different formats: Word documents, pdfs, spreadsheets. It’s undoubtedly useful. But when the time comes to compare the numbers across the different platforms, it becomes a total nightmare. XBRL changes that. XBRL is a universal language that everyone can understand and use. It makes sure all your financial data gets tagged with a clear and consistent definition so that it can be shared and understood globally. Here at ScAilable, we’ll file everything for you using XBRL, and we’ll do this thoroughly, precisely, and efficiently.
Mark Your Calendar
Some main deadlines to take note of!
Financial Year-End (FYE) Reporting
- Annual Financial Statement Filing with ACRA: within 6 months of the company’s FYE
- XBRL Filing with ACRA: Within 30 days of the company’s AGM (Annual General Meeting)
GST Registration and Payment
- 30 days after meeting registration criteria
Director’s Tax Filing
- By 31 March
Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) Filing
- Within 3 months after the end of the company’s financial year
Annual tax filing
- Corporate Tax Filing: 30 November
- GST Filing: Quarterly (Typically March, June, September, December)
Corporate Annual Return Filing
- Within 1 month after the AGM
Tax Clearance for Foreign employees
- At least 1 month before the employee leaves Singapore/ stops employment
CPF Contributions for Employees
- By the 14th of every month