A corporate service provider (CSP) is a business entity that provides compliance services such as bookkeeping, unaudited financial statements and tax services. CSP also assists with the formation of new business entities, generating payroll calculation and payslips for the client’s employees, and even handling the administrative functions of the client’s business.

The value of a corporate service provider lies in the professional assistance they provide to the companies that hire them, be it MNC (Multinational Corporation) or SME (Small-Medium Enterprise), towards the overall functioning and running of the client’s business. Singapore is a modern nest of entrepreneurial activities. New businesses and concepts may be coming to life in the country every day, but not every entrepreneur is familiar with the ins and outs of running a corporate enterprise. This is where a Corporate Service Provider can step in and help their clients, by providing preventive measures to avoid being penalised for non-compliance acts.

SHOULD I CONSIDER HIRING A CORPORATE SERVICE PROVIDER IN SINGAPORE?

Singapore is a country that welcomes and encourages the growth of new ideas and enterprises, especially when they can benefit the country and its people. It is also one of the countries where more people engage in business and entrepreneurial activities than in many other places in the world. In keeping with the growth of the businesses and startups, there has also been a rise in Corporate Service Providers being engaged as well.

The primary benefit of outsourcing various company tasks to a CSP lies in obtaining professional and personalized approaches to managing administrative tasks and overall functioning of the company. Instead of having to manage the various administrative tasks internally (such as handling expense claims, paying the employees, or even maintaining the accounting registers), the CSP whom you hire will manage those tasks for you.

If your company is not equipped to proficiently handle the administrative tasks associated with running a company, especially if the entity is a start-up or a brand new venture, a Corporate Service Provider can give you the space to focus on your core concepts and ideas while they manage the internal functioning of your company. A CSP will ensure that all the internal processes of your company are proceeding smoothly, and managed by individuals who have experience in what it takes to maintain the internal functions in a professional and overall cost-effective manner.

WHAT IS A CORPORATE SERVICE PROVIDER?

WHAT DOES A CORPORATE SERVICE PROVIDER DO?

A Corporate Service Provider will help you in running your business, by providing you with assistance when it comes to the internal management of your company. The services include:

• Company Incorporation: Business registration is one of the first hurdles faced by business makers. At Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions, our experienced professionals can easily tackle this hurdle for you by managing the entire process of incorporation and preparing the necessary post-incorporation kit for your company. Upon hiring our services, you can focus on the establishment or growth of your company, while we, as the appointed Corporate Service Provider, will handle the other compliance requirements.
• Corporate Secretarial Service: A good company secretary has to be equipped with the right skills as their roles and responsibilities in a company are vast. One has to ensure that all relevant statutory obligations are met, business interest of the company is always protected and good corporate governance is practiced. Also, to serve as an advisor to the directors and to provide any practical support, whenever required.
• Payroll and Taxes: Managing employees is another important part of maintaining and running a company. To that extent, payroll management becomes very important. Any mistakes in managing your company’s taxes can also cost you dearly. A CSP will handle all these for you, so you neither have to spend time away from your core idea on it, nor do you have to worry about any mistakes regarding it.
• Maintaining Proper Accounts: CSP professionals also ensure that all the company’s fiscal expenditures, revenue, other income, and other related aspects of your revenue are carefully monitored, tracked, and recorded within the company’s accounts. This helps to maintain an air of transparency and provides you with all the information that you need to understand the financial performance and position of your company.

ADVANTAGES OF HAVING A CORPORATE SERVICE PROVIDER

Running a business is a challenging task. It is a speculative process and there is never any guarantee that your business will take off and take you to the heights you envision for yourself. A key reason why many companies fail to even take off is due to the bad internal management within the company.

The internal structure and foundation of your enterprise are crucial to building an overall sustainable superstructure in your business. A Corporate Service Provider takes care of the internal processes and allows you to focus on your company’s growth and market success. You will find it easier to recruit new employees through a CSP, find people that can help to build your business, as well as engage services that help in the maintenance and administration of your company.

Especially in the earlier stages of your business endeavour, it is most important to focus on the business itself and expand it. This is where a good internal management team is required to ensure that the company’s processes flow smoothly and without any hiccups.

A lack of transparency within the company management or an overall mismanagement can even lead to incur business losses. A CSP steps in by acting as a professional guide that is experienced in navigating through these hurdles and can enable you to take your company to a foundation where you can focus on developing yourself not just as an entrepreneur, but as an established figure in the world of business and marketing.

CONSIDERATIONS IN HAVING A CORPORATE SERVICE PROVIDER

A CSP is crucial to the success of new businesses, and a useful friend to those who have already been in the world of business for long periods of time. However, not every Corporate Service Provider will suit you. Not only do you need to consider which CSP you are approaching, but also who they have previously worked with, and to what extent they can help you in successfully setting up and managing your business.

Aside from other successes in working with different companies, the fields that your corporate service provider specializes in will also help you in moving up the corporate ladder. Before you hire a Corporate Service Provider to help you manage and run your company, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Support Services: The kinds of support services you require will decide the Corporate Service Provider whom your company shall approach. Look for a CSP that specializes in what your company requires, whether that be internal financial management or administrative responsibilities.
• Transparency: If your CSP is unwilling to be open about all the processes that they will undertake to help you run your company, these names should be removed from your short list. As you are approaching your CSP with the intention of growing your business, they should ideally be open with you about what they intend to do and why they intend to adopt. A lack of transparency indicates a lack of trust going forward and this should be avoided.
• Cost-effectiveness: The point of hiring a Corporate Service Provider is not just to outsource the tasks or responsibilities of your company to professionals, but also to reduce the internal costs that you might need to undertake, should you have to hire employees for internal management. A good CSP will help you to manage your company in a way which fits your budget, and would promote cost-effectiveness by reducing your overall business expenditure.

CONCLUSION

Singapore is experiencing a growth in businesses and an expansion in startups. In this corporate atmosphere, a Corporate Service Provider can give you a competitive advantage in ensuring that your business stays on path and follows all the stipulations, which every company needs to maintain to enhance corporate success and sustainability.

• Accounting And GST Return
• Financial Reporting
• Cloud-Based Accounting System
• XBRL Reports

Businesses in Singapore are required to adhere to accounting regulations set by ASC or the Accounting Standards Council. Compliance with accounting standards is important to ensure transparency and reliability of a business’ financial information. Transparency and reliability of financial information enable comparability of global financial data and smooth functioning of international capital markets. The increasing number of businesses in Singapore is another compelling reason for entities to adhere to a uniform financial standard.

As a business, it can be time-consuming, exhausting and even downright intimidating, to maintain your seemingly infinite financial records. Hiring an accounting firm is one of the best ways to manage your business’ financial data. With a reputed accounting service provider, you will have an expert to take care of the financial aspects of your business. You can focus more on your core business knowing that your financial matters will be taken care of duly in compliance with the law. An accounting firm will also ensure a robust accounting system, which will give you a reliable and actionable financial base to make business decisions.

Expertise of an accounting firm is the key to your business success. With Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions, you get a wide range of accounting services delivered by a team with substantial industry experience. We offer a deposit-free accounting service with complete client confidentiality and a transparent fee structure.

If you are in search of a professional accounting firm, then you may want to explore the services such firms offer. Here are some types of services that an accounting firm usually offers business:

ACCOUNTING AND GST RETURN

Businesses are required to maintain a record of all their transactions to comply with Singapore’s statutory regulations. Details of transactions, sources of business funds, bank statements, employee payroll, and other financial aspects connected with the business need to be recorded. Maintaining clear source documents detailing all transactions is vital.

According to IRAS (Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore), a business’ accounting system must retain financial reports and related documents (collectively, financial records) pertaining to a Year of Assessment (YA) for a period of 5 years from the relevant YA. For example, businesses with the tax basis period from
1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018 (YA 2019) need to retain their financial records until 31 December 2023. The same applies to businesses with non-December financial year-end. If the tax basis period is from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2019, the business has to retain its records till 31 December 2024. Failure to adhere to this IRAS directive can result in companies facing penalties and / or legal suits.

A professional accounting service provider can help to maintain an efficient accounting system depending on the type of your business. For example, if your business is a sole proprietorship, then the firm handles general ledger and basic account-keeping. Accounting principles for maintaining partnership accounts are similar to that of sole proprietorship. The only difference is that a partner’s income sourced by the partnership is declared in the personal income tax account of the partner, on the basis of his profit sharing ratio.

If your business is a sole proprietorship or partnership, it would be advisable to go for an accounting firm that offers personal income tax filing services as part of its accounting service. At Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions, we do offer personal income tax filing services for sole-traders and partners. We will however need information on other sources of income, such as their investments, rental inflows, etc.

In case of GST-registered businesses, the account preparing and tax-filing processes can be elaborate. An in-depth theoretical and practical knowledge of GST and the associated legal processes are crucial to maintaining a solid accounting system.

GST (Goods and Services Tax) is a consumption tax that is levied on almost all goods and services supplied within Singapore, with certain exemptions.

If you are a business with taxable turnover of more than $1 million, then you must register your business for GST. The tax is calculated according to the value of products and services which your business offers and fall under the category of taxable supplies in the GST Act.

Your business may sometimes be exempted from GST even though your turnover exceeds $1 million. This is when your business’ “prospective view” does not exceed $1 million, that is, you do not expect your business to make more than $1 million turnover in the next 12 months. You need to provide valid documents to support your statement. Late payment or non-payment of GST attracts heavy penalties in addition to business disrepute.

Computing your business’ taxable turnover is a key component of GST calculation. The process varies depending on whether your business is a sole proprietorship, partnership or a private limited company. An accounting firm can help you remove the stress off GST filing with its domain expertise.

As a business maintaining its professional standards, it becomes your responsibility to maintain your accounting system to the required standards. An accounting service provider enables you to maintain a failsafe and reliable accounting system.

Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions, we help GST-registered businesses maintain accurate records and make GST submissions in a timely manner. Even if your financial accounts are managed by an in-house team, our experts can help you derive relevant information for GST submission. Our non-obligation to charge GST on the service fees benefits non-GST-registered companies and individuals.

FINANCIAL REPORTING

A company has to report its financial performance to its shareholders, which is done by financial reporting. Financial reporting standards that companies are required to comply with, depending on their types and policies, include the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (SFRS) or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

A typical financial statements includes the following:

· A statement by the business head declaring the veracity of the financial information presented;

· An independent auditor’s report giving its expert opinion of the financial statements presented by the business. The auditing firm must explain its audit process and the basis on which a particular conclusion was reached regarding the company’s financial statements;

· A detailed statement of profit and loss for the financial year;

· Statement of financial position;

· Statement of cash flows; and

· A supporting document referred to as the “Notes to the Financial Statements” explaining business’ nature, accounting policies, financial instruments including foreign currencies, revenue channels, subsidiary information, related parties’ transactions, inventories and infrastructure, intangible assets, financial and non-financial assets, financial liabilities, government grants, employee benefits, cash flow details and any other information which would affect users in their strategic decision making.

(Source: ISCA, Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants)

The objective of financial reporting is to present true and reliable financial information. Misrepresentation can negatively affect the credibility and profitability of market investments. Manipulated information such as fake news can hurt a business’ image and its stock price, sometimes irreparably. Business decisions such as acquisitions and mergers are based on a business’ financial statements. Inaccurate reporting can affect such crucial business decisions, which in turn impacts market investments of the companies involved, and the general financial flow of the market.  

With business models becoming more complex, the standards governing financial reporting are constantly reviewed by the relevant councils. The risk of manipulation of financial information and the increasing concerns regarding corporate social responsibility of businesses have increased the onus on these entities. Businesses have been made more accountable now for the financial information they present.

The Companies Act requires directors of a company to present financial information that complies with the accounting standards set by the ASC and in such a way that it reflects the true financial health of the company.

The ACRA (Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority) has a Financial Reporting Surveillance Programme to monitor poor financial reporting which involves unreliable financial information and non-compliance with the required standards.

Given the onus on directors in the presentation of a solid and transparent financial reporting, the services of a professional accounting firm become invaluable. Accounting expertise and an in-depth knowledge of compliance laws of accounting firms can help companies present financial statements that are unbiased and objective.

CLOUD-BASED ACCOUNTING SYSTEM

Cloud-based accounting systems work through accounting software hosted on remote servers. Compared to traditional software deployment on a business’ local server, a cloud-based system is deployed online – on the internet. As a result, the software and its features are available 24/7 from any location, which saves time, cost and resources for businesses.

Financial information is available on demand, which facilitates timely business decisions based on reliable data. Cloud accounting system is very secure, given the strict security policies accompanying the solutions. Once a subscription plan is signed, you will have an efficient system that integrates seamlessly with your business’ accounting process. You will not experience the hassle of manually updating the software. The version upgrades itself automatically with every new release from the vendor. 

Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions partners with Xero, a leading accounting software in the cloud segment. Xero has a footprint in over 180 countries and has a growing customer base, which is currently more than 1.5 million. Xero offers features to track financial aspects of every segment of your business, including sales invoices, inventories, expenses, bank cash flow, purchase bills, expenses claims, projects, fixed assets and GST. We are also a Xero Certified Advisor who offer complete Xero integration and migration support, from setting up the solution to helping you migrate to Xero from your existing solution and preparing financial statements.

As a comprehensive accounting solution, Xero provides access to 700+ apps that can transform the way you do your business. Some key benefits of using these apps on a Xero platform include:

·       Faster and transparent inventory solution that enables you to easily monitor inventory, manage stock and replenish as required.

·       Extract and consolidate information required to process staff claims at your ease.

·       Valuable project tracking app gives you insights into key project factors, including time and money spent on the project. This helps to identify profitable jobs.

·       Make your payment reception faster through integrations with popular services such as PayPal and Stripe.

·       Ability to access sales-related information, either from POS (Point Of Sales) app or Xero.

·       Know easily how your business is performing at any given time with all key parameters projected, in a customized reporting format.

·       Make insightful decisions and allow maintaining business connections easier with a smart contact list through a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) app.

XBRL REPORTS

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) Reporting is the process of digital business reporting using XBRL language framework. XBRL is an international standard adopted by many countries including Singapore to communicate on business and financial information. Use of XBRL ensures fast, accurate and digital transmission of financial and business information between entities. XBRL is part of XML languages.

XBRL standard is developed by a not-for-profit global consortium XBRL International Inc., or XII. The Consortium consists of executives from different backgrounds including small and large corporations, academics, accounting firms, governments, software companies, and experts in business reporting.

XBRL provides “information about information” (Source: ACRA). It assigns identifying tags to financial information, say “net profit”, so that the receiving end gets to identify what the tag is about. The identifying tags serve more than the purpose of being labels. They offer in-depth information about the entity they are representing such as whether it is a group item of relevance to an organization, or if the entity is a monetary item or a number representing a fraction or percentage.

XBRL is compatible with computer software, which makes it possible to use any electronic function, including searching, exchanging, selection and analysis, on the data being transmitted. The basic function served by XBRL is to enable communication between computers without human involvement.

According to ACRA’s regulations, all companies incorporated in Singapore have to file financial statements in XBRL format except for those that are exempted by ACRA from such submission. Non-exempt companies have to file in XBRL format, in addition to their standard filing.

Companies that are exempt from filing in XBRL format include merchant banks, commercial banks, and financial companies governed by MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore). Companies that have legal approval to file financial statements in adherence to standards other than IFRS, SFRS and SFRS for Small Entities, are also exempted from such filing.

Mighty Glory Corporation Solutions can help your business to prepare and file the XBRL reports with ACRA in the correct format. Depending on the type of your company, we will prepare only key financial details or complete financial information in XBRL format.

Hiring a professional accounting firm for creating and maintaining your business’ accounting system helps your business cut down substantial costs on resources including infrastructure such as computers and accounting software, data-entry operators, and corresponding staff training on a regular basis. With an accounting firm, you will be acquiring expertise for a much lower cost than that is spent on maintaining a dedicated in-house accounting department. In addition, a professional accounting service provider can provide timely advice on the financial trends that can help you make sound business decisions.Mighty Glory Corporate Solutions specializes in a wide range of accounting services including business accounting, financial reporting and individual and corporate taxation. We are up-to-date with leading accounting technologies including Xero and majority of its connected apps, MYOB, QuickBooks Online or Desktop, ABSS Financio, Million Accounting, AutoEntry, Hubdoc, HReasily, JustLogin, Talenox and more. We offer customized packages tailored to specific business needs. For more information on XBRL reports, you may check us on our accounting and tax services.