Somebody in your business is currently doing the books. If it is a founder, that is the most expensive bookkeeping in the country. If it is a junior hire, nobody is checking their work until the auditor does, a year later, when it is costly to fix.
We take the whole of it — bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, provident fund and state insurance, the audit file, the statutory queries and the reporting — and run it as your finance function in India. You get the numbers when you need them and the year-end goes through without drama, and you spend your own time on customers and operations instead.
A finance department, without building one
Hiring your own means an accountant, a payroll person, someone senior enough to review them, and a manager to hold the calendar. It means recruiting them, training them, covering their leave and replacing them when they go. Most businesses under a certain size cannot justify that bench — so they under-hire, and the work quietly slips.
This is that bench, shared. A qualified team that already knows Indian statutory reporting, already has the calendar, and is already reviewed by the Proprietor before anything is filed. You get the capability of a finance department at a fraction of what standing one up costs, and none of the management overhead.
What you actually get
Your own time back
The founder stops reconciling bank statements at eleven at night. That hour is worth more spent on a customer, and everybody knows it.
Numbers you can act on
Books closed monthly rather than scrambled together in October, so the figure you are looking at in June is one you can price and hire against.
A quiet year end
The audit file is built through the year, not assembled in a fortnight. When the auditor raises a query it comes to us, and we answer it.
Nobody to replace
No recruitment, no notice periods, no handover when your accountant leaves in March. The knowledge sits with the firm, not with one person.
One number to call
Books, payroll, the auditor, the ROC filings and the labour registrations all sit with one team that already talks to each other.
A parent company can follow it
For a foreign parent, reporting in a format your own finance team recognises, on your own reporting calendar, in your own currency alongside the rupee.
Bookkeeping & Accounting
The daily work: recording what happened, reconciling it against the bank, and closing the month so the accounts mean something. Done properly it is invisible. Done badly it is discovered a year later, and everything downstream — the audit, the return, the valuation — is built on it.
- Recording sales, purchases, expenses, receipts and payments, on your accounting software or on ours
- Bank, card and wallet reconciliation, and reconciliation of the customer and supplier ledgers
- Fixed asset register, depreciation and the schedules that support it
- Monthly close — accruals, prepayments, provisions and the trial balance
- Preparation of the financial statements in the format the Companies Act requires
- Coordination with your tax advisers on GST and TDS positions so the books and the returns agree
- Clean-up of prior periods where the books have been left behind, before we take the current year on
You send us documents as they arise — a shared folder, email, or a direct feed from your billing system. We do not chase you at month end for nine months of paperwork.
Books are closed monthly, not annually. That is the single most useful thing about doing it this way: by the middle of the year you know where you stand, rather than finding out after it has ended.
Everything is kept so that it can be handed over. If you ever bring this in house, you get a complete, reconciled set of books and a working handover, not a shoebox.
Payroll Management
Payroll is the one process where a mistake is personal. It is also the one that touches the most statutes at once — provident fund, state insurance, professional tax, income tax withholding and the labour codes — and each has its own date.
- Monthly payroll processing, from attendance and leave through to the net payable
- Salary structuring, and the tax declarations and proofs your employees have to submit
- Payslips issued to employees, with a confidential channel for their queries so they do not come to you
- Provident fund and state insurance contributions, the monthly returns and the employee records behind them
- Professional tax, labour welfare fund and the state-level returns where they apply
- Tax withheld on salary, the quarterly returns and the annual certificate for each employee
- Joiners, leavers, full and final settlement, and gratuity computation
- Reimbursements, bonus, incentive runs and the year-end reconciliation to the books
Salary data is held by us, not circulated round your office. For a small team that matters more than it sounds — payroll is the fastest way for a founder to lose the confidence of a hire.
You approve one summary each month. Everything under it, including every statutory payment and return, is our responsibility to get out on time.
Employee questions about a payslip, a deduction or a tax proof come to us. You are not the help desk for your own payroll.
Audit Documentation & Statutory Audit Support
The statutory audit is where a year of loose bookkeeping becomes visible. Most of the pain is not the audit itself — it is that nobody prepared for it, so the team spends three weeks reconstructing documents while the auditor waits and the business stops.
We build the audit file as the year goes, and we deal with the auditor ourselves.
- Maintaining the audit file through the year — schedules, reconciliations, confirmations and supporting documents, filed as they arise rather than gathered at the end
- Preparing the full set the auditor asks for: fixed assets, debtors and creditors ageing, inventory, statutory dues, related party transactions and the loan schedules
- Obtaining balance confirmations from customers, suppliers and lenders
- Handling the auditor’s queries on your behalf — receiving them, tracing them, answering them with the working papers behind the answer, and coming back to you only where a business decision is genuinely needed
- Managing the audit timetable so that it does not collide with your quarter end
- Closing out the observations and putting right whatever the audit found, before the next year repeats it
- Preparing group reporting packs where they apply
An audit query is rarely a question about the business. It is a question about a document — where is it, why does this not tie, who authorised that. Those are our questions to answer, and answering them takes us minutes and takes your team days.
We are Company Secretaries as well as accountants by trade, so the audit file is built knowing what the Companies Act, the Board’s Report and the annual filings will each want from it later.
You are independent of us in the one place it counts: we prepare, your auditor audits. We do not audit our own work.
Management Reporting & Review Meetings
Books that nobody reads are just a compliance cost. The point of closing every month is that somebody sits down with the numbers and decides something. That meeting is part of this service, not an extra.
Accounts closed and reconciled, with a short pack: profit and loss, cash position, debtors and creditors.
We sit with you and go through the quarter — what the numbers say, what changed, what is coming, and what needs a decision.
Before a board meeting, a funding round, a bank conversation or a parent-company review, we prepare what it needs and attend it with you.
Statutory audit, the annual filings and the year-end reporting your parent or your investors require.
- A monthly reporting pack in a format we agree with you, not a generic template
- Quarterly review meetings, in person or online, with the papers circulated before rather than tabled at the meeting
- Reports built to whatever you actually need to see — revenue by line, project or branch, cost centres, budget against actual, cash runway, receivable ageing
- Reporting to a foreign parent on its own calendar and in its own format, including a currency view alongside the rupee
- Board packs and investor updates, prepared with our secretarial team so the numbers and the minutes agree
- Ad hoc analysis when a decision needs it — pricing, a hire, a lease, a line of business
We ask at the outset what you want to see and how often, and we build to that. Client-specific reporting is the norm here, not a chargeable extra.
The quarterly meeting is deliberately a conversation and not a presentation. Most of the value in it comes from the things you tell us that the ledger does not show.
If something in the month looks wrong, you hear about it in the month. We do not save findings for the review.
Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) Compliances
Provident fund liability attaches to an establishment once it crosses the statutory headcount, and it attaches from that date — not from the date the employer notices. Because the department can reconstruct liability for past periods and add interest and damages to it, a delay in registering is one of the more expensive administrative omissions available to an employer.
We handle registration, the monthly cycle, and the inquiries and assessments that follow where something has been missed.
- Assessing applicability, the date from which coverage is triggered, and which categories of employee and which components of wages are included
- Registration of the establishment, and voluntary coverage where the employer elects it
- Monthly electronic challan-cum-return, computation of employer and employee contributions and the administrative charges, and remittance within the due date
- Universal Account Number generation, member KYC, nomination records and transfer of accounts on joining and leaving
- Maintenance of the statutory registers and records, and the return of ownership and its updation on any change
- Employees’ Pension Scheme and Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance compliance, and assistance with member claims and withdrawals
- Representation in inquiries to determine dues, and in proceedings for interest and damages on delayed remittance
- Compliance health checks on past periods, quantification of exposure, and regularisation of arrears
The first thing we establish is the correct coverage date and the correct wage base. Most disputes with the department are not about whether contributions were paid but about what they were computed on, and getting the wage definition right at the outset avoids an assessment years later.
For a growing company we watch the headcount against the threshold and tell you before you cross it, so registration happens on time rather than retrospectively.
Where an inquiry has already been initiated, we prepare the reply, reconstruct the records the department asks for and appear at the hearing.
The governing statute is the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. Section 1(3) sets out the establishments to which the Act applies — broadly, every establishment in a scheduled industry employing twenty or more persons — and Section 1(4) permits voluntary coverage by agreement.
The schemes framed under the Act are the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 1952, the Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 and the Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme, 1976. Contribution rates and the wage ceiling are prescribed under Section 6 and the Scheme.
Determination of dues by inquiry is made under Section 7A; interest on delayed remittance under Section 7Q; and damages under Section 14B. Appeals lie to the Employees’ Provident Funds Appellate Tribunal under Section 7-I. Offences are dealt with under Section 14.
Registration, returns, records and advisory work are carried out in our capacity as Company Secretaries in Practice under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980.
Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Compliances
Employees’ State Insurance is a contributory social security scheme covering sickness, maternity, disablement and employment injury for employees drawing wages up to the prescribed ceiling. Coverage is by notified area and by headcount, and it is easy for a company operating from several locations to be covered at one and not at another.
We handle registration, the monthly contribution cycle and the records that go with it, and we act in the inspections and determinations that follow where the department takes a different view of the wage base.
- Assessing applicability by location and headcount, and identifying which employees fall within the wage ceiling
- Registration of the establishment and of each covered employee, and issue of insurance numbers
- Monthly computation of employer and employee contributions, generation of the challan and remittance within the due date
- Half-yearly returns of contributions and the maintenance of the accident register and other prescribed records
- Advice on which components of remuneration form part of wages for contribution purposes
- Assistance to employees with benefit claims — sickness, maternity, disablement and dependants’ benefit
- Reporting of employment injuries and accidents within the prescribed time
- Representation in inspections, in proceedings to determine contributions and in recovery proceedings
We reconcile the ESI wage base against the payroll register every month rather than once a year. Almost every determination we see arises from allowances that were treated as outside wages and were not.
For companies with branches, sites or a contract workforce, we map coverage location by location, including the principal employer’s liability for contractors’ employees, which is where unexpected liability usually appears.
Where an inspection has been notified, we assemble the records the inspector will ask for in advance and attend the inspection with your team.
The governing statute is the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948, administered by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation. Sections 1(4) and 1(5) govern application to factories and, by state notification, to other establishments; the wage ceiling for coverage is prescribed by rule.
Contributions are payable under Sections 38 to 40, and the principal employer is liable under Section 40 including in respect of employees engaged through an immediate employer. Registers and records are prescribed by the Employees’ State Insurance (General) Regulations, 1950.
Determination of contributions in the absence of records is made under Section 45A; interest under Section 39(5); damages under Section 85B; and offences under Section 85. Disputes are decided by the Employees’ Insurance Court under Section 75.
Registration, returns, records and advisory work are carried out by Company Secretaries in Practice under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980.
POSH Compliances
The POSH Act imposes a set of obligations that are checked as a package: a policy, a properly constituted Internal Committee including an external member, awareness and orientation programmes, an annual report to the District Officer, and a statement in the Board’s Report. A company that has a policy but no external member on its committee is not compliant.
This is the compliance side of our POSH work. The training programmes are delivered by our Corporate Trainings practice, and the two are usually run together.
- Assessing applicability across offices, branches and sites, and constituting a compliant Internal Committee at each workplace
- Identification and appointment of the external member, and the terms on which that member is engaged
- Drafting or revising the anti-sexual-harassment policy and the complaint and inquiry procedure
- Reconstitution of the committee on the expiry of a term or the departure of a member, and maintenance of the record of constitution
- Preparation and filing of the annual report to the District Officer, and drafting of the statement carried in the Board’s Report
- Display of the penal consequences and the committee’s composition at the workplace, as the Act requires
- Advisory support to an Internal Committee conducting an inquiry, on procedure, natural justice and the form of the report
- POSH compliance audits, and remediation where the committee, the policy or the record is deficient
We treat the committee as the critical item. A committee that is short of members, has no external member, or is chaired by someone who is not a woman employed at a senior level is the defect that undoes an inquiry, and it is the defect we find most often.
The annual report and the Board’s Report statement are due every year and are frequently missed entirely. We diarise both and prepare them as part of the annual compliance cycle.
Where an inquiry is under way, we advise the committee on procedure without taking over its function — the committee must reach its own findings, and a report that reads as though someone else wrote it is vulnerable.
The statute is the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, read with the POSH Rules, 2013. Section 4 requires an Internal Committee at every workplace employing ten or more workers, comprising a presiding officer who is a woman employed at a senior level, not fewer than two members from among employees, and one external member.
Section 19 sets out the duties of the employer, including the display of penal consequences, the organisation of awareness and orientation programmes and assistance to the complainant. Sections 9 to 13 govern the complaint and the inquiry, and Section 14 deals with false or malicious complaints.
Section 21 requires the Internal Committee to submit an annual report to the employer and to the District Officer, and Section 22 requires the employer to include the number of cases in its annual report. The Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 require the Board’s Report to state that the company has complied with the provisions relating to the constitution of an Internal Committee. Section 26 provides for penalty and for cancellation of licence or registration on repeated default.
Compliance and advisory work is carried out by Company Secretaries in Practice under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980, together with our Associate – Legal, an Advocate enrolled with the Bar Council of India, on the inquiry and evidence aspects.
Other Labour Law Compliances
Beyond provident fund, state insurance and POSH, a company accumulates labour obligations as it grows — shops and establishment registration for each location, professional tax, gratuity, bonus, maternity benefit, minimum wages, contract labour licensing and the registers and returns that go with each of them.
We map what actually applies to your establishment, put the registrations and records in place, and run the returns calendar. Where the four labour codes come into force in place of the existing statutes, we will map the change and tell you what it alters for you.
- A labour law applicability mapping for the company — by state, by location, by headcount and by the nature of the workforce
- Shops and establishment registration and renewal for each location, and professional tax registration and returns
- Gratuity — applicability, nomination records, computation on exit and advice on funding the liability
- Bonus — eligibility, computation, the register and the annual return
- Maternity benefit — entitlement, records and the display and intimation requirements
- Minimum wages and payment of wages — wage structuring for compliance, registers, wage slips and returns
- Contract labour — principal employer registration, contractor licensing, and the records and liability of the principal employer
- Labour welfare fund, equal remuneration, apprentices and the state-specific returns and registers that apply
We start with an applicability map rather than with registrations. Companies routinely hold registrations they do not need and are missing two they do, and the map is what tells you which is which.
Contract labour is where the largest hidden exposure usually sits. As principal employer you can be liable for a contractor’s statutory dues, and we check the contractor’s compliance rather than accepting an undertaking that it is in order.
Everything we take on goes onto the same compliance calendar as your secretarial filings, so there is one calendar for the company rather than three kept by different people.
The statutes most often in issue include the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, the Equal Remuneration provisions, the Apprentices Act, 1961, and the applicable state shops and establishments legislation, labour welfare fund and professional tax enactments.
Parliament has enacted four consolidating codes — the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 — which are being brought into force in stages together with the rules framed by the Central Government and the States. We track that transition and advise on what it changes for a particular establishment.
Labour law compliance is also examined in a statutory secretarial audit under Section 204 of the Companies Act, 2013, which requires the auditor to report on the other laws specifically applicable to the company, and under ICSI Auditing Standard CSAS-4.
This work is carried out by Company Secretaries in Practice under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980.
Who this is for
Businesses entering India
- A foreign parent that has just incorporated a subsidiary, or opened a liaison, branch or project office, and has nobody here yet
- Groups that need Indian reporting to arrive in a form their own finance team can consolidate
- Companies whose first Indian hire should be a salesperson, not an accountant
- Parents who need somebody accountable in India when the auditor, the bank or a regulator asks a question
Established Indian businesses
- Founder-led companies where the founder is still doing the books, or checking them at night
- Businesses that have outgrown a part-time accountant but cannot yet justify a finance manager
- Companies whose audit is painful every year and who would like it not to be
- Groups with several entities that want one team holding the calendar across all of them
Accounting records must be kept under Section 128 of the Companies Act, 2013, and the financial statements prepared under Section 129 and Schedule III. The statutory audit is carried out by an auditor appointed under Section 139 — independent of us. We prepare and support; we do not audit what we have prepared.
Payroll obligations arise under the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the schemes made under it for provident fund and state insurance, the Code on Wages, 2019, the applicable State professional tax legislation, and Chapter XVII of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for tax withheld on salary.
Because the same firm holds your secretarial calendar, the books, the Board’s Report, the annual return and the statutory registers are prepared from one set of facts rather than reconciled between three advisers after the event.
Where a matter requires an opinion or a filing reserved to a professional, it is signed by a Company Secretary in Practice under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980.
Working with us
This is a retained engagement and it is judged over years, not by a single deliverable. It works because the same team holds the whole picture: the books, the payroll, the audit file, the secretarial calendar and the labour registrations, reviewed by the Proprietor before anything leaves the office.
Fees are a fixed monthly retainer agreed at the outset against an agreed scope, so you can budget it. Where the volume of transactions or the number of employees changes materially, we revisit it with you rather than issuing a surprise.
Related practice groups
Speak to us
Tell us what your month currently looks like
Who does the books today, how many people are on payroll, and how the last audit went. That is enough for us to tell you what we would take over, what we would leave with you, and what it would cost each month — before you commit to anything.
This page describes the services offered by MPS & Associates, Company Secretaries, and the statutory provisions under which that work is carried out. It is general information about our practice and is not legal, tax, accounting or financial advice, an opinion or a solicitation. The statutory audit of a company is conducted by an independent auditor appointed under the Companies Act, 2013, and is not undertaken by this firm in respect of records it has itself prepared. Thresholds and procedures change; the position applicable to a particular business should be confirmed before it is acted upon.